‘Snitch’ sheds light on drug smuggling and the cartel

Jason Collins gets set up in a drug deal and the result of the set up has him looking at ten years in federal prison. To help release his son from jail his father, John Matthews (Dwayne Johnson), decides to assist the DEA by going undercover to help set up a local drug dealer. He does this by using the unknowing help of Daniel James (Jon Bernthal “that guy from the ‘Walking Dead’”), one of his ex-convict employees for his trucking company.

As he tries to play ball with the DEA Agent Cooper (Barry Pepper) and the District Attorney (Susan Surandon), John gets more than he asked for and ends up looking at setting up one of the cartel’s main players in the drug game.

I was excited to see Dwayne Johnson in a movie where he can actually show off more of his acting skills, rather than just his action skills. In “Snitch” he does just that. It was nice to see Johnson play the role of a loving father doing whatever it takes to save his son.

I was also very excited to see Jon Bernthal on the big screen after being in the TV show “The Walking Dead.” His performance as the ex-con was terrific.

One of the main aspects of  “Snitch” that stood out to me was that the movie was original.

As far as I know, there are not any other films out there about someone who has to become a snitch for any reason. It was nice to see that being played, rather than the whole, “someone hurt his family and now he is out for revenge” type of thing.

Overall, “Snitch” is a very well-done film. It is a bit slow in the beginning, but does a good job of getting the audience to care for the main characters and their dilemmas. I was glad to see that “Snitch” turned out to be more of a suspense/drama movie than an action flick, but I was a little disheartened that Johnson did not become the ultimate badass in the end.

However, it was not only entertaining, but it was also interesting to see how snitches work and how the cartel finds ways to use people to smuggle drugs and money across the border.

Even though “Snitch” has a well-placed cast with Surandon, Bernthal and Pepper, most of the attention falls on Johnson — which is not necessarily a bad thing, because it gives him the chance to be taken as a serious actor and not just the stereotypical action star .

“Snitch” is a movie worth watching and most definitely is not a dud. I give “Snitch” a well-earned 4 out of 5 stars.