MOVIE REVIEW - Snitch

It's been a long time coming, but finally the new drug law movie, Snitch is out this week.   This film has been under construction in some way since about 2004.

Snitch stars Dewayne Johnson (The Rock) as John, a young father who is in his second marriage.   He has a son from a first marriage who is18 years old.   His son, who is a good kid, makes a bone-headed decision to accept a UPS delivery of a shipment of drugs for sale one of his friends is shipping home.  After his son signs for the package, his house is raided and he is now up on drug charges.  And the sentence is really stiff.   He could face 10 years minimum or up to 30 years if he doesn't play ball with the Feds. 

John is remarried and has a little girl and a huge house as his construction company has done well.  John is a suburban guy with no knowledge of the real trouble his son is in.   He goes to the U.S Attorney (Susan Sarandon), to see what can be done.  She states that if her son could turn over other drug dealers, his sentence could be reduced.   He knows none.  So John decides to go out and enter the drug world as an informant.  Problem is he is way over his head.  He enters into agreements with local drug dealers and eventually the Mexican Cartel to drive tractor-trailer loads of drugs, and money, and be used as a mule.

Then John is double crossed by the Feds, as his agreement is not really held up on their end.  So he gets in even deeper and his entire family is now in danger and the cartel is weaving their web around his entire life.  Can he eventually make it right, and help his son? And will the Feds finally cooperate? That is Snitch!

First off, this is based on actual events, and is not a true story.   And this movie has an obvious agenda convincing us that the drug laws and sentences at the time were probably a bit out of focus, especially for first time offenders.   But even if it's completely fiction, and even if it subtracted the attempted college lesson, this is a good story. Darn good.  Behind all the bells, whistles, action and underlying message, this is compelling stuff of a father going to no limits to save his son from a lifetime of jail that he doesn't deserve.  

This also has a nice cast with not only Johnson and Sarandon, but also Barry Pepper,  Benjamin Bratt, and others.   Johnson is not the greatest actor on earth, but he is likable, and is an imposing figure on screen.   The big flaw in this movie is it may be a bit over cast.   There just isn't enough movie to go around for Bratt, Pepper, or Sarandon to shine properly.   This is Johnson's movie.

But this is a nice combination of drama and action.  There is enough story here to keep you into it, and enough action to make it exciting.  It suffers some from poor writing and a few holes here and there, but I'm willing to give it a pass on that.  Sometimes with these kinds of movies it's best to move it along.  These movies have a time limit to be effective for the audience, and this does clip along nicely.  No sense dragging a movie like this out.

One thing really done well here, the action is not way over the top.  They remember that John is not an action hero, he is a suburban dad, who is way over his head.   I have to admit, I was worried the whole movie they were going to turn him into Rambo at any minute, but they don't, because they can't.  It would have killed the movie, but that hasn't stopped movie makers before.

Snitch.   For a February release, I liked this movie.  This will not change cinematic movie making for generations to come, but this is entertaining.