Those expecting two hours of non-stop punches and explosions are in for a rude awakening. Former stuntman-turned-writer/director, Ric Roman Waugh, rocks Dwayne Johnson’s world with a focused piece of genre storytelling that doubles as a dead-on assault against the war on drugs. Under federal laws known as mandatory minimums, Johnson’s son is sentenced to ten years unless he rats out other drug traffickers. The kid is small potatoes and doesn’t know any of the high profile kingpins the government is after, so dad enters the drug world in search of a bigger bust to help lessen his boy’s jail time. The film’s only drawback is its unnecessary (and persistent) employment of hand-held cinematography. If you can afford The Rock’s salary, surely a tripod can’t be that big an expense. The supporting cast — including Susan Sarandon, Barry Pepper, and Benjamin Bratt — is uniformly superb. (2013) — Scott Marks
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