Shooter (2007/I)

User Rating:

7.2/10   

Director:

Antoine Fuqua

Writers (WGA):

Jonathan Lemkin (screenplay)
Stephen Hunter (novel)

Release Date:

23 March 2007 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Crime | Mystery | Thriller

Tagline:

Yesterday was about honor. Today is about justice.

Plot:

A marksman living in exile is coaxed back into action after learning of a plot to kill the president. Ultimately double-crossed and framed for the attempt, he goes on the run to track the real killer and find out who exactly set him up, and why.

Plot Keywords:

President | Marksman | Colonel | Framed | Oil

US TV Schedule:

Mon. July 6	1:30 AM	TMC
Thur. July 9	10:05 PM	TMC
Wed. July 15	8:00 PM	TMC

Cast

Mark Wahlberg	...	Bob Lee Swagger
Michael Peña	...	Nick Memphis
Danny Glover	...	Colonel Isaac Johnson
Kate Mara	...	Sarah Fenn
Elias Koteas	...	Jack Payne
Rhona Mitra	...	Alourdes Galindo
Jonathan Walker	...	Louis Dobbler
Justin Louis	...	Howard Purnell
Tate Donovan	...	Russ Turner
Rade Serbedzija	...	Michael Sandor (as Rade Sherbedgia)
Alan C. Peterson	...	Officer Stanley Timmons
Ned Beatty	...	Senator Charles F. Meachum
Lane Garrison	...	Donnie Fenn
Zak Santiago	...	Senior Agent
Michael-Ann Connor	...	Junior Agent

MPAA:

Rated R for strong graphic violence and some language.

Runtime:

124 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Sound Mix:

SDDS | DTS | Dolby Digital

Certification:

Singapore:NC-16 | Ireland:16 | Canada:13+ (Quebec) | Canada:14A (Ontario) | UK:15 | Netherlands:16 | Canada:18A (Alberta/British Columbia/Manitoba) | Finland:K-15 | USA:R (certificate #43368) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Geneva) | Switzerland:14 (canton of Vaud) | Malaysia:18SG | Hong Kong:IIB | New Zealand:R16 | Norway:15 | Argentina:16 | Germany:18 | Sweden:15 | Denmark:15 | South Korea:18 | Australia:MA | Japan:PG-12 | France:U | Philippines:R-13 (MTRCB) | Canada:18A | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:18 | India:A

Filming Locations:

Ashcroft, British Columbia, Canada

Company:

Paramount Pictures

Trivia:

Mark Wahlberg's character's last name (Swagger) is a derivation of a Marine scout/sniper's slang for a quick calculation of a bullet's trajectory, which is SWAG (sophisticated wild ass guess).

Goofs:

Factual errors: Swagger is referred to as being a "retired" Marine Sniper. In order to be retired, you must have 20 years of service in. He may have been Honorably Discharged, but is doubtfully "retired".

Quotes:

[first lines]
Donnie Fenn: Movement. Two men. Approximately... forty goats.
Bob Lee Swagger: They're not on anybody's side. We don't have to shoot them.

Movie Connections:

Featured in "Siskel & Ebert & the Movies: (2007-03-24)" (2007)

Soundtrack:

Nasty Letter

well-worn storyline with some refreshing elements

Though little more than a strung-together collection of man-on-the-run, action movie clichés, "Shooter" provides a veritable feast for conspiracy-theory paranoiacs and a decent enough time at the movies for the rest of us.

Mark Wahlberg plays Bob Lee Swagger, an embittered ex-marine gunnery sergeant who's been living a hermitlike existence ever since he and his sharpshooter buddy were left to perish on an Ethiopian hillside by the American forces that had sent them on the mission in the first place. After three years holed up in the wilderness of Wyoming with no one but his devoted pooch to keep him company, Swagger is coaxed out of retirement by the FBI to help foil a planned assassination of the President of the United States. When Swagger discovers at the last minute that he is actually being set up as the fall guy for the killing, he barely escapes with his life and spends the rest of the movie dodging the authorities while attempting to clear his name and bring the true culprits to justice.

Wahlberg, all brooding stoicism and macho-man swagger (pardon the pun), continues his run of tough guy roles in this film, though one wishes he would return to the more nuanced, multi-layered portrayals he managed to put forth in movies like "Boogie Nights" and "Three Kings." As the woman who befriends Swagger, the attractive and talented Kate Mara has considerably more screen time in this film than she did in "Brokeback Mountain," but far less worthy material to work with. The most compelling performance is by Michael Pena as the low-level FBI agent who believes Swagger is innocent of the crime and who winds up joining forces with Swagger to uncover the conspiracy. The Average Joe demeanor that Pena brings to the character provides a proper counterbalance to Wahlberg's strutting self-confidence and superhuman athleticism. Danny Glover seems to be phoning in much of his performance here as the leader of the covert FBI cabal, and Ned Beatty does his best as a stereotypically smarmy senator who's up to his ears in venality and corruption.

The plot often doesn't make a whole lot of sense, and it is easy for a layperson to get lost in all the arcane machinations that come flying fast and loose off the screen. Still, the screenplay does a nice job fitting the pieces of its puzzle together, merging the two story lines that run along parallel tracks for the first half into a unified whole at about the midway point. The action scenes are strikingly well done, even though they often sacrifice verisimilitude and plausibility for mass explosions and preposterously lopsided gun battles.

The movie makes a lot of grand speeches at the end about governmental corruption and what it truly means to live in the land of the free and the home of the brave, but "Shooter" is designed to be a generic thriller not a big-think social drama. And, on those terms only, the movie succeeds more often than it fails.