2013 continues to be the worst year in cinematic history. If there was just one quality movie, everyone would gladly hand their money over. But we keep getting garbage. Please bless that in the next few weeks we’ll get a solid movie worth its salt. At this point last year, Chronicle and 21 Jump Street had been released. Very good movies in comparison with this year. The best movie of the year so far is Warm Bodies. There is something wrong with that.
Maybe if I keep complaining, things will change…
Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson stars as John Matthews, a man who struggles with balancing family life and running his trucking company. His son, from his first marriage, is a reluctant drug-runner who gets caught by the DEA. The Rock learns that his son will go to prison for 10 years unless he is able to bring down a mid-level drug lord. The district attorney (played by Susan Sarandon) is willing to let the Rock transport illegal drugs and cartel money in order to rat out a few kingpins.
This is where the movie loses me (Yes, in the first 15 minutes). Sarandon’s character is running for US Senate and needs a big drug bust to improve her public standing. So, she puts the lives of the Rock and his family(s) in danger multiple times. She looks so greedy and devious in these scenes that I wondered if the movie would use a stupid plot twist and make her character the real drug lord behind it all.
Sadly the Rock does not get to give Sarandon the People’s Elbow.
In fact, the Rock doesn’t beat anyone up. I’m not saying I need senseless violence (yes I am), but why have a giant man play the lead in a movie that features zero action, but sells itself as an action movie? They could have hired any wimpy guy to lead this movie, like Nicholas Cage or Luis Guzman and it wouldn’t have changed anything. If anything, this is the peak of the Rock’s acting career. It’s just too bad that it’s such a mediocre movie.
I hear ya Dwayne.
Fans of The Walking Dead will be happy to see Jon Bernthal as the Rock’s employee who is a former felon and the Rock’s gateway into the seedy world of drug trafficking. It feels like Bernthal is really trying here and giving more effort than the filmmakers’ did.
The formula for Snitch is as follows:
Contraband + Charismatic Actors – Action x Hideous Susan Sarandon = Snitch
Don’t worry about seeing this one unless you want to root for a guilty kid who got arrested for running drugs and you can suspend disbelief about characters who have no common sense. Skip it.
