yet another action film thwarted by an agenda

Rating: 5/10 (31 July 2007)

Mark Wahlberg breaks the good movie streak that he was enjoying after "The Departed" and "Invincible" to star in this typical action film with very liberal leanings. He plays Bob Lee Swagger (a pretty stupid name for an 'action hero' by the way)a jaded ex-military man who's called in to do one last job only to be double crossed by this whole 'right-wing' cabal of war profiteers. The now old stand-byes of criticizing the Iraq war are so passé that I'm jaded whenever they show up in Hollywood films anymore, so I let that one slide, up to that point the film kept it's politics fairly subtle. I mean you definitely knew which way it learned due to subtle hints & jabs until then, but the longer the film went on the more and more I cringed. I mean an ex-FBI guy wearing a freaking Che Guevara T-shirt is just utterly absurd. So by the time the whole all wars are for oil Haliburten-type evil bad guys' motives were revealed it was very expected. Don't get me wrong the movie was still fun in a purely superficial action no-brain kind of way, but if you even casually scratch the surface it's still rancid. Definitely would be a lot better if it weren't so partisan. I guess I'll have to put all my hopes on Rambo 4 to get my TRUE action movie fix.
My Grade: C-