Review of Shooter (2007) by Xgary X — 31 Aug 2011

An ex Special Services sniper is recruited to investigate a possible assassination attempt on the President but when he is framed for the death of a foreign dignitary he must find the real conspirators to clear his name.

It's Marky Mark's turn to strut his Bourne thang and Shooter has all the ingredients you'd expect from a Hollywood conspiracy thriller. Wahlberg and Pena are fine as the outlaw lawmen cutting a swathe of popping craniums through the usual suspects, although Rhona Mitra and Kate Mara are clearly just there as the obligatory window dressing and I wish Elias Koteas would stop taking these parts as grinning caricatures because he's better than this.

It at least attempts to touch on the subject of the US's foreign policy of planting a stars and stripes on every country on the globe in an attempt to "liberate" their oil fields, but their solution is, as ever, an American with a big gun.

There's absolutely nothing here you won't have seen before but everyone involved is very comfortable with the ins and outs of this kind of thing and it's a very efficient and well executed example.