Snitch

Plot synopsis:
The film opens with Jason Collins (Rafi Gavron) video-chatting with his childhood best friend Craig Johnson (James Allen McCune). Craig brings up a box drugs that he is attempting to move and attempts to persuade Jason to let Craig ship the drugs to his house, offering him a share of the profit. Despite Jason's reluctance, Craig texts him the tracking number for the package. Meanwhile, John Matthews (Dwayne Johnson), Jason's estranged father and owner of a construction company, sees Daniel James (Jon Bernthal), a new employee, doing overtime work, and helps him with it.
A courier delivers Craig's package to the Collins's house. Jason signs for the package and brings it to his room, discovering that it contains a large amount of pills in a bag, as well as a tracking device. DEA officers arrive and break into the house; Jason flees but is chased down by Agent Cooper (Barry Pepper).
While at a barbecue, John receives a call from his ex-wife Sylvie (Melina Kanakaredes) about Jason having been arrested. John and Sylvie meet at the police station and have a tense discussion while waiting to be allowed to speak to Jason. An investigator speaks with them, saying that Craig set Jason up in a sting operation to reduce his own sentence after being caught. Jason's charges carry a minimum of 10 years in prison.
Jason is arraigned in court where he is denied bail. He is put in an interview room with, John, Sylvie, and the investigator, who pressures Jason to plead guilty to narcotics trafficking and set up one of his own friends for trafficking in order to reduce his own sentence, as Craig had done.
Using his connections, John arranges to meet with local US Attorney Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon), who is running a very aggressive anti-drug campaign to bolster her chances for election to Congress. Keeghan agrees to reduce Jason's sentence if John will inform on a drug dealer, but states that he'll receive little help from her and that the risk will be all his.
John visits Jason in prison, observing that Jason is being brutalized by other prisoners. John feels responsible because he was not there for his son, and realizes that Jason may be killed before he finishes his prison sentence.
Agent Cooper leads a task force which will monitor any dealings John arranges to use as evidence for an arrest. John searches through his employee records and finds that Daniel James has two prior distribution convictions. Daniel is currently leading a clean life to avoid a third strike, because he now has a wife and young son to care for. John offers twenty thousand dollars if Daniel will simply introduce him to a dealer; Daniel initially refuses, but later agrees so that he can move his family to a safer apartment, though he is unaware that John is acting as an informant.
Daniel introduces John to Malik (Michael Kenneth Williams), an extremely dangerous, high-ranking local drug dealer, who like Daniel has two strikes. Explaining that his construction business cannot stay afloat in the current economy without a supplement to its revenues, John offers to run nearly limitless amounts of drugs at almost zero risk in his freight trucks. Because his is a legitimate business, the trucks avoid suspicion and carry too much freight to be thoroughly searched. Malik agrees under the condition that John and Daniel drive the initial run themselves.
John and Agent Cooper arrange for several wire taps to be put in place to record the transactions involved. John drives to the pick-up point near the Mexican border. In the process, a rival gang ambushes the pick-up, but John manages a daring escape, impressing cartel kingpin Juan Carlos "El Topo" Pintera (Benjamin Bratt), whose men fight off the hijackers. John successfully completes his end of the deal, delivering the drugs to Malik while under surveillance by Agent Cooper.
Malik mentions a meeting with cartel members higher than himself; Cooper, hoping to catch the higher priority targets, does not move to arrest Malik as agreed. Keeghan claims Cooper did the right thing and reneges on her promise to reduce Jason's sentence, unless John cooperates in the second meeting. John, outraged, demands in turn that Jason be released when the job is completed. Daniel learns of John's arrangement with the DEA and is furious, saying that the cartel will kill John, Daniel, and their families if the truth comes out. John and Daniel send their families into hiding.
John meets with Pintera, who wants him to run nearly $100 million in drug profits into Mexico, where the cartel's base of operations is located, and offers to make John a member of the cartel's inner circle if he succeeds. Keeghan is ecstatic about the prospect of arresting such a high-profile dealer, but Cooper has a change of heart and tries to talk John out of doing the run, suspecting the cartel will kill him afterward.
John devises a plan to free himself and Daniel from both the government and the cartel. During the run, John is able to escape Cooper's surveillance. At the same time, Daniel raids Malik's house, killing his guards and mortally wounding him. Before dying, Malik reveals Pintera's cell phone number to Daniel. John calls Cooper and has him track both his new cell phone and Pintera's phone, effectively giving Cooper both the money and the kingpin at once. The cartel realize John is an informant and he leads them on a highway chase and shoot-out before escaping. Cartel members and the money are seized by Cooper's men. Pintera is surrounded by federal agents; unwilling to engage in a gun battle because his young son is with him, he surrenders.
Jason is released the next day. John and his family go into the witness protection program; Daniel refuses, saying he and his family will go into hiding on their own. Because Daniel has lost his job, John leaves Daniel the large reward check that John was supposed to receive for the capture of Pintera.

Tags: violence, neo noir, murder

Review:
The Rock -- he's credited as Dwayne Johnson (I guess so viewers take the movie seriously) -- is very believable and does himself proud with some consistent good acting.
But the actor who steals the movie is John Bernthal, who plays an ex-con trying to live an honest life but is dragged back to the dark side in order to help The Rock, whom he works for doing construction.
He's just an average man who is really putting himself in harm's way for his son.The film reminds me a lot of both versions of 3:10 To Yuma where Van Heflin and Christian Bale are just citizens pressed into some disagreeable action like Johnson for the forces of law and order.
Dwayne Johnson better known has The Rock, was thought of to be like another Arnold Schwarzenegger, a muscle bound action hero who acts tough and shouts out funny one liners.
But then he did the movie Gridiron Gang(2006),and my opinion of him changed, he took a little departure from action films, and took a stab at drama, and he gave a pretty descent performance, and he showed that he can act.John(Dwayne Johnson) has his own construction business, is also happily married with a daughter.
He volunteers to go undercover to infiltrate a drug cartel in hopes that it will get his son out of prison, with the help of U.S. Attorney(Susan Sarandon) and a D.E.A. agent(Barry Pepper), but will John pull it off?
Knowing the market of action/thriller blockbusters, I guess I was expecting cars blowing up, gun fights all through the movie, and some crazy, somewhat unrealistic hand to hand combat by our huge friend Dwayne Johnson.
Based on a true story this film sees a working man getting drawn into a drug sting operation in return for reduced time for his son, who was also innocently drawn into a drug dealing charge.
However, this film was more of a crime drama with more depth and less action than I thought it would.The story itself is inspired by a frontline documentary of the same name which deals with mandatory minimum drug laws in the US.
Barry Pepper, Susan Sarandon, and formerly of the Walking Dead John Bernthal provide a great supporting cast but The Rock leads the way in a movie about how far a father is willing to go to protect his son.
This isn't actually an action movie and just about any other quality actor could've played the role of John Matthews but as I said, the fact that Dwyane Johnson did it well shows how far he's come.
Snitch (2013)*** (out of 4) Surprisenly effective drama about a father (Dwayne Johnson) who agrees to go undercover after his son is arrested in a drug bust, which could cost him at least ten years in prison.
John Matthews then decides to infiltrate local drug gangs so he can inform on them to the DEA and get his son out of prison Considering it stars Dwayne " the Rock " Johnson you could be forgiven for thinking you're watching something that firmly belongs on the straight to DVD shelf but SNITCH is very much a action thriller with very human drama .
Okay I doubt if he'll be picking up an Oscar nomination next year but he manages to create an empathy with the audience and where SNITCH works best is when it gets to the heart of the plot where Matthews infiltrates the street gangs and finds himself being elevated in to the higher echelons of a Mexican drug cartel and it's at this point you know things are going to work out very badly for him and his agenda is going to be found out as he finds himself stuck between a rock ( Sorry guys ) and a hard placeIf there's a problem it's not so much with the film itself but with the reality of drug laws in America .
This film is about a construction company owner who is forced to make a choice when his son got involved in a drug deal.I thought that the film would be an action packed thriller, as The Rock usually stars in these films.
A disturbingly realistic view of the drug problem in this country is the shocker element that makes SNITCH work so well - the extent of drug cartels on both sides of the borders, the power of the kingpins controlling them, and the current laws about felonious drug dealing - all combine to make this film not just another good guy bad guy film: this is a slice of life as we are living it.Construction company owner John Matthews Dwayne Johnson) learns that his estranged son, Jason (an impressive Rafi Gavron), has been arrested for drug trafficking.
'Snitch' was a good film about a father (The Rock) who goes undercover because he wants to free his son who was set up in a drug deal.The film is straight to the point, the way the plot develops is a bit far fetched but who cares.
'SNITCH': Four Stars (Out of Five) Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson stars in and co-produced this crime drama about a construction business owner who goes undercover working for the DEA in order to free his wrongfully imprisoned son (who was set up by a friend in a drug deal).
The film was advertised as your typical action vehicle starring 'The Rock' but it's actually a pretty hard hitting drama featuring an excellent performance by Johnson.
He asks an employee named Daniel James (Bernthal), an ex-con who's done time for drug crimes, to help introduce him to the drug underworld.The movie definitely isn't action-packed, like your usual Dwayne Johnson flick, it does have a spectacular car chase (involving a semi) and one other action scene (involving the semi and a drug dealer shootout) but that's about it.
The film is adequately written and directed and gives Johnson the chance to show his real acting chops as a serious and 'legitimate' actor (and not just an action movie star).
" Snitch is struggle of a father to save his son and is packed with power-packed performance and strong story line.A business man goes undercover to help DEA crack a big drug racket and free his son from imprisonment.Directed by Ric Roman Waugh , Snitch is based on true events.
This is based upon true events.John Matthew's (Dwayne Johnson) son was setup to take the fall for a drug deal and will get 10-years.
This movie has an excellent story-lining and is based on true incidents.At first I was like,"oh man,another 'rock' movie,must be full of hardcore fighting scenes".But I was wrong.And to add more to that, I was never a Rock-fan until I watched this movie.Rock,you simply rock man, sorry for underestimating your acting-talent.This movie definitely deserves a bunch of awards.And do not go with the poster as it may be misleading for some.Just because Rock is in the movie,he does not make it a WWE kind of movie.And one more thing,this movie is severely an underrated one and deserves to be put in IMDb's top100 list as well.Cheers to the director.!.
When Jason refuses to be turned into a "snitch" just to protect his own hide, his dad decides to take matters into his own hands by recruiting one of his employees (the excellent Jon Berthnal from "The Walking Dead"), who's on probation for narcotics trafficking and trying to turn his life around, to be an unwitting pawn in a scheme to finger a dangerous local drug dealer (Michael Kenneth Williams) .An interesting story is enhanced by taut direction (by Ric Roman Waugh), excellent cinematography and editing, and a highly effective musical score by Antonio Pinto.
Beyond the aforementioned actors, there is excellent work by Susan Sarandon as a federal prosecutor who's over-zealousness and political calculation often lead her to act recklessly with little regard for others' safety, and Benjamin Bratt as a cartel kingpin.Inspired by "true events," the Waugh/Justin Haythe screenplay is more concerned with character and conflict than with car chases and conventional action sequences, as a whole host of good or at least potentially good people are forced to compromise their integrity in order to game the system and achieve their goals.
For John Matthews (Johnson), the goal is obviously to save his son from a hard stint in prison, while for Daniel James (Berthnal), the goal is a bit less clear-cut, which, in many ways, makes him an even more intriguing character than John.To get a sense of just how good a movie "Snitch" is, compare it to another recent action film that deals with a similar father-and-son theme, the foolish "A Good Day to Die Hard," with Bruce Willis all but leveling Moscow in an attempt to rescue his imprisoned boy.
I went to watch this movie in the theater with very low expectations, all I wanted was a couple of decent action scenes with some good laughs here and there, but unfortunately I was still sorely disappointed.I honestly couldn't think of a single good thing about this movie: Bad acting, check.
I suppose that is a part of the film that is up for debate, but for entertainment and intensity, I it's made very well.Budget: $15million Worldwide Gross: $43millionI recommend this movie to people who are into there emotional deep drama/action films about a father trying to release his son from prison by doing drug deals for the law.
The film is bolstered by a fine supporting cast that includes Barry Pepper, Susan Sarandon, and Melina Kanakaredes, but a substantial amount of screen time is given to Jon Bernthal's character who seems to parallel John's son, and he does a more than commendable effort in his performance and character arc.This isn't a perfect film.
But here the snitch is actually our hero The Rock who wanted to infiltrate a drug ring so as to burst them, and in turn the DEA will reduce the jail sentence of his son, who refused to do the same thing his friend did to him, which is to call another friend up and set him up for a fall so that he can shorten his jail time.The makers took the movie a little too far from my own perspective, there was a time when a big man like The Rock (Dwayne Johnson) was biting up by some guys, in a way that I found too easy to swallow.
it is The Rock, and he hardly threw a punch.Then there is the whole action and acting which to me could have been better, as the movie didn't pull me in totally to believe that all this was true although in the opening credit it is written that the movie events are based on a true life happening.Snitch will do great for fans of the Rock because all you have to do is just sit and watch him get down to business in this crime action flick, but for someone like me who like to have a good reason for everything, well I felt the reason behind making this film is not solid enough for them to have gone ahead to do it, because somehow this movie just falls below the usual standard for you to enjoy it, and this is because of the screenplay and script.In my conclusion I know this movie is going to be a commercial success though, due to the moderate budget of 15 million, and looking at the box office rise in its viewership, this is going to be a box office success.www.lagsreviews.com.
Enter Jason's earnest, hard-working dad who pushes the politically ambitious federal prosecutor (Susan Sarandon) to allow him to infiltrate the drug world in an effort to reduce his son's sentence.John (The Rock) has a nice suburban home, with a nice second wife (Nadine Velazquez from Flight), a nice young daughter, and a stressed-out ex-wife (Melina Kanakardes from CSI:NY) whom he kinda blames for Jason's mess.
A lot of the characters and films of Dwayne The Rock Johnson run together, it's quite often a big budget action thriller with him playing the big, tough, and protective father of a family in danger, or even sometimes the world at risk.
The Brilliant & extremely underrated BARRY PEPPER completely steals the show as tough & troubled Agent Cooper who is there to help Dwayne's character John Mathews go undercover in the violent drug world & Pepper gives a powerful performance & looks fantastic with his tattoos & goatee like a rugged biker & he disappears into his role like a chameleon he's that good!!!
Dwayne Johnson, always touted as a wooden action hero delivers a fairly credible performance and so do the rest of the crowd, specially Jon Bernthal, Barry Pepper and Susan Sarandon in a remake of some of her past roles.
I'd never heard of this movie before, not sure how I missed it but I was initially excited because the story sounded interesting with a poster that promised lots of action and I like Dwayne Johnson, Barry Pepper and Shane (I mean Jon Bernthal).It ended up being a decent enough drama but not at all what I was expecting.
The Rock does give one of his more thoughtful performances though (reminding me of Faster) and its been based on an intriguing true story.Johnson plays an everyday guy here, a construction company owner and desperate father who goes undercover for the DEA to infiltrate a drug cartel in order to lessen his sons (mandatory) 10 year prison sentence after he gets wrongly accused of trafficking drugs in a set up drug deal.Jon Bernthal was super impressive as the ex-con employee 'John' convinces to be his "in" to the drug underworld.
SNITCH has a decent story at heart but in the end it turns out to be just another star vehicle, this time for actor Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson.
But this isn't that action film you're expecting, it's a thriller that take it's time to tell the story.Ric Roman Waugh's film is about a father named John Matthews whose son was sentenced to federal prison because of some idiotic drug deals.
It was a shame that Benjamin Bratt didn't have a bigger role, because he is always great in his movies."Snitch" is a nice and entertaining movie that is well worth watching, for both fans of Dwayne Johnson and for people who enjoy an action-thriller with a proper storyline..
Alongside The Rock, Jon Bernthal brings his usual intensity to Daniel James, the man who introduces John Matthews (Johnson) to the the drug world, and Susan Sarandon is good in a small part.
Director Waugh did a much better job on based on fact filmmaking with his powerful and gritty Felon as Snitch never really feels drenched in reality and never really seems to be going anywhere particularly fast, which sadly makes the film a fair old slog.Keen to show the world his more than mere muscles (not a single wife beater wearing or shirtless scene is to be found by Johnson here) Johnson's character of John while not unlikeable isn't strong enough to hold the film together, it's left to character actors Barry Pepper(supporting the biggest goatee committed to screen in a long time) and the increasingly awesome Michael Kenneth Williams to provide the goods while The Walking Dead's Bernthal really is just playing a different version of Shane.Snitch trusts to much in its obviously topical story, thinking that the audience would be glued to some form of moral dilemma facing our hero.
If you like this sort of genre then this is great, but for those of us who prefer little more substance, it would be what I call good, not great.A father who is desperate trying to save his son from a long term drug related jail sentence makes a deal with the only person who can influence the situation, the local governor, in providing info that would lead to arrests in return for a swifter sentence.On the surface, this is not a bad story to make a film out of but the way it was executed, everything rushed to lead us to the outcome deprived this of some well deserved points.Despite this, the concept of choice and consequence was nicely displayed.
Short on action and suspense (until the conclusion), the film instead tries to replace those vacant elements with long, drawn-out discussions on mandatory federal drug laws, DEA undercover work, the necessity of ratting people out and - conversely - the evils of ratting people out.Viewers will likely be as conflicted as this author was on how the picture goes to great pains to balance the need to be a snitch at the same time explaining the pitfalls of such a position.Here, Johnson is John Matthews, a moderately successful construction contractor in Kansas City, Mo. with an ex-wife, grown son and a second family.
Better-than-anticipated action/drama with Johnson stretching his acting muscles with some aplomb, as a construction businessman who finds his world turned upside down when his son is set-up in a drug raid sting whereupon the only way to have him released is getting in league with ambitious prosecutor Sarandon's crime task force to infiltrate a top kingpin (Bratt).
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson plays John Matthews, a father who is willing to risk everything to save his son from the horrors of serving the mandatory minimum sentence for Federal drug trafficking charges.
What we all received instead was an amazing story and suspenseful drama about a father, John Matthews (Johnson) who is willing to do anything, and I mean anything to put a stop to his son Jason (Rafi Gavron) from serving a decade in federal prison under the mandatory-sentencing laws for first time drug offenders, which is a law that much of the population has a problem with.