Disappointing effort in mixing action and drama.

Rating: 4/10 (29 March 2010)

Hollywood has told many times the story of one good man who fights everything and everyone in the pursuit of good deeds or saving the world and even something more. Sylvester Stallone in the Rambo series or Matt Damon in the Bourne series are some examples of such characters that follows the same path just like the main character in "Shooter".
After a recent tragedy in which his partner was killed during an operation in Africa, Bob Lee Swagger(played by Mark Wahlberg), an ex-sniper special forces is approached by the Colonel Johnson (Danny Glover) to get back in action in order to prevent a possible attack against the American president. Initially, Swagger turn down the offer, but since he's the only one who can track down a possible killer and because of his know-how about machine guns he moves forward.
The rest of the movie? Well, an not original story at all. Mark's character is involved in the assassination of the president (or attempt to an assassination of the president and the murder of a bishop, things very hard to understand), he has to fight with the people who contact him and discovers plenty of lies. We've seen this thing many times before. But worse than this, is the fact that this movie is filled with indecision. Antoine Fuqua, director of the brilliant "Training Day", unfortunately couldn't make up his mind and keep wrestling with the viewers stating a dramatic movie in one way and then a violent action movie in other way. This indecision affected the whole movie. The first hour is enjoyable, very thrilling, but after that is all downhill, and then rises a little bit in the climatic scene near the ending (the scene where the villains are happy and everything seems perfect to them until Bob reappears). The movie's result? Disappointing. Despite the fact that a great ensemble cast is included (names like Elias Koteas, Rade Serbedzija, Ned Beatty, Tate Donovan and Kate Mara are also in the movie), and many great action sequences, this is a low action film that went in the wrong direction. Michael Pena, a great actor in movies like "Crash" and "World Trade Center", has one the worst first appearances in a movie. In the beginning his character seems completely lost, not knowing anything that happened during the president's attack and all of sudden we're told that he's a training agent. FBI would put a guy like that in such a operation? And then he starts to investigate the plot and then he looks like an good agent? C'Mon!
And, of course, there's the reason why Bob was incriminated, which is quite good, but I don't think that's something interesting to be included in a supposed-to-be action movie. It may work to some viewers the political context, but if you don't like it stay away of this film.
I'm giving four stars because Mark Wahlberg and Danny Glover were good in it, some action sequences are quite entertaining (the beginning and the shootout in the house in the middle). That's it!