Thursday, 23 May 2013

Snitch (2013) review



http://wpc.556e.edgecastcdn.net/80556E/img.product/DVNTM9uLUXpwSN_1_l.jpgDwayne Johnson, aka ‘The Rock’ is known as a big action star but prior to watching this film, I was afraid whether or not he could embody playing an extremely dramatic person and thankfully, he pulls it off quite nicely. Whilst not anything spectacular, Snitch does have an enjoyable and interesting story filled with good drama and Dwayne Johnson’s best performance yet.

Dwayne Johnson plays a man named John Mathews whose son, Jason Collins, has been captured and arrested as part of a 10 year sentence due to storing drugs in his house which a friend, who as part of a bait to reduce his life sentence, had given him. John Mathews must now try to do everything that he can possibly do, without any use of action, to try and reduce his son’s extremely long sentence due to him believing that he is a failing father.

Yet again, the story isn’t anything incredibly special but it certainly does have some great elements, particularly the fantastic drama. This film is most definitely not an action movie, despite having bits of action but more so a drama film that definitely goes in depth with John as a character. It is not just a drama film done for the sake of it, but one could say that it was done with some passion and certainly for that, it pays off nicely. There were particularly heavy emotional scenes that were carried out very well and overall, the story had you feeling sorry for John Mathews.

The emotional core of the film is carried out by Dwayne Johnson who gives his best performance yet. His performance is simply like nothing you’ve seen before, not Toothfairy or G.I Joe! As a character, John Mathews was written well and didn’t come off as an annoying and overly frustrated and impatient man but a relatable and endearing fatherly figure. 

http://www.filmofilia.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Snitch_10.jpg

Whilst the movie was definitely enjoyable and providing a great story, there were many things that I didn’t quite accept in the film considering its overall serious and emotional tone. The most important is the action sequences at the end of the film which were definitely not that interesting simply because it didn’t fit with the context of the rest of the film and the tone it had set. Some of these action scenes are nice but simply, don’t add much and just seem like a Hollywood attempt to make this film appeal to a wider audience.
John’s son, whilst innocent, is quite a moron accepting to store drugs given to him by a friend. The fact that all this happens in the first scene of the film and that this idiotic decision is the cause of the film at times, upset me. It just felt like such an illogical move to make and was rather distracting. Had he chosen to not accept the drugs but was somehow delivered to him, I would’ve fully accepted it and his character would’ve been a little more endearing but this foolish decision at times, made me disengaged with his character and his relationship with John.

Whilst the story is always interesting and endearing, the film just feels a little too long especially by the half way mark where several scenes with Daniel James, a friend and co-worker of John’s, are shown and giving much family backstory. Whilst all important to the story, this is truly where the film slows down for me and for a short period of time, I was disengaged from everything else that was happening.

Laying the criticism aside, I personally thought that ‘Snitch’ was a most interesting film that shows that Dwayne Johnson has more of an action ability than what has been shown by him in the past. It was an interesting and well- made film suffering from some unnecessary action scenes, being overlong and having some rather uninteresting characters. 

Grade- 7/10

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