If you don't mind watching a rerun of a few other, better, spy thrillers, Shooter isn't half bad.
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Just when it looked like Mark Wahlberg was heading toward serious drama in things like "Invincible" and "The Departed" (for which the Academy nominated him for a Best Supporting Actor award), he returned to an old-fashioned action thriller in 2007's "Shooter." Well, it could have been worse. He could have gone back to apes.
"Shooter" is a conspiracy theory, espionage, chase, and revenge picture all rolled into one. Think of "The Parallax View," "Three Days of the Condor," "JFK," "The Day of the Jackal," "North By Northwest," and "The Fugitive"; this film shamelessly borrows from the best, and while it isn't as good as any of these I mentioned, it does move along at a commendable pace and with at least a modicum of excitement, thanks to its director, Antoine Fuqua ("Training Day," "Tears of the Sun"), and its star.
You've seen the plot before, but it doesn't matter, as long as you like shoot-em-ups. This one has plenty of shooting and things blowing up to keep one from falling asleep. So, Wahlberg plays USMC Gunnery Sgt. Bob Lee Swagger (get used to the names; they're all pretty corny), an expert marksman and a counterintelligence expert. I think that means he can kill anybody within a radius of two-hundred yards with his left hand and a toothpick. When the film opens, Bob Lee is in Ethiopia on a covert military operation, acting as a sniper, watching his partner get shot, then being left behind by his superiors. Because he's a one-man army, he fights his way through, returns to the States, and retires from the Marine Corps. Three years later, we find him alone in a wilderness cabin on a mountaintop, content to live with a dog and a laptop.
Enter Col. Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover), a CIA operative who wants Swagger "to plan a Presidential assassination," the idea being to help the government stop such an attempt on the President's life, if such a case ever arose. Coincidentally, says Johnson, the CIA has gotten word that just such a plot is about to unfold, and they need Swagger's expert advice. They even want him as a spotter at the scene of the President's speech in Philadelphia, in case of trouble. Reluctantly, Swagger agrees.
Well, you can see a mile away what's coming. An assassin doesn't kill the President but he gets the Archbishop of Ethiopia, standing next to the President, instead, and guess on whom Johnson's team places the blame? Yep, they make Swagger the fall guy; they frame him for the murder. Before long, they've wounded Swagger, and he's running from the combined forces of the local police and the entire U.S. Government. The rest of the film is basically a chase, with Bob Lee trying to hide, protect himself, and clear his name.
Plot loopholes? You bet. From this point on, the exaggerations pile on fast. For starters, there's the longest car wash on the planet. Then Swagger does a "Fugitive" number, diving off a pier, in an automobile yet! After that there's the most implausible pursuit on film, with Bob Lee outrunning and outfoxing about 800 police cars and helicopters, to say nothing of his out-fighting and out-maneuvering every cop and FBI agent who stumbles across him. Later in the movie, he defeats what appears to be a small army almost by himself. Amazing what people in the movies can do.
I was also a little concerned about the body count in the film. Most of the people Swagger kills in his attempt to redeem himself are innocent fighting men doing their job. Of course, the filmmakers don't want the audience to think about that, but, frankly, there are only about three bad guys in the film and the rest of the poor suckers that Swagger kills are dedicated American soldiers. Again, it's amazing what can happen in movies.
Along the way, Swagger meets a CIA agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Pena), with another corny name, who slowly begins to believe that the guy they're chasing may be innocent. He's the equivalent of Tommy Lee Jones in "The Fugitive" but without much of a sense of humor. Then there's Col. Johnson's right-hand thug, Jack Payne (Elias Koteas), and where do they get these names? Of more interest is Sarah Finn (Kata Mara), Swagger's former partner's comely widow, a would-be nurse who helps Bob Lee in his hour of need. Finally, there's Senator Charles F. Meachum (Ned Beatty), a corrupt politician behind all the skulduggery.
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