Plot: What’s it about?
Dwayne Johnson is having quite a year. From February to May he has had one film released each month. Snitch is the first of the four released this year and made the least amount of money. While it’s not a great film, it’s still very worth watching. The trailers would lead you to believe it’s a thrill-a-minute action film. It certainly has its share of action scenes, but it also has so much more. Johnson stars as John Matthews. He owns a construction company and does pretty well for himself. When his estranged son Jason (Rafi Gavron) gets charged for receiving a drug package, he decides to take matters into his own hands to cut his son’s sentence. Jason could face a minimum of ten years in prison. John tries desperately to bargain with U.S. Attorney Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon). Keeghan is a no-nonsense type of person, but she eventually comes to terms. John concocts a plan to go undercover as an informant. He realizes he must have an “In” to introduce him to this world. He discovers that one of his employees has a history with this life. Daniel (Jon Bernthal) is trying to start a new life, avoiding the very thing that John is trying to get him into. After John offers him $20,000, however, he decides he can’t pass it up.
I am surprised to learn that Snitch is based on true events. With a little research (and the special features) I learned that it is taken more from headlines of various drug trafficking incidents. The film has several elements piled into one. There is plenty of action, but the drama elements add an extra layer of depth. It’s also a more vulnerable role for Johnson as well. Sure he is physically imposing, but he can’t just walk into a court-house and demand they release his son. He is also outmatched taking on such a powerful enterprise. As he meets with a local drug kingpin Malik ( Michael Kenneth Williams) the scene is tension filled. He’s told by an undercover agent to just be himself. If the drug dealers sense any deception, he will likely be killed on the spot. There are also strong scenes between John and his son in prison. John begins to admire his son even more when he learns that he would never rat them out. Johnson continues to display his strong acting chops. He takes on a hefty role here, but pulls it off wonderfully. Gavron also gives a strong performance as well. He doesn’t share as many scenes as Johnson, but he’s just as effective. The film kept me reasonably involved. Director Ric Roman
Waugh keeps things moving at a nice pace. The film does get a bit crazy in the last 20 minutes or so, but it’s not a deal breaker. In lesser hands this could have been just another standard action flick, but its raised here due to strong performances and sharp direction. It’s a worthy rental, but only worth a buy for already established fans.
Video: How does it look?
Snitch comes to Blu-ray sporting a very nice-looking 2.40:1 AVC HD image. The movie, new to Blu-ray and digitally shot is indicative of any new to the format film with a detail and clarity that’s nearly unsurpassed. We get a wide variety of images here from the scenic, wider shots to the extreme close ups that really show off what the transfer is capable of. I don’t want to say the transfer is inconsistent, but there are a lot of somewhat inconsistent shots in the film. This is in no way a fault of the Blu-ray itself but the play of shadows and contrast in the movie is interesting to say the least. Nevertheless it’s a top notch effort.
Audio: How does it sound?
Again, as we might expect, the DTS HD Master Audio soundtrack is all about being loud and obnoxious. And that’s what makes it so much fun. The movie starts with a great action sequence and really doesn’t let up for quite some time. Vocals are strong and well-ceneterd, we hear “The Rock’s” booming, deep voice in all its uncompressed glory (that sounded weird), an immersive mix with the LFE’s and the surrounds are almost always constantly humming along, adding some more depth to an already very robust mix. Again, no complaints here.
Supplements: What are the extras?
When it comes to the supplements, we don’t get a whole lot here but what we do have isn’t that bad. We begin with an audio commentary by director Ric Roman Waugh and his editor, Jonathan Chibnall. It’s actually a decent track that really doesn’t have any down time. We get some information on the technical nature of the film as well as some of the history behind the story (Waugh also served as the film’s screenwriter). Moving on we find “Privileged Information: The Making of Snitch” which is more along the lines of your EPK featurette. We get about 5 minutes of deleted scenes as well as the film’s theatrical trailer. A DVD and an UltraViolet copy of the movie is also included.
