Review: Shooter

Mark Wahlberg Shoots it Up – Again…

By Emma Carroll

Mark Wahlberg seems to like the gun related movies. We have Four Brothers, The Departed and now we have Shooter directed by Antoine Fuqua (and as rumor may have it, next up: G.I. Joe!). So three positive things about this movie: 1. The conspiracy/espionage in the first half is an exciting cup of tea; 2. The cinematography is something out of a movie of a much grander scale; 3. Mark Wahlberg has a great body. Ok so that last one isn’t really a huge positive but I had to scramble cause sadly I couldn’t think of another. It’s also not something that’s going to matter if you’re a guy, but if you’re a guy you’ll probably love all of the guns and explosions. If you’re a girl, guns and explosions – enh, not so much. And that, as it so happens, is my review of this movie “enh”, with a little “so-so” hand wave.

I was actually disappointed, considering the first half of the movie took off with a great story, and a kind of Enemy of the State theme. Unfortunately, by the second half it turned into a “violence for violence’s sake” take on justice and the theme turned into “America is corrupt and Republicans are dirty, rotten, money hungry tyrants”. In short, very “anti-American.”

Mark stars as Bob Lee Swaggart, A US Marine sniper who is left to die with his spotter in enemy territory. His spotter is shot by fire from a helicopter, which Mr. Wahlberg then proceeds to take down. After this loss, he retires from the military and runs away to the mid western mountains to nurse his feelings of betrayal by the government and hide from the rest of mankind. His only friend is a dog, who so loyally brings him beer from inside the fridge after a long day’s work.

Three years later, who should show up but Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover), a man who has been searching for Swaggart to plan and stop an assassination on the President of the United States. That in itself sounds a little fishy: “Plan an assassination so we know how to stop it”, but nevertheless, Bob Lee joins up to help save the president. As it so happens, my fishiness instinct paid off. Turns out it was all a set up. Johnson’s intention was to assassinate the Archbishop of Ethiopia and easily frame the rogue military man, Swaggart. Double-crossed, wounded, and on the run, Swaggart heads to the home of his spotter’s widow, Sarah, played by Kate Mara. She binds his wounds and helps him onto the next step in his plan to get his life back.

Meanwhile young FBI agent Nick Memphis (Michael Pena – World Trade Center), who was the last person to speak to Swaggart before his disappearance, is thinking things are pretty fishy too. Swaggart gets in touch with him and they are able to track down Johnson. Here’s were the suspense turns to explosions and shooting. The entire second half of this movie is Swaggart hunting down everyone related to a much larger conspiracy, including a US Senator from Montana.

After a two vs. many battle, resulting in an explosion and the exposition of Johnson’s scheme the movie just went down hill. Despite some beautiful photography in the snow swept mountains there wasn’t much left in the movie besides hunt ‘em down and shoot ‘em up. The love subplot between Swaggart and Sarah isn’t even developed any further. Not even a gratuitous sex scene. I’m surprised that an action flick would forego a gratuitous sex scene! I thought it was standard. I guess that’s something to say for the movie. The producers thought they could sell it on guns and action alone, that it wouldn’t be quite right to sleep with his best man’s girl, and they didn’t need the sex appeal. Bully for them!

When it comes down to it, this movie had some potential. If only it hadn’t been two halves that didn’t quite fit together. But then again, Shooter was meant to be a guy’s film so they might have something different to say about it. I definitely recommend it for the male crowd. But guys, don’t bring your dates to this movie - you won’t get another!