Shooter

Shooter is the latest logic challenged conspiracy theory thriller to hit the big screen. It’s preposterous and often laughable, but it’s also sort of fun. You have to embrace the idea that what you’re seeing is a near farce to get any joy out of it. Either that, or you simply need to be as logic challenged as the film itself. There’s stuff here that is so silly, it’s hilarious, but is laughter sometimes the point? I can’t really tell. For example, there’s one moronic scene where a police dog attacks its commanding officer. The reason? Wahlberg’s character, the campily named Bob Lee Swagger, is a dog man with a pup of his own that he treats like a son. It seems dogs can tell who likes dogs and will save them from arrest if necessary. Is it a horrible contrivance? Does the film simply want this to be a joke? I think any film that names its macho leading man “swagger” has to have a sense of humor, right?

Swagger comes straight from the John Rambo school of antiheroes. He’s the kind of character that can resourcefully solve any conundrum with some old army trick and take out a whole fleet of soldiers with just one gun. He is enlisted by some shady contractors to spot a shooter supposedly aiming to kill the president at an upcoming public speaking event, and ends up getting framed for the murder of an Ethiopian ambassador instead. He proceeds to flee custody and shoot people all around the nation in order to prove his innocence. It’s a straightforward concept, but there’s also some weirdly heavy handed politics involved. In an intellect free thriller like this one, you think you know what to expect. As soon as the sadly misused Kate Mara gets kidnapped in the middle of undressing and spends a significant chunk of the film being held hostage, handcuffed and half-naked, it clicks: this is macho buffoon exploitation thriller. Then the macho buffoons go and flip the script on you. They start loading all kinds of politically minded critiques into what was once a carefree shoot ‘em up spectacle. Mark Wahlberg goes from pummeling FBI investigators to spouting lines about Abu Graib and the government’s mishandling of the Iraq war. Films about government corruption are usually vague enough to keep their criticisms soft and irrelevant, but this delivers a somewhat self-important string of on the nose political complaints. Subject matter that is timely and relevant is uncommon in something so clearly aimed at broad audiences that need not be offended by any political opinion. It’s admirable that the movie had the audacity to inject some true life issues into its story, but it’s also somewhat unwelcome since no one seeing this film has any interest in political commentary. It’s heavy and obvious and strange. I think the film believes that it is important in some way, but having so many goofy, exploitative elements really destroys its credibility as a beacon for cultural assessment.

I really have no clue how to grade this movie. I had fun watching it. I had some laughs too. Maybe I was supposed to laugh. Maybe I wasn’t. Either way, it was enjoyable in its own low brow sort of way. There is somewhat of a solid story being told here albeit by means of less than an original variety. It’s predictable and cliché. But does anyone seeing a film called “shooter” really care? For its target audience, it’s actually pretty perfect. It has lots of action and lots of attitude. It celebrates the ability of Swagger to be a killing machine and elevates his cool factor with various slow motion sequences in which he “swaggers” away from the piles of bodies he’s stacked up in his battles, preferably he also blows something up causing a massive awesome looking fire behind him. I can see this working really well for people who just want to see something casual and maybe a teensy bit credible. There’s a shred of plausibility in the initial setup of the film and there isn’t too much ludicrous behavior (at least compared to other films of this type). The political material also at least makes you feel as though you’re watching something intellectual. I just have no idea where to go on this one. Make up your own minds.

Grade: C