Snitch

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Release Date: April 5th 2013

A father goes undercover for the DEA in order to free his son who was imprisoned after being set up in drug deal.

Director: Ric Roman Waugh (Felon, In the Shadows)

Starring: Dwayne Johnson, Susan Sarandon, Jon Bernthal, Barry Pepper

Dwayne Johnson has become a certain typecast: lean, mean, takes no shit and is a tough nut to crack. In Snitch however, emotions can get the better of him.

Johnson is John Matthews, father of Jason Matthews, who's facing a 10 year prison sentence for drug trafficking. This is part of the minimum sentence law and a system run by the government that entitles the victim to decrease their sentence if they help catch other drug smugglers.

Jason's guilty conscience gets the better of him so John decides to step in and take control and convinces the DEA (run by Barry Pepper's Agent Cooper) and District Attorney Joanne Keeghan (Sarandon) that he can take action for Jason. After enlisting the help of one of his colleagues Daniel James (Bernthal), and without him knowing about it, John goes undercover to take down a drug trafficking group run by Malik, who is a big target of the DEA's. What John doesn't know is that he's bitten off more than he can chew.

It takes a fair amount of time for Dwayne Johnson to become The Rock as we know him, as he struggles to accept his sons decision not to trap others like he has been. We sit through a very mellow, slow start, and it doesn't build up until at least the final 20 minutes. This is not an action film with added drama, this is a drama with a healthy amount of action that focuses on the strains of keeping the family together, all its highs and all its lows. Most people will do anything for the ones they love, and this is shown in Snitch. John may have grown distant from his son, but he'll do anything to repair that.

Without the action that we expected there to be, the script needs to be powerful enough to keep moments tense and suspenseful, and Snitch does exactly that. Key moments include Malik sizing up John during their first meeting, and Daniel questioning his trust over his partner in crime.

Jon Berthnal is starting to branch out since starring in The Walking Dead, and with Snitch making its appearance at the cinema earlier this year and The Wolf of Wall Street at the end of the year his popularity will grow further if he keeps up the formidable performances.

Overview: Keep bearing in mind that this is a drama involving family matters. Dwayne Johnson is a silent time bomb waiting to explode in what can be only called an explosive finale.