Dwayne Johnson

Those expecting to sit down for a rock 'em sock 'em action thriller may be disappointed to find that isn't the case for Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's latest film, Snitch. Instead, you'll find a mediocre drama laced with social messages, as well as some restrained action sequences. Johnson plays John, an ordinary guy who owns a construction company. When a friend sends his son Jason (Rafi Gavron) a package of illegal pills in the mail, the district attorney's office aims to make an example out of him by sending him to prison for at least 10 years. The only way for Jason to reduce his sentence is to assist law enforcement in taking down suppliers, which he refuses to do. Against the advice of a US attorney (Susan Sarandon) and the DEA agent on the case (Barry Pepper), John takes it upon himself to infiltrate local drug rings in order to free Jason. The story is almost too insane to believe it's inspired by true events, which it is. Ultimately, Snitch employs some Hollywood tricks and twists, but not enough to make it compelling.

Get my top three gripes about the film after the jump.

Dwayne Johnson has just become my favorite vengeance-seeking movie dad — behind Liam Neeson in Taken, obviously. In Snitch, Johnson plays a father who vows to get his falsely imprisoned son (Life Unexpected's Rafi Gavron) exonerated, by any means necessary. He agrees to work with the FBI and infiltrate the violent underworld of drug running, and his connections soon lead to a notorious crime boss (Benjamin Bratt). It becomes clear that if he makes one wrong move, his entire family will be in jeopardy.

I love that Johnson's playing the regular dad with a by-the-books job — who happens to be very skilled at driving in high-speed chases. Susan Sarandon as the FBI agent also elevates the action fare, and I'm moderately curious about Bratt's ability to keep up that surprisingly heavy accent for an entire film. Snitch is set to open on Feb. 22, and you can watch the trailer after the jump.

As if Mark Wahlberg needed to get in better shape, the actor looks the buffest I've ever seen him in the trailer for Pain & Gain. He's starring as Daniel Lugo, a self-improvement-seeking bodybuilder who gets sick and tired of struggling to pay his bills while fat-cat criminals sit on their piles of money. Seeking some real Robin Hood-style justice, Daniel and his similarly built friends, played by Dwayne Johnson and Anthony Mackie, hatch a plan to kidnap and extort one of Florida's most corrupt gangsters.

Pain & Gain, based on a true story and directed by Michael Bay, is a little hard to pinpoint. It feels like a comedy, drama, and heist movie rolled into one muscle-filled package, which could be great, but could also be real terrible. The movie opens April 26, and you can catch the trailer after the jump.

Fierce box office competition, 3D reshoots, and rewrites to expand Channing Tatum's part caused G.I. Joe: Retaliation's June 2012 release date to be pushed back, but it looks like that time may have been used wisely. The original trailer came out around this time last year, but the new preview feels way more badass than the first one. The G.I. Joe task force — headed by Dwayne Johnson as Roadblock — has been declared traitorous and left for dead. The president himself signed off on the order to abandon the team, except he's not really the president; he's some kind of crazed nuclear war genius hiding in the president's skin (science!). It's up to the G.I. Joes to save the world, even though they've been betrayed by their own country.

Give me Bruce Willis in a high-octane action flick and I'm there. I hope that his role is significant because even though Tatum (who starred in 2009's original G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra) is supposedly playing a bigger part, it still doesn't look like he's got much screen time. G.I. Joe: Retaliation is set for release on March 29 (for real this time), but you can watch the trailer after the jump.

In Journey 2: The Mysterious Island, the sequel to Journey to the Center of the Earth, Josh Hutcherson is back in the starring role as adventurer Sean Anderson, a young man on an exciting trip of epic proportions. The mission at hand? To find Sean's grandfather Alexander (Michael Caine), a famed explorer who went missing during his journey for Mysterious Island, a place that may be linked to the lost city of Atlantis. To round out the crew of this quest, Sean and his stepfather (Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson) enlist the help of two tour guides (Luis Guzman and Vanessa Hudgens). After some hijinks and a crazy helicopter crash, the four arrive at Mysterious Island, a fairly utopian and Avatar-looking spot that is also full of dark jungles and terrifying creatures.

While Journey 2: The Mysterious Island looks like a sweet and silly movie, it's definitely geared toward kids. However, I'm down to follow Hutcherson just about anywhere, since I can only think of him as Peeta (his role in the upcoming The Hunger Games). See what you think of the film when you watch the trailer after the jump.

• Katie Couric gets her own daytime talk show on ABC — AOL TV
• The latest on The X Factor's drama with Cheryl Cole — Zap2It
• Jim Carrey wants sequels for Dumb and Dumber and Bruce Almighty — Moviefone
• The Rock will play Roadblock in the G.I. Joe sequel — Vulture
• Glee's Naya Rivers scores a record deal — Music Mix
• See the full list of TV nominees for the Critics' Choice Awards — The Wrap
• Woody Allen adds to his Bop Decameron cast — The Playlist
• How to get Bella's Breaking Dawn wedding makeup look — BellaSugar

• Channing Tatum may play a male stripper in an upcoming movie — Movieline
• Dwayne Johnson is pursuing a career in country music?! — Vulture
• The 10 most memorable high school movie nerds — Moviefone
• Spoilers on the upcoming Glee death, Grey's Anatomy, and more! — TV Squad
• Watch a new clip from Thor — Rotten Tomatoes
• Jeremy Renner is planning to star in a Steve McQueen biopic — /Film
• Meet the contestants who will compete in The Glee Project — Zap2it
• How did you watch the royal wedding? — GeekSugar