Unbelievably good yet awful reviews

Rating: 8/10 (15 July 2017)

Well, there's not too many that liked or even mildly appreciated "Shooter," but I am happy to say I am one of the few detractors. It's a formula for sure, but somehow by some miracle it all comes together as a very enjoyable film with a strong political message. Let's start with the acting. It turns out Marky Mark is a fairly fine actor in the right role, much like Brad Pitt (e.g. as Pitt appeared in 12 Monkeys). He gets into character, loses himself, and because he has this skill, the audience believes the character's hype, no matter how ingratiated. Michael Pena is the Latino call to Don Cheadle, two of the finest, most likable, most entertaining and most fun to watch actors of this generation or any other (see Pena's performance in Ant-Man, and Cheadle's role in Traitor for further evidence). Danny Glover, Elias Koteas and Ned Beatty are all pitch perfect (especially Beatty). The formulas' are aplenty and abound, which is why this is not a four start movie. The Fugitive template is used well, with the usual clichés: escaping protagonist after car crashes in the water, hero violates every law on the books and in the end is bafflingly exonerated, the token slow motion patriotic scene of Marky and a few others. But unlike the Jean Claude Van Damme, Steven Seagal or Nicolas Cage revenge flicks, this one comes with a strong message: political corruption is a conglomerate, and cutting off the head of the snack only results in another group of people, cartel-like, assuming the roles of their predecessors. "You can't kill human weakness with a gun," Beatty states, and deep down in our cultural hearts we know this is true, for our entire political institution is based and predicated on the weaknesses and vulnerability that created it (also known as the human condition): greed, avarice, jealousy, money, power, loss---they all figure in and are part and parcel of our organizational belief system (warrior values, simplistic either/or thinking, propaganda). It's Shakespearean, it's archetypal, and it's completely true, relatively, for all celluloid is a painted picture of the Zeitgeist Gestalt (the notion that art, that being movies in this case, imitates life and vice-versa). And in America, the our system is essentially narcissistic, grandiose, entitled, arrogant, self-absorbed. Objectifying with abandon. Sadly, that is our generational norm, our legacy, one we must change if everyone is to survive.
Perhaps this is a bit too much to read into "Shooter," but the sensibility, the nuance of what I am getting at is still there. So 3/4 stars! Watch it NOW!!!!