Shooter Review
By David Kempler
Not dead center but it hits the target
"Shooter" is thoroughly unbelievable but is fast paced and exciting, which means that it qualifies as a very good action flick. Eventually it is derailed like a steaming locomotive whose tracks have been compromised by a saboteur. No matter, it doesn't in any way take away from the fun ride.
It is directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Jonathan Lemkin, and is based on the novel "Point of Contact", by Stephen Hunter. It is comic book heroism of perhaps America's favorite story line; one good man fighting a very evil system. Maybe that's a universal thing and not American. I'm not sure.
This time around it is Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) , the ex-CIA or some such clandestine organization rep who was once the greatest marksman of all-time. While on an operation his buddy dies and he retires to the life of a total recluse, except for his beer fetching dog, Sam. Swagger and Sam spend their days doing little of anything while residing in as scenic an area as one could ever hope to live in. The end credits reveal it to be British Columbia.
To his door comes Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) and Jack Payne (Elias Koteas) and Swagger shows his immediate disdain, offering them bullets to their respective heads if they tread upon his front steps. They are there because there is an assassination threat to our President that only Swagger can prevent. Grudgingly, how else, Swagger takes on his task. Everything unravels and instead of being the great hunter he becomes the great hunted, by every law enforcement official in America.
Three quarters of the way through "Shooter" I thought I might be watching the heir apparent to the original "Die Hard", for my money the best action film in recent memory. Wahlberg doesn't possess the screen presence of Willis and in no way approaches Willis' ability to clown through harrowing times, but he is a strong persona and fits the form of quiet and strong do-gooder, a kind of latter day John Wayne.
A few things prevent "Shooter" from becoming a great action film: It falls prey to the let's keep the film going after it has run out of steam, admittedly a disease that threatens to ruin most movies. It smashes us in the face with a political bent, which although is the same as mine, takes away from the action and it possesses an ending so thoroughly ridiculous that it almost destroys the previous two hours. Thankfully, it doesn't undo all of its previous accomplishments. "Shooter" is not a bulls-eye but it does hit the target.
