Ranking Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson’s 5 Best Movies

2. Snitch

Snitch isn’t your average action film, which explains why you’ve probably never seen it. Directed by Ric Roman Waugh, the film is loosely based on an episode of Frontline that detailed a United States drug enforcement policy which encouraged prison inmates to snitch on their as-yet-to-be incarcerated accomplices.

Johnson stars as John Matthews, a divorced, blue-collar father to a young man who reluctantly becomes involved in a drugs-through-the-mail business which is apparently a thing. Not being a professional drug dealer, he is immediately apprehended and the trumped-up drug-dealing charges could send him to prison for 10 years thanks to mandatory minimum sentencing. To keep his son safe from spoon shanks and shower assaults, Matthews makes a deal with the U.S. Attorney’s office which will require him to infiltrate a local drug racket as a mole.

Because Snitch was such a drastic departure from Johnson’s other films done in 2013 (G.I. Joe, Pain and Gain, Furious 6), critics mostly ignored and panned it as brainless filler. Others, like Tom Russo of the Boston Globe, took a different approach:

"“Nobody is going to confuse a Dwayne Johnson movie with Les Misérables. But Snitch gets a decent amount of drama (and action, of course) out of the argument that there’s paying for a crime, and then there’s overpaying.”"

Perhaps that underlying message was why Snitch suffered at the box office. This was not a simple good vs. evil film; it explored some gray areas about the very real problems that plague our criminal justice system. Important social issues such as the unspoken privilege of race and class, the failed “war on drugs/crime” policies, and even the prison industrial complex all make appearances in this film without hitting you over the head and demanding you face them. The concepts of Snitch make for better discussions inside a sociology or criminal justice class,

The film had a modest $13 million opening weekend and eventually earned close to $43 million on a $12 million budget which makes it a financial success in Hollywood terms. To date, this is the closest Johnson has come to a straight-up dramatic role and with any luck, he will be given more opportunities to do so.