Shooter? I Hardly Knew Her

I watched Shooter the other night. With the writer's strike still in full swing I've been hitting the movies more than usual it seems. And I went through most of the big releases that I was interested in seeing for the most part and Shooter made it's way to the top of my list. I'll admit, knowing it was Mark Wahlberg I really didn't have very high expectations for this film. Luckily I think that ended up working to my advantage. See I went in thinking it was going to be just a mediocre action flick, but I ended up liking it a lot.

Wahlberg plays a force recon marine scout sniper named Bob Lee Swagger. A really good sniper who can hit targets from a mile away. When the government gets word that's there's a possible assassination attempt on the president by a sniper they bring in Swagger to get expert opinion on how they can stop the guy.

The movie has lots of action. Some is a bit on the unbelievable side, but it wouldn't be an over the top action adventure movie if it wasn't. The movie doesn't pull any punches either giving us their opinion on why we go to war overseas and there's a recurring theme that oil and money are driving politics.

Overall I was much more impressed with this movie than I had been expecting. Probably has as much to do with my lowered expectations as it does with it being a better than average movie. Plus the movie has a couple of really good lines. Either way it was a pleasant surprise.