Many of us grew up as fans of action movies - those of you who didn't go put on something frilly and make me a turkey pot pie - and as an action movie fan I was kind of pumped about Shooter. It's pretty standard if you're familiar with the genre:
Elite US military bad-ass sees his best friend die in front of him during a mission gone wrong. Fast forward three years - our hero is living in the middle of BFE alone with his dog. One day government agents show up and ask for his help. Only he can stop an attempt on the President's life. Elite bad-ass does the job because he has sworn to protect what America stands for even he doesn't like who's in charge - he's a patriot. Then on the day of the "thwarted" assassination the President gets lead poisoning and the elite bad-ass gets framed, gets shot, escapes, has to rely on training to stay alive. Gets healed up, gets some allies, goes after the corrupt government officials and the evil Senator backing them.
Sure we've seen it before but this was exactly what I was expecting and exactly what I wanted to see. Movies like this are one of my cinematic comfort foods. A great movie to kick off a long day of Saturday afternoon watching.
The acting was pretty satisfying. I'm a big Marky Mark fan and will pretty much watch anything with him it. Danny Glover was a great sleazy "You can't touch me, I know people." Black Ops bad guy. Ned Beatty really made the movie for me as the corrupt Senator. He kind of reminded me of Noble Willingham's Sheldon 'Shelly' Marcone from The Last Boy Scout.
You're not missing much if you wait until this is on DVD or if you can sneak into a matinee. Definitely enjoyable.
