Cert 12A
112 mins
BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence and drug references
I am always really sceptical when a movie is introduced with the words "based on a true story''.
This seems to give film-makers carte blanche to use the thinnest of connections with reality and invent the rest.
And so would appear to be the case with Ric Roman Waugh's Snitch.
At least there is an incident to which it can be linked - that of 18-year-old Joey Settembrino who got a mandatory ten-year sentence after being set up by a friend after a drug deal.
Only in America could it be that offenders' families can bargain to get their relative's sentence cut by handing in a criminal.
Settembrino's father attempted to do just that as does Dwayne Johnson during Snitch.
Johnson plays a company boss whose son (Rafi Gavron) is incarcerated under the similar terms to Settembrino.
Thereafter, the two stories move off in different directions - largely because the 'real' story isn't nearly as dramatic as the Hollywood version.
In the latter, Johnson enlists the help of a former drug dealer (John Bernthal) to get into the heavy world of narcotics.
This he does with the tactic approval of the district attorney (Susan Sarandon) who has little concern for how she nets a big criminal fish.
Inevitably, the risks are huge and the operation is far from smooth.
One of the problems with Snitch is Johnson. Hard as he tries not to be, he still seems to be the same character in every film he plays.
Thus, having only seen him on screen a couple of weeks ago, I couldn't get the Fast And Furious's Detective Hobbs out of my head.
Those around him don't help much - fulfilling a list of stereotypical roles from the drug baron who struts around with an air of invincibility to the unsmiling prison officials.
To be fair Snitch does have a pretty good chase scene and its story has its heart in the right place but I can't think I'll remember it past a couple of weeks.
Laughs: none
Jumps: none
Vomit: none
Nudity: none
Overall rating: 5.5/10