Rock on a roll

Man, Dwayne Johnson has had so much ink done, yet he doesn’t show off his tattoos in his latest, Snitch. Not one tattoo shot!

That’s because Dwayne wants to be taken seriously as an actor, and his performance in this film certainly shows he’s capable of more than making his pecs dance or firing guns while his tattoos sexily vibrate. Heck, it looks like he’s going to leave the sexy tattoo vibrations for the other 172 films he seems to be starring in within the upcoming year.

Snitch casts Johnson as John Matthews, an incomplete but well meaning cinema father. He provides for the family he has living in his lush house thanks to a semi-lucrative trucking company. As for his ex-wife and son from the former marriage, he gives them enough so they can get by, and has little to do with the upbringing of son Jason (Rafi Gavron).

So, of course, Jason has gone a little bad. He likes to smoke a little pot and take Ecstasy. His like for Ecstasy leads to a bunch of it being Fed-Exed to him by a drug dealer friend, and this is where the big trouble starts. Jason gets pinched, John gets pissed, and a long jail term for the young dummy seems in order.

That is, until John takes matters into his own hands, and offers to help the federal government nab drug dealers in exchange for leniency towards his son. This leads to a lot of scenes with Johnson doing a good job of looking concerned and Gavron doing a bang-up job looking freaked out. I found myself caring for their characters fairly early on in the film’s running time, and that got me invested in the picture to some degree.

Snitch isn’t great, but it’s a serviceably good action film featuring good lead performances and a decent supporting cast. Michael Kenneth Williams (Boardwalk Empire) offers a scary presence as Malik, a drug dealer unknowingly participating in John’s scheme. Jon Bernthal (The Walking Dead) garners plenty of sympathy as an ex-con employee of John’s who can’t resist a chance to make a lot of money for his struggling family. And Barry Pepper is his reliable self as a drug enforcement agent with extraordinary facial hair.

Susan Sarandon is actually the film’s weak link as the typical government type with political aspirations who will do anything to get some votes. It’s a “nothing but a paycheck” gig for someone capable of so much better. She feels very out of place.

If there is a problem in watching a film like this, it’s that you know things are all going to come out OK in the end. There’s no real sense of tension when it comes to John driving a big truck on the freeway and being shot at by drug dealers while trying to carry on a phone conversation. And you just know the ending is going to involve tears and one last prison visit.

Still, I must admit to enjoying the film on certain levels. The scene where John is shot at while driving that truck is well staged, even if it is predictable. The movie claims to be based on a true story, so that means the real life chase probably involved a cruiser bicycle and a kid with a slingshot. Hollywood tends to embellish.

Do I think Dwayne Johnson will ever take a big grinned walk towards a podium to pick up an Oscar? Hell no. Do I think he will be able to handle future roles in thrillers that require some acting muscle rather than some HGH enhanced, rippling tattoo muscle? Certainly. His work here shows that he is capable of taking things to the next level.

Now sit back and await the arrival of Johnson in Fast & Furious 6, Pain & Gain, Empire State and G.I. Joe: Retaliation, his other 2013 offerings. Or check him out on the TV as The Rock in a recent visit to his old haunts at WWE wrestling. This man wants to be everything at once.