SHOOTER
(director: Antoine Fuqua; screenwriters: Jonathan Lemkin, based on the novel “Point of Impact” by Stephen Hunter; cinematographer: Peter Menzies Jr.; editors: Conrad Buff, Eric Sears; music: Mark Mancina; cast: Mark Wahlberg (Bob Lee Swagger), Michael Peña (Nick Memphis), Danny Glover (Col. Isaac Johnson), Kate Mara (Sarah Fenn), Elias Koteas (Jack Payne), Rhona Mitra (Alourdes Galindo), Rade Sherbedgia (Michael Sandor), Levon Helm (Mr. Rate), Ned Beatty (Senator Charles F. Meachum); Runtime: 126; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Lorenzo Bonaventura, Ric Kidney; Paramount Pictures; 2024)
“Conspiracy thriller about a vigilante soldier.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
Action filmmaker Antoine Fuqua (“Training Day”/”Tears of the Sun”) directs this entertaining ulta-violent (heads are blown up) conspiracy thriller about a vigilante soldier played with the hyper zeal the role calls for by Mark Wahlberg. It’s based on the novel “Point of Impact” by Stephen Hunter, the film critic for the Washington Post, and is written as pulp by Jonathan Lemkin.
Gunnery Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg), a former military sniper, suddenly quits the Marines after an unfortunate incident in Ethiopia with his superiors, and flees to Wyoming to live as a loner a simple and peaceful life in the woods with his dog, his computer and, of course, his many guns.
One day, after three years out of the military, the super-patriot Swagger leaves his mountain retreat upon the request of suspicious U.S. government agents, who seek his professional help to nab a sniper before he kills the president at an outdoor event in Philadelphia. They ask him to simulate how he would set up the assassination and to do a live demo for them at the supposed assassination site. But they double-cross him and make it seem like he’s the assassin, as a shot is fired by the real assassin killing the Ethiopian bishop at the podium but sparing the president.
Swagger takes two bullets from a cop unaware that he’s firing at someone framed as the assassin. The former sniper goes on the run, stealing a nerdy rookie FBI agents (Michael Peña) car and escaping when his car takes a dive in the water to avoid a traffic trap set by the cops.
This dull thriller is about the innocent Wahlberg taking on the oily suits in Washington, with Ned Beatty as the villainous senator behind this crazy scheme.
REVIEWED ON 2/6/2025 GRADE: C+
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