Shooter

There was a piece of me, small as it may it be, that was hoping Shooter would really deliver something special. Why the hell did I feel that? I can’t even begin to give you an explanation. All that I know is now I have to accept that Antoine Fuqua just makes acceptable action movies. Training Day was the anomaly, a badass anomaly but anomaly nonetheless. This time around what we get is something that adds up to a Rambo if Rambo was screwed over in Africa instead of Vietnam. Yeah it’s candy not a three-course meal.

Honestly, when it comes to movies and video games how much fun is sniping? You are exactly right; it is that much fun. Easily the best parts of this movie are the truly ridiculous moments that occur when Mark Wahlberg is using his badass sniping skills. What he does to Casey Jones at the end of the film is just beautiful. That goes perfectly with his explanation on how it is possible to make a shot from a mile away, talking about the coriolis effect is downright hilarious. Maybe Marky Mark has become that good. Because he seemed to hold this movie together by the sheer force of his will. Any and all issues that I may have here do not involve his efforts; he is actually someone that I can enjoy watching shoot people from time to time. Lets see what else can I recommend here? Evil Danny Glover? Sure that is a fun time although half the time he sounds like he is talking with a mouth full of phlegm. Army from The Shield as a FBI agent? That works too; he is becoming the type of actor you are happy to see in the opening credits. That is about it. Oh wait the dog gets it, so points there even if it happens off camera.

So the plot, there are times where shadow American organizations work in a movie but this is not one of those times. The screwing over of Mark Wahlberg’s character was so elaborate and for what? There had to be better ways to handle covering up their dirty dirty deeds than these shenanigans. The whole thing was lunacy. And where the hell do these groups get all these soldiers to die for them? Are there that many people just hanging around with elite level armed forces training looking for some merc work? Is it easy to get into that business because it seems like there must be plenty of job openings? I also love that since it is an evil cabal we get to have multiple moments were the bad guys get together to cackle about just how evil they are. You damn well know that if I ever go forward with my evil machinations there will be plenty of times where me and my people get together and just cackle until our throats are sore. And the ending, my god, the ending is just pure Rambo. I was waiting to hear “Murdoch, I’m coming to get you.” Please let there be no part 2.

There is nothing truly offensive about Shooter. If people shooting people and blowing stuff up is good enough for you then this will get the job done. But if when the credits role you wanted a decent explained reason why all this happened, then don’t get your hopes up. Still it was really cool when people were just being blown away and they had no idea it was even coming. Yeah I’m screwed up.

6 out of 10