During the late 70's Hollywood laid down a series of sophisticated films tackling the controversy surrounding the presidential administration at the time. Movies like All the President's Men and Marathon Man involved one man taking on the government after accidentally being exposed to sensitive life-threatening information. That era of Hollywood is clearly over, and despite the controversy that surrounds the current administration, documentaries are the only genre of film that seem to cleverly bring attention to these matters. Shooter is weighed down heavily with its own political agenda, that in this case seems to be the major priority, making the action a sort of obligatory addition. This is why Shooter is heavily flawed, and also why the action is heavily distracting , being that it makes little sense much of the time. There is a sniper stand-off in the snow, on top of a mountain for no reason whatsoever, other than to have the snipers themselves dressed in white instead of the usual camouflage we have become so bored of seeing them in. Mark Wahlburg, one of my favorite actors in recent years(coming off of this years best picture The Departed) is the vehicle for this homage to Rambo, making his resume slightly less attractive. Action junkies will be happy to see plenty of explosions, car chases(an insult to the French Connection), and a slew more one-liners that even Schwarzenegger would envy. All in all Shooter is exactly what it looks like, the only surprise was that none of the cast have shot themselves after seeing the final product.
Review of Shooter
