I would have never watched Shooter because I am not a Mark Wahlberg fan, and the plot makes me want people to stop making movies if they’re going to make the same one over and over again. Then I saw The Equalizer. Antoine Fuqua directed The Equalizer, which I loved, and Training Day, King Arthur and The Replacement Killers, which I liked. So I decided to retroactively give Antoine Fuqua’s other movies a chance, which includes Shooter. Big mistake!
Shooter is one of those ridiculous thrillers with intricate plots that I don’t care about because the stakes are so made up. Wahlberg plays a guy disillusioned with his government except when he isn’t this ONE time, which is a mistake. He is so good except when he isn’t and gets himself into a precarious situation. He ends up getting help from two unlikely sources that seemed like such a stretch to me that I didn’t care. The real issue that the government was trying to coverup could literally be put on the news tomorrow with no consequences. Has anyone heard of Rwanda, Sudan, etc.? There are some questionable, trite female in jeopardy moments. Also whenever a casting director casts Elias Koteas, I literally want to turn around and say, “So he is the sadistic bad guy.” I DON’T CARE!!!!! Shooter is such a contrived action thriller that I had a sense of deja vu in ever scene.
Shooter literally made no impression on me. Shooter was pure background tv, and I got a lot of work done. Before I knew it, 125 minutes were up, and I decided to watch something more interesting. Shooter missed its target.