SNITCH (Rated PG-13)

Remember when Dwayne Johnson was “The Rock,” the buff action hero?  He’s not that guy in “Snitch,” though he turns in a rock solid performance as a desperate father trying to save his teenage son from a lengthy prison stretch.

Johnson’s John Matthews owns a construction company in Missouri, where his only connection to the criminal world is his willingness to hire ex-cons if they are sincere in their efforts for a clean start.

Divorced from his first wife (Melina Kanakaredes), Matthews, now remarried with a younger wife (Nadine Velazquez), has been regrettably somewhat distant from his teenage son Jason (Rafi Gavron).

In what appears to be a favor for a friend, Jason reluctantly accepts the shipment of a large package of ecstasy pills and is immediately caught by the feds and jailed for being a dealer.

To save his own skin, Jason’s so-called friend had allowed Jason to be framed for dealing drugs, thereby reducing his own sentence for participation in a crime.

Unable and unwilling to snitch on someone else, Jason is sentenced to prison for a minimum of 10 years, even though he’s an innocent who just screwed up.

The federal prosecutor, Joanne Keeghan (Susan Sarandon), is an ambitious, driven person who just happens to be running for Congress, thus all too anxious to notch a big drug-dealing conviction.

Matthews knows that his son has made a stupid mistake and doesn’t want him to stay behind bars where his personal safety is at stake as the result of beatings from fellow inmates.

In an attempt to get leniency for his son, Matthews pleads with U.S. Attorney Keeghan to help entrap real drug dealers as a way to make amends for his son’s indiscretion.

The federal prosecutor is, at first, dubious about this offer, sharing our own disbelief that a straight-arrow family man could leave his comfort zone to infiltrate the treacherous underworld of drug cartels.

With serious misgivings, Matthews finds that it might be useful to use one of his newest hard-working employees, a former felon who did prison time for selling narcotics, to introduce him to some dealers.

Ex-convict Daniel James (Jon Bernthal) has a wife and young son, and the last thing he wants to do is to get mixed up again with unsavory characters like Malik (Michael K. Williams), a local pusher.

Reluctantly pulled back into his old world, Daniel makes the introduction to Malik, and then Matthews is put to the test of making a delivery to members of a Mexican cartel and narrowly avoids harm during an ambush by a rival gang.

Having proved his mettle and savvy in eluding the surprise attack, Matthews attracts the attention of Malik’s superior, a top player in the Mexican cartel who is known as El Topo (Benjamin Bratt).

Meanwhile, Matthews and Daniel are shadowed by federal agents, of which the most notable and interesting character is Agent Cooper (Barry Pepper), who looks like one of the bikers on “Sons of Anarchy.”

While Agent Cooper’s undercover cop appears to be unpredictable, the motivated crime-busting prosecutor Keeghan is single-mindedly determined to go after the big fish in the Mexican cartel.

Keeghan’s motivation causes the stakes to grow exponentially, putting both Matthews and Daniel in the untenably tough spot of going up against a ruthless drug lord who would have no qualms about killing them both.

It would be a mistake to describe “Snitch” as an action picture full of violence and mayhem, similar to the spate of recent films where action trumped character development and significant plot lines.

The action in “Snitch” builds slowly, though the danger always feels very real and the threat of violence is only one misstep away from erupting into the fore.

Much of the story, at least in the early going, is about Matthews anguishing over moral compromises he has to make, whether it is keeping his wife in the dark or implicating Daniel in an unwanted and perilous bargain.  

The climactic drug run is where the explosive action really gets in gear in a huge, satisfying way.  Dwayne Johnson steering an 18-wheeler in a destructive demolition derby of taking out pursuing, machine-gun toting criminals is a real delight.

Indeed, Dwayne Johnson may have dropped “The Rock” as his middle name, but he’s still got the physical chops to deliver the action goods.

Balancing action and drama with aplomb, director and co-writer Ric Roman Waugh, a former stuntman, delivers an edge-of-your-seat thriller in “Snitch” that tells a compelling story.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The production of “The Sound of Music” by Clear Lake High School will introduce new stage designs to the community.  

At the heart of this innovative staging is Bill Chambard, a professionally trained stage designer who recently relocated to Lake County from the Bay Area.  

According to Chambard, “The staging is representational in that it provides a framework within which the actors can perform, and gives the audience the opportunity to use its imagination to place itself within the scene.”  

Chambard has designed a setting that takes the actors and audience from scene to scene without closing the main curtain.

A team assisted Chambard in constructing the sets.  

Steven Stocker, a local engineer, prepared construction drawings of the sets.  

John Moorhead, the CLHS woodshop instructor, and Rose Davidson manufactured the sets in their woodworking shop.  

Set decoration was conceived by Suna Flores, a set designer well known in local theater circles for many productions of the Lake County Theater Co.

Students from Shana Wilbur’s CLHS art classes painted much of the scenery.

Lighting for the show is being provided by Steve Wilson, a well known theater lighting designer and technician. Sound design for the auditorium is being created by Nick Biondo for this production.

New stage curtains are being installed to enhance the production qualities of the stage at the Marge Alakszay Center on the school campus at 250 Lange St. in Lakeport. A permanent backdrop will be installed to support future productions. New teaser curtains will hide the stage lights from audience view.  

These improvements were generously donated by the Clear Lake High School Booster Club and the Lakeport Enhanced Education Foundation.

Performances take place March 15, 16, 22 and 23, at 7 p.m., and March 17 and 24 at 2 p.m.

CLHS will offer a dinner theater performance on March 16. Tickets cost $15 general admission and $10 for seniors, students with student body cards and children. The dinner theater performance costs $30.  

Tickets are available through the CLHS office at 707-262-3010 or at the door.

Work is under way on the future home of the University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) in Berkeley’s downtown arts district, BAM/PFA officials announced.

BAM/PFA Director Lawrence Rinder acknowledged the generous donors who have contributed $95 million in pledges toward the $100 million campaign for the new facility for the campus and community visual arts center.

“This is an incredible milestone for this campaign, now a full decade in the making. We will be forever grateful to all of those individuals who have offered commitments to the campaign, not to mention the campus and Berkeley communities who have given their overwhelming support and goodwill to the project,” said Rinder.

Barclay Simpson, a member of the BAM/PFA Board of Trustees and an ardent advocate for the arts said,  “The arts are a critical part of civil society and education and this new building will ensure that UC Berkeley and the city of Berkeley have a world class visual arts center befitting these communities for at least the next century.”

Designed by the renowned New York City–based firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro (DS+R), the planned facility will unite a building that previously housed the UC Berkeley printing plant at the corner of Center and Oxford streets with a new structure that will anchor the corner of Oxford and Addison streets.

Rinder has praised the design for its “bold new architectural form,” as well as for its beauty and accessibility.

Following a competitive process, UC Berkeley awarded the construction contract for the project to Plant Construction Company, which has begun work on site planning and mobilization.

The early phases of construction focus on interior work in the existing building, including salvaging reusable materials and preparing for demolition of the adjacent parking structure. EHDD of San Francisco is the architect of record for the project.

More extensive – and more visible – work will begin this spring. Construction is targeted for completion in summer 2015 with the new facility opening to the public in early 2016.

Planning for the center began in 1997, after an engineering survey found that BAM/PFA’s current building on Bancroft Way does not meet present-day seismic standards and cannot be upgraded to do so without eliminating open exhibition spaces required for the galleries.

The new building will house BAM/PFA’s exhibition galleries, learning center, participatory art-making studio, works-on-paper study center, store, cafe, and offices. It also will also reunite the institution’s film theater, moved to an annex structure on Bancroft Way in 1999, with the galleries and operations areas.

The center will be home to a 230-seat theater and a 32-seat screening room, as well as a film library and study area.

Founded in 1963, the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAM/PFA) is UC Berkeley’s primary visual arts venue and among the largest university art museums in terms of size and audience in the United States.

Internationally recognized for its art and film programming, BAM/PFA is a platform for cultural experiences that transform individuals, engage communities, and advance the local, national, and global discourse on art and ideas. BAM/PFA’s mission is “to inspire the imagination and ignite critical dialogue through art and film.”

Aimee Chang works for the UC Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive.

Mark Sanders, who lives in Texas, is not only a good poet, but he’s an old friend to the poetry of my home ground, working hard as teacher, editor, and publisher to bring Great Plains poetry to the attention of readers across the country.

Here’s an example of one of his poems.

The Cranes, Texas January

I call my wife outdoors to have her listen,
to turn her ears upward, beyond the cloud-veiled
sky where the moon dances thin light,
to tell her, “Don’t hear the cars on the freeway—

it’s not the truck-rumble. It is and is not
the sirens.” She stands there, on deck
a rocking boat, wanting to please the captain
who would have her hear the inaudible.

Her eyes, so blue the day sky is envious,
fix blackly on me, her mouth poised on question
like a stone. But, she hears, after all.
                                                           January on the Gulf,  
warm wind washing over us,
we stand chilled in the winter of those voices.

American Life in Poetry is made possible by The Poetry Foundation ( www.poetryfoundation.org ), publisher of Poetry magazine. It is also supported by the Department of English at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Poem copyright 2011 by Mark Sanders from his most recent book of poems, Conditions of Grace: New and Selected Poems, Stephen F. Austin State University Press, 2011. Poem reprinted by permission of Mark Sanders and the publisher. Introduction copyright © 2013 by The Poetry Foundation. The introduction's author, Ted Kooser, served as United States Poet Laureate Consultant in Poetry to the Library of Congress from 2004-2006. They do not accept unsolicited manuscripts.

A GOOD DAY TO DIE HARD (RATED R)

Though only half as old as the James Bond franchise, the “Die Hard” films hold the distinction of having only one actor in the role of wisecracking, hard-boiled police detective John McClane.

Showing few signs of slowing down, Bruce Willis has notched 25 years in his tough guy role of a New York police detective who manages, usually by trying to help a close family member, to get in the middle of messy situations.

“A Good Day to Die Hard” takes John McClane far afield of his familiar turf, no longer fighting the good fight on American soil, usually against some nasty, silky Euro trash in sharp suits.

This time around, at the film’s opening, McClane is dropped off at the airport by his daughter Lucy (Mary Elizabeth Winstead), who warns him not to make a “big mess” of things upon his arrival in Moscow.

Lucy wisely knows of what she speaks, having been McClane’s targeted family member in “Live Free or Die Hard,” the previous installment. Now, it’s up to McClane to help his estranged son Jack (Jai Courtney).

McClane can never ignore family in peril, even if Jack is being held in a foreign prison on a murder charge. As he must, John McClane will get to the bottom of the matter.

Our hero arrives just in time for Jack’s show trial in a courtroom where he is supposedly giving testimony that may implicate Russian thief-turned-whistleblower Komarov (Sebastian Koch).

Komarov poses a threat to his former partner Chagarin, a politician desperately trying to conceal his connection to the theft of weapons grade plutonium from Chernobyl. So Chagarin’s thugs blow up the courthouse.

Ensconced in bullet-proof holding tanks, Jack and Komarov survive the blast and make a daring escape, while the assorted bad guys shoot up the place in what is only the first of many extensive shootouts.

Meanwhile, John instinctively decides to help his son and Komarov escape from the villains, but Jack is not too pleased that his meddlesome father has arrived on the scene.

An even bigger surprise is that McClane Senior, a renowned detective, has no idea that his offspring is an undercover CIA agent who is helping Komarov in order to foil Chagarin’s ascension to greater political power.

At this point, the audience, and perhaps even the actors themselves, have only the vaguest notion of about the extent of the political intrigue and why Moscow is becoming like a war zone in an extreme videogame.

This fifth installment of the “Die Hard” series, dispatching character development to the lowest priority status, is all about action, the more explosive and violent the better.

What ensues is a spectacular, mind-blowing street chase that flattens and ravages more vehicles than the combined destruction of at least a decade’s worth of demolition derbies.

The father-son team of John and Jack has little time for bonding while dodging bullets and firebombs, and then executing narrow escapes.

Considering the brooding Jack harbors too many pent-up feelings of neglect, the glossing over of family drama is just as well. McClane Senior tries to lighten the mood by calling his son the “007 of Plainfield, New Jersey.”

The plot, such as it is, involves the unmasking of a prominent Russian figure, and in service of this objective is a virtual non-stop trail of violent action, with the McClanes surviving enough stunts that would kill or maim ordinary mortals.

One thing missing is an abundance of McClane’s sardonic one-liners, and though I think that McClane yelled his ubiquitous “Yippee Ki-Yay” punch line, just about any dialogue gets lost in the clutter of director John Moore’s obsession to blow up stuff.

By now, John McClane should be running out of relatives to save, but a “Die Hard 6” is reportedly in the works. Though fast approaching 60, the still fit Bruce Willis seems far removed from collecting Social Security.

Fans of the franchise should take to heart the title of “A Good Day to Die Hard,” knowing it’s a good day at the movies if all the chases, fights, shootouts and explosive stunts capably serve up the popular action thrills.

Those who have enjoyed recent action films like “Parker” and “Bullet to the Head,” to name a few, would seemingly find “A Good Day to Die Hard” a good bit of satisfying action entertainment.

DVD RELEASE UPDATE

Keeping to the action theme of this week’s film review, this is a good time to notice that Hollywood’s first great action hero was Douglas Fairbanks.

Cohen Media is releasing a pristine new restoration print of “The Thief of Bagdad,” Fairbanks’ magnificent 1924 fantasy epic.

“The Thief of Bagdad,” one of the biggest blockbusters of the silent era, is a dazzling “Arabian Nights” adventure fantasy, wherein Fairbanks’ dashing Ahmed is the thief who wins a princess.

More contemporary action fare comes from stylish, tense Asian action thriller “4 Assassins,” where four colleagues reunite in a dangerous face-off.

Ace hit-man Marcus Nang (Will Yun Lee) checks into a Hong Kong hotel room, waiting for his old colleagues, for reasons that remain a mystery.

First to arrive is lovely Cordelia Leigh (Mercedes Renard), Marcus’ former lover and equally deadly killer. The others soon show up, and then accusations fly, secrets are revealed and bullets let loose.

Following the standard formula, “4 Assassins” culminates in an explosive showdown from which no one is safe.

Tim Riley writes film and television reviews for Lake County News.

LAKEPORT, Calif. – The Soper-Reese Community Theatre and Lake County Friends of Mendocino College will present the third annual Professional Pianists Concert on Sunday, March 10.

Enjoy the performances and conversations of six of Lake and Mendocino's best pianists – Elena Casanova, Tom Ganoung, Tom Aiken, David Neft, Elizabeth MacDougal and Spencer Brewer.

A reception will be held at 2 p.m., with the concert beginning at 3 p.m.

Premium reserved seats cost $30 per person, with regular reserved seats priced at $25.

Tickets are available online at http://www.soperreesetheatre.com , at the theater box office on Fridays from 10:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., telephone 707-263-0577; at The Travel Center, 1265 S. Main St., Lakeport, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays; and at the door.

The Soper-Reese Community Theatre is located at 275 S. Main St., Lakeport.