Shooter

March 22, 2007

Rated: R Runtime: 120 min Rating: 4 out of 5 stars

Shooter is a combination of action movie and thriller starring Mark Wahlberg. Who would’ve figured Marky Mark for an action hero when he was dancing around in his underwear with the “Funky Bunch” singing “Good Vibrations”? Not us, but he’s really becoming money in the bank and producing some great movies. Shooter follows an intense performance in The Departed and, although not quite on the same level, is quite entertaining.

Shooter In Shooter, Wahlberg plays Bob Lee Swagger, a former Marine Corp sniper. Swagger retired after a mission went bad. But he is soon talked into just one more mission for his country and being the good patriot, he cant resist. However, he’s double crossed and finds himself shot up and the subject of a nationwide manhunt. To clear his name, he must take revenge on some of the most powerful men in our nations goverment.

The thriller storyline isn’t bad as you always wonder how he’s going to get out of the next trap. But the really cool thing here is a sniper and his rifle. He’s shooting Dinty Moore beef stew cans at a mile out. He obviously doesn’t hate the stuff as much as we do, we’d never give it a mile head start and instead would bust a cap at point blank. Beware though, if you eat it, it fights back. The fun part here though is he doesn’t just shoot at cans of stew. You’re gonna see lots of head shots and pink mist. The JFK footage is nothing compared to what happens to a skull when hit with a 50 calibre.

So what you have here is your basic guy gets ticked off and goes for revenge against butt heads who really deserve a gruesome death. And the movie delivers on that promise by letting the bodies hit the floor repeatedly. Our only gripe is they could’ve also used that R-rating to show us some very lovely breasts instead of just teasing us mercilessly with bra shots. They did work in a chase, good explosions, lots of blood and of course tons of gun play. If we could’ve had a few laughs and boobs, this would’ve been the perfect guy movie.

We’re giving it a 4. It flirted with a 5, but there is one part of the movie that kept rubbing us the wrong way. There’s a somewhat less than subtle anti-government message in there with digs against U.S. involvement in places like the Persian Gulf. If you’re sensitive to that kinda thing, or Michael Moore movies make you throw things at the TV, you may wanna skip Shooter. However, if you can just roll your eyes and wait for the next exploding skull, you’ll enjoy this movie.

Posted by Billy Bob | Filed Under 4 Stars, Action, Danny Glover, Elias Koteas, Mark Wahlberg, Michael Pena, R, Theatrical, Thriller, kate mara