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Shooter [2007]
from Paramount Home Entertainment (UK)

Features:

• PAL

Editorial Review:

A movie that would not have been out of place in the run of paranoid-political thrillers of the 1970s, Shooter works an entertaining variation on the assassination picture. Mark Wahlberg, carrying over good mojo from The Departed, slides neatly into the character of Bob Lee Swagger, master marksman. Swagger has retreated from his duty as an off-the-books hired gun for the military, having become disillusioned with his government (switching on his TV at his remote mountain cabin, he mutters, "Let's see what kind of lies they're trying to sell us today."). Ah, but the government needs Swagger to scope out the location of a rumored attempt on the life of the president, so a shadowy government operative (Danny Glover) begs Swagger to use his sniper's skills to out-fox the assassin. From there--well, spoilers are not fair, since the movie has a few legitimate shocks and a very nice wrong-man scenario about to unfold.

A novel by the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Stephen Hunter gives the movie a logical spine, even if the premise itself is the stuff of conspiracy theorists. Wahlberg gets support from Michael Pena, as a skeptical FBI agent; Kate Mara, as a trustworthy widow; and Ned Beatty, trailing along memories of Network, as a supremely cynical Senator. Along with the well-executed action sequences (the previously unreliable director Antoine Fuqua gets it in gear here), the movie includes a few potshots at the Bush administration. No, that doesn't put Shooter at the level of The Parallax View or All the President's Men, but it provides some tang along with the flying bullets. --Robert Horton

Antoine Fuqua (director of TRAINING DAY and THE REPLACEMENT KILLERS) takes on government conspiracies in action/thriller SHOOTER. The film centres on Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), a former scout sniper who--following a botched operation in Ethiopia--has retired from the marines and become a recluse. Three years later, Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) shows up with two flunkies, trying to convince Swagger to help them thwart a plot to assassinate the president. Honour and duty get the better of him, and Swagger agrees to participate, unaware that he’s being set up. Now, with the whole world after him, the only people he can trust are the widow of his former partner, Sarah (Kate Mara), and Nick Memphis (Michael Pena), a young FBI agent who refuses to give up investigating the case.
Wahlberg, hot on the heels of his Oscar nominated turn in THE DEPARTED, delivers yet another credible performance as a complicated man who had turned his back on society, only to be thrust right back into the middle of it. Glover is solid as his arch-nemesis, a sadistic character who treats the situation as if it were some kind of game. Based on the book POINT OF IMPACT by Stephen Hunter, SHOOTER is a frantic, violent race through the streets of Philadelphia, New York, Kentucky, Washington, DC, and Ethiopia, in search of answers.

Customer Reviews:

• Avg. Customer Rating: 3.5 / 5.0

• Laughably simplistic political spin mars film
  Sadly, if one could have told this screenwriter to give up thinking and simply write a typical vacuous Hollywood script, this would have been excellent. The plot is solid and keep one's interest while Danny Glover and Mark Wahlberg offer decent performances. The attempts at some kind of contemporary political relevance are awkward and trite, however, really undermining the movie. It was clearly an area beyond the writer's capabilities. The insistent conspiracy theory scaffolding offers absolutely nothing... more info

• No Hunter magic
  A passable, cliched action flick, but one that is ultimately disappointing. As a long-time fan of Stephen Hunter, 'Point of Impact' (the source of 'Shooter') is one of my favourite novels, but this misses the magic, the pathos and heart of Hunter's work. Mark Wahlberg does his best, but he is miscast - he is too small and runty and emotionally shallow - Hunter's Swagger is a tall, rangy southerner, a brooding, tortured loner. Even more miscast is Danny Glover - he's always been rubbish, but here he is... more info

• Enjoyably Average
  Not as good as the best reviews suggest. Not as bad for me as those that slammed it.
  Reasonable story on the whole well acted. The action scenes well done and the film held your attention till the end.
  However I never really identified with the main character and didn't really care whether he survived. The film also lacked excitement and the characters were never properly developed.
  I recently watched Man on Fire and this film is not in the same league. However if you lower your expectations... more info

• Shooter:
  I first saw this as a rental on reccomendation. As I hadn't heard of this movie before, I thought it'll be just another one of those low budget shoot'em, chase'em films with totally unbelievable characters and frankly stupid special effects.
  Before I watched the actual movie I had a quick look at the 'special features', and it looked like this might not be so bad after all. So I watched the movie and absolutely enjoyed every moment, so much so that I ordered a copy as soon as it became available as... more info

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