The following is a simple test that will determine whether or not you will enjoy the film “Shooter."
The protagonist's name is Bob Lee Swagger.
Read it again: Mark Wahlberg plays a man named Bob Lee Swagger.
Is this name not quite subtle enough for you? Does the fact that it so blatantly defines its character put you off? Or do you, like me, think that Bob Lee Swagger is the greatest action hero name since James Bond?
If you answered "like me," then “Shooter” is for you — because it is anything but subtle.
Swagger (so cool) is one of the top snipers in the U.S. military; that is, until a mission goes wrong and he retires to a life of seclusion in the mountains. One day Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) shows up at Swagger’s (still cool) door and requests his help in finding an assassin who is going to kill the president.
But wait — it’s all a set-up to frame Swagger (awesome), and the only option for redemption is to use his sniping skills to take on the most dastardly sections of the U.S. government, which are Johnson and a senator from that bastion of evil, Minnesota.
Sprinkle in a pretty girl (Kate Mara) and a funny sidekick (Michael Pena) for Swagger (it rhymes with dagger!), add some slightly over-the-top political commentary, and you’ve got an action movie that’s a little bit Bourne and a little bit Bond and a whole lot of satisfying. Never too smart for it’s own good, and always aware that it’s key ingredient is a man named Bob Lee Swagger (doesn’t get old), who can snipe a soup can off a log from a mile away. The kind of man who goes after the men who set him up using his sniping skills and, in the process, takes out at least 30 bad guys and two helicopters — on his own. Director Antoine Fuqua directs these impossible sniping action sequences in a straightforward manner that works perfectly to ground the film in a very loose reality.
The real beauty of the simple direction and Wahlberg’s incredibly fit performance is that they are both so basic. No fancy over cranks or crazy montages. Every action sequence ends with the satisfying “thunk” of Swagger’s (he kills his own food!) bullet in the body of a bad guy.
Who needs subtleties and complications when you’ve got a name like Bob Lee Swagger anyway?