Snitch Review

The first thing I thought of when I heard about the movie Snitch was Harry Potter. Were we getting a Harry Potter Quiddditch spin-off movie? Haha, no. But I kinda like the idea. Snitch is actually an action movie with Dwayne Johnson as the lead role. I know, I know. Most people would hear that and instantly make the decision to never watch the movie. The Rock is wrestler. He can't act. All his movies are just plain stupid. Right? Uhhhh... wrong. Those who judge this movie based on this will miss out on what is a surprisingly fantastic movie. And newsflash people. The Rock is gone. Dwayne Johnson is here. At least for this movie.

Action movies of late haven't done too well. And when I say that I mean there have been four R-rated pure action movies that were released in 2013 that completely tanked. Namely they were Mark Wahlberg's Broken City, Arnold Schwarzenegger's The Last Stand, Jason Statham's Parker, and Sylvester Stallone's Bullet to the Head. All four opened below $10M, with Bullet to the Head falling even lower by not making it to $5M on its opening weekend. Now it's true that Snitch financially didn't do too much better, but it did manage to top $10M and the general consensus among fans and critics is that it is a better movie than the previous four. I will admit that I have not seen the previous four movies, but I will add my voice in saying that it was a surprisingly good movie. There are several things that it had going for it that made it more appealing than the others. First off,  it wasn't rated R. It was instead a softer PG-13, which means it appealed to a more broad audience. Second, this wasn't your typical, turn-off-your-brain-and-watch-explosions action movie. This movie had a lot of heart and soul and made you care more about the characters than the action. And it is really more of a thriller and less action.

So what is this movie actually about? It is the story of an 18-year old Jason Collins who has divorced parents and at the beginning of the move gets set up by his best friend in getting caught up in a drug deal. Jason gets arrested and faces at least ten years in prison. His very concerned father, played by Dwayne Johnson, tries to do everything that he can to help reduce his son's sentence and the agreement made is that if he (the father) helps catch some big players in the drug dealing business then they will think about reducing his sentence. This leads to Johnson getting himself trapped in a very sticky situation that makes for an intense and emotional story. And before you write this off as a non-realistic story, the movie is inspired by true events and the overarching message is one of a strong message against the war on drugs.

Yes, the movie seems a bit slow and choppy at first and might not be one that you remember for the rest of your life, but it is a very good movie that is well worth seeing. The acting, especially by Dwayne Johnson, is fantastic. I'd be willing to say that it is his best performance so far. Now there hasn't been a whole lot of good movies this year, so this isn't saying much as of it, but so far this is my favorite movie of the year and I would strongly recommend you at least give this a chance. I give this movie an 8 out 10.