Shooter

Shooter (2007)

Directed by: Antoine Fuqua
Written by: Jonathan Lemkin based on Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Michael Peña, Danny Glover, Kate Mara, Elias Koteas, Rhona Mitra, Jonathan Walker, Justin Louis, Tate Donovan, Rade Sherbedgia, Ned Beatty

Okay, so this disillusioned former government sniper dude gets framed for an assassination attempt on the President and must go on the run. He and an FBI guy who knows he didn't do it must figure out why he was set up and how to prove that he was. They uncover this conspiracy or something to keep the Ethiopian government quiet about the injustices done in their country.

Or something like that. I don't know, there was shit blowing up all over the place, I wasn't paying attention to the plot. The plot wasn't terribly important, and was kind of weak.

However, I found the movie strangely engaging. I didn't think I was going to like it, seeing as it's a macho fuckin' sniper movie, and I kept spacing out, but there was lots of shit going on, and it was mildly entertaining.

The cinematography was quite good (which is unusual in a movie like this) and a lot of the scenery was very pretty. I'm sure a lot of it was CGI, but the digital FX were handled nicely in this. They didn't stick out for me.

I'm not really crazy about Mark Wahlburg - I get him confused with Matt Damon and occasionally Ben Affleck - though he's not too bad. I just don't have a whole lot of love for him. There were other people I would have picked for that role. According to IMDb, Keanu Reeves was the original choice. That wouldn't have been good at all. I'd prefer Mark Wahlberg, personally. Keanu Reeves shouldn't be given that much dialogue.

Anyway, it was mindless entertainment, and a little on the bogus side, but it was fine. I'm kind of wondering how you get high on whipped cream, though (for purely academic reasons...). There was something about inhaling the fumes. I wasn't aware that whipped cream had fumes. I was hoping that an overdose of cream would knock you out or something, but that doesn't really make sense either.

Ah well. I guess I'll just have to give it a shot...

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