Shooter (2007)

There are a few people that I know personally who will discredit any movie with Mark Wahlberg in it. I fear I am the loose screw here, because I will get out of my way to find a Marky Mark movie. Not because I find him an extraordinary actor, but more on the lines of I like the characters he plays. They are the cheesy cliché “douchebags”, a man who only cares about himself and his needs. And amazingly he is no different in “Shooter”. Not sure why I root for him, he seems like one of those guys in the lunchroom that would bully me for my lunch money. But nonetheless, click more to read what I rate his shot.

Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) lives alone in the great outdoors with his dog after a failed mission in Ethiopia. Swagger and his spotter were abandoned in the failed mission, where his spotter died. Years later, Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) wants Swagger to help him find out ways the President might be assassinated during a speech. He agrees but to his misfortune there is still an attempt to kill the president and Swagger is framed for it. Swagger is on the run, wounded, and the whole nation is after him. He's destined to find out who actually took the shot and free his name.

I think Wahlberg only has one facial expression: douchebag.

I was fairly entertained and surprised on how good the action was. It isn’t your typical explosion happy b-list action movie. They try to marry a lot of spy like sequences in the midst of the over the top action. It does get a bit tacky when one man can single handle take down 24 SWAT members. But we are expected to believe he is the greatest marksmen in the entire world. But he isn’t just great with a sniper; man can kill with anything that shoots a bullet out of a chamber. He uses assault rifles, handguns and even does some neat hand to hand fighting to eliminate his enemy. So I never got bored watching all his numerous of kills.

I would actually like to bring up some of his kills. Most of his better shots are with the sniper rifle, and probably the best one might be the most unbelievable one. This is where Swagger shots through the scope of his enemy’s gun and in his head. Which I know has been done before in “Saving Private Ryan” but it’s almost comical when I saw it in here. Maybe it is just homage to Carlos Hathcock for starting the whole shoot ‘em through the scope legend.

A few other characters are Nick (Michael Pena), who actually works for the FBI but ends up helping Swagger out. He does a fair job of supporting Wahlberg, and he is the comical relief that brings a few laughs so I really can’t complain. Sarah Fenn is the widow of Swagger’s best friend. She is in it for a bit, I feared she was going to be the main love interest and cue sappy love story. But thankfully nothing really builds on that. Lastly, Danny Glover is the bad guy! How awesome. As little as he is in this film he makes a great immoral Colonel. I ended up hating his character by the end of this movie and I’m sure that is what they were aiming for.

You ain't getting too old for this shit Glover.

I had one major problem with the movie and that was the pacing. The first hour is the buildup and laying down the back story, but this took forever. It felt redundant a few times when they retold the story numerous times for different characters. And on a slightly related note, they have this fascination to play some scenes in slo-mo. Problem is; it was only for the most mundane scenes. One point Swagger is walking out of a building and for whatever the reason was, they slowed that down. Cue dramatic music please.

Anyways, I did enjoy the movie a good amount. If it is an action movie you are looking for, don’t count “Shooter” out. It has a good variety of gun fights and it is all well sequenced. There isn’t much when it comes to the story or the acting. Both of those were just okay, though I don’t think most people will hate Marky Mark in this. I did think he was the wrong choice for the movie, an actor with a bit less ‘douchebaginess’ and can play with the emotions of vengeance (or any emotion in that matter) should have played Swagger.

On a side note: I found out that Swagger is actually a protagonist for a lot of the Stephen Hunter books. No wonder the character of Swagger was good.