The 1980s gave the movie-going public an abundance of "shoot-em-up" action flicks ranging from benchmark action like Die Hard to the absurd violence of Arnold Schwarzenegger's Commando.
Unfortunately, Antoine Fuqua decided to try to match the qualities of the latter in the Mark Wahlberg action Shooter. He parts from the realism of his 2001 film Training Day in favor of mindless, over-the-top explosions with a surprisingly preachy subtext on the current state of politics.
The film starts in Ethiopia where Bob Lee Swagger (Wahlberg) and Donnie Fenn (Lane Garrison) are a Marine sniper team whose mission goes awry as their unit abandons them on the side of a mountain. Fenn dies and upon returning home, Swagger leaves the corps and becomes a paranoid recluse.
Enter Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover), a retired colonel who tells Swagger the U.S. government needs his help in preventing an attempt on the president's life. When the attempt goes wrong, a double-cross is revealed, and the Archbishop of Ethiopia is assassinated, Swagger is framed as the shooter.
With the help of FBI agent Nick Memphis (Michael Peña) and his partner's widow Sarah Fenn (Kate Mara), Swagger attempts to clear his name as a fugitive and bring justice to the corrupt. The only problem is he's not aware how high up the corruption in government goes.
Now, I know every woman who met her dead husband's Marine buddy and suspected assassin for the first time would trust every word he says and help him any way they could, right? Girls are just helpless to "Marky Mark." The sexual tension in Shooter might be calculated and flawed, but it's perfect for this movie because it matches the lack of reality throughout the film, as well as the alpha-male demographic.
As evidenced in the male-to-female ratio in the theatre literally being 100 to 1, this is the ultimate man movie. There are guns, explosions, Kate Mara spending half the movie in her underwear, guns, two exploding helicopters, pipe bombs, homemade napalm, oh ... and guns. This was the highlight, and it was entertaining enough that I'd watch it again if I came across it channel surfing on a Saturday afternoon.
In terms of acting, there's a reason most of Wahlberg's roles have been as a supporting actor or in ensemble casts; he's not a lead actor. He doesn't have the energy to capture an audience, and his delivery in Shooter is sleepy at best.
The real scene-stealer in this one is someone who isn't even an actor by trade. Levon Helm, famous as the drummer/vocalist for The Band, plays an old gun expert who helps Swagger in his mission for justice. His off-kilter conversation allows for some intended comic relief right before the unintentionally hilarious climaxes. That's plural, because there are two fake-outs where you think the action might hit its peak (one even includes a mountaintop, ha!).
Most if not all of this action is pretty inoffensive. The real idiocy is everything beyond the action sequences.
Among the action, the film has the audacity to become preachy and serious about a variety of touchy subjects in the Bush administration such as weapons of mass destruction, the war in Iraq and torture at Abu Ghraib.
The government is pegged as a system immersed in unavoidable corruption, and the only way to bring justice to the disingenuous is to kill them. Not only that, but in less-than-subtle ways, the movie shows the Department of Justice will advocate these murders if necessary. This only adds to the absurdity and embodies the film's ability to be moderately enjoyable. The attempt at left-wing accusations hidden underneath the insanely conservative plot is thinly veiled, if not hidden at all. So if you go to theaters to see this movie, expect to be entertained but don't expect anything deeper than that.
GRADE: C-
