Early in Antoine Fuqua's Shooter, Marine Corps sniper John Lee Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) decides to retire, retreating to a remote mountain hideaway. Alone except for his beard stubble, his gun collection and his fridge-opening, beer-fetching dog, he wants to remain politically uninvolved. But then Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) appears, asking Swagger to use his expertise to help prevent a possible presidential assassination. Will Swagger be a true patriot and once again help his country?
The real question, of course, is how Mark Wahlberg manages to make that ponytail look so hot. While the movie unfortunately doesn't tell us, it does show what an invincible, testosterone-fueled hunk of man meat does when he's double-crossed by members of his government and framed for an assassination he didn't commit. The answer? Defy mortality, make an Indian friend, save an attractive Southern woman, shoot a lot of bad people and blow things up. In style.
The result is extremely entertaining. Wahlberg succeeds as a male lead and action hero. Glover deliciously hams it up as the evil villain, and the supporting characters all have enough personality to keep the predictable plot twists interesting. Most importantly, the action is exciting and well-staged. And until the last 15 minutes, the film is tense and tightly-plotted. Shooter loses its grip when it falls into a conventional shoot-out ending. But by then, the film has been too much fun for it to matter.
