Construction company owner John Matthews learns that his estranged son, Jason, has been arrested for drug trafficking. Facing an unjust prison sentence for a first time offender courtesy of mandatory minimum sentence laws, Jason has nothing to offer for leniency in good conscience. Desperately, John convinces the DEA and the opportunistic DA Joanne Keeghan to let him go undercover to help make arrests big enough to free his son in return. With the unwitting help of an ex-con employee, John enters the narcotics underworld where every move could be his last in an operation that will demand all his resources, wits and courage to survive.
Dwayne Johnson tries so hard to be taken seriously in the ponderous and preposterous drama Snitch that it hurts to watch him in much the same way it hurts to watch the weightlifting competition at the summer Olympics.
– Mary F. Pols,
TIME Magazine,
22 Feb 2013
fresh:
Despite its apparent compromises to noble finger-wagging (initially) and requisite fist-pumping (eventually), Waugh has fashioned a sturdy character-first entertainment out of Snitch.
– William Goss,
Film.com,
22 Feb 2013
fresh:
In the end, this is a movie that lives or dies on Johnson's performance, and luckily, the actor is perfect ...
– Bilge Ebiri,
New York Magazine/Vulture,
25 Feb 2013
rotten:
The film tries to paint in shades of gray with vague criticisms of the war on drugs, but the absurdity of its he-man Everyman plot ends up turning its moral palette a muddy brown.
– Keith Staskiewicz,
Entertainment Weekly,
28 Feb 2013
fresh:
Snitch runs close to two hours, and it's a credit to Summit Entertainment that they didn't reduce it to 90 minutes of Mexican drug loons trying to run John's truck off the highway.