Movie Reviews

Snitch finds its roots in the American justice system where people who get arrested for drugs get to roll on other guys in return for a reduced sentence. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson plays John Matthews, a regular family man whose son Jason gets arrested after a friend set him up. Because Jason doesn’t know any other players in the drug business, he faces up to ten years in prison, courtesy of mandatory minimum sentence laws. John however manages to strike a deal with the DEA and an opportunistic DA (played by Susan Sarandon) where they let him carry out his own undercover operation in order to help make arrests big enough to get his son out of jail.

John hooks up with Daniel James (Jon Bernthal), an employee with a record who’s trying his hardest to make something of his life and set a good example for his son. He decides to help out John because he needs the money and introduces him to some of baddies that he used to run with. Before you get the chance to question whether all this is believable or not, director Ric Roman Waugh has John running drugs in a big rig, getting involved in shootouts and generally getting in way over his head as one character cleverly remarks.

Waugh tries really hard to portray the gritty underbelly of the drug business and wants to stay as realistic as possible, but fails to make Snitch from being little more than a slightly enjoyable run of the mill action flick that feels awkward at times thanks to unconvincing performances and clichés like Daniel pulling up his hoodie whenever he goes in criminal mode.