| Product: |
Shooter (HD DVD) |
| Date: |
25.03.08 (103 review reads) |
| Rating: |
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Advantages: Good mix of buddy buddy, action and conspiracy
Disadvantages: A bit linear but done with style
Mark Wahlberg impressed me a lot in The Departed, until that film I had considered him an ok actor, good enough but not really a leading man in a major movie, let alone an action movie. His performance in that made Shooter a much more agreeable prospect.
Shooter is a modern Arnie film, a mix of Raw Deal and Commando with a little bit of conspiracy thrown in. Wahlberg is a Bob Lee Swagger, a US Marine sniper who, in the opening scenes, is in action in Ethiopia. Left stranded by his commander he makes his way back on his own and takes a discharge from the army, no longer having faith in the officers.
Three years later he lives in a shack on a mountain, he has a distrust of the government and its reliance on spin. He actively keeps on eye on what they are up to on conspiracy websites.
Into his life comes General Johnson (Danny Glover). He wants to use Swaggers expertise to prevent an assassination attempt on the president. Using him to check out the locations of the presidents public appearances and point out where shots could be taken from. His patriotism is greater than his mistrust of the government so he reluctantly agrees... little knowing he is about to set himself up as the fall guy rather than the hero!
Shooter is a real throwback, this kind of action film is normally full of over the top action stunts and effects. Shooter though is very much low key on these relying a lot more heavily on story, character and believable action (well as believable as is possible without becoming boring)
Of course there is a fair few stunts, what self respecting action film would not have at least some tension building, adrenaline pumping scenes to get you going?
Shooter is a damn fine film, as long as you don't expect any high brow side to it. It does have a more thoughtful storyline for most of its running time but it mixes it well with the action.
It is superbly made in all departments, from the story, that is a clever mix of simplicity doused with political comment, to the direction. The explosive action scenes are cleverly staged and the pacing of the whole caboodle is near perfect.
Wahlberg and Michael Pena as Nick Memphis (the only person trying to help him) are a great buddy buddy team and the locations are different enough to make for some novel set pieces.
Scriptwise the dialogue is full of snappy lines and there isn't really a wasted scene in the whole film. How can you not love a writer who can get the line 'They killed my dog' into his script without it seeming really really stupid.
Shooter somehow manages to place itself perfectly between the mindless action of Transporter 2 and Shoot 'Em Up and the more thoughtful crime drama of the recent Untraceable. It is unlikely to get the kudos it deserves, seeing as it is not an out and out action film that will please fans of them and doesn't have enough depth to please those who want to think a bit about their films. Being stuck in between the two genres means that it will not get the respect it should do and it is certainly worthy of a fair bit in my eyes.
Shooter is one of those films that is a joy to watch from start to finish. It is well made and acted but without the set piece stunts it doesn't have the stand out memorable scenes to get people talking about it. This shouldn't matter but word of mouth can mean a lot to a film and if people cant tell you about something really over the top will they remember anything at all?
Forget this and make sure you see this, it will keep your attention from the opening scene of a sniper at war all the way through to the ultimate ending.
I am hoping that maybe Wahlberg will return and that another of the Swagger books will get turned into a movie.
Summary: Wahlberg the action man hits our screens
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