Action Movie With Attempt at Import.

Rating: 6/10 (21 December 2008)

I missed the opening of this film and that may account for some of my confusion about who was who and who was doing what to whom. I gather that Mark Wahlberg is an expert sniper who has been framed for the assassination of an African archbishop and wounded in the process of escape. I never had a clear idea of who Wahlberg was working for. Sometimes he's called "Gunny," which suggests the Marine Corps. At any rate, he's a phenomenal shot. His grouping on the range is something like an inch and a half -- and that's at ten hundred yards (or was it ten thousand), which is the length of ten football fields. I don't believe it but -- okay, he's a great shot.
It's clear who the bad guys are though. This isn't much more than a lone avenger in an action movie, after all. He's been set up and is now pursued by the FBI under the leadership of Danny Glover. They chase him all over the place and he barely escapes each time. He's aided by an honest FBI agent (Michael Pena) but mainly he survives each attempt on his life because (1) he has second sight, and (2) his enemies always miss while he never does.
Is Mark Wahlberg handsome? I keep reading that he is, but to me he looks like any of the ordinary guys I went to high school with. Some of them wound up with checkered pasts too. But my chief impression of Mark Wahlberg is that he has considerable talent as an actor. He was quite good in "The Departed". But in this film, locked as it is into strict genre conventions, he doesn't have a chance to display much of his talent. I mean, it's the Steven Seagal role. What the hell can anybody do with it? There's an attempt at social significance, perhaps with the general idea of cashing in on the public's cynicism and anger towards the recent cascade of scandals and recklessly arrogant preemptions. Imagine a corrupt group within the FBI, acting on the orders of a corrupt sitting Senator (Ned Beatty) to eliminate opposition to the construction of a pipeline through an African country. And which organization comes to the rescue? The Department of Justice ("thanks to the separation of powers"). Well, it's pretty nervy in its intent.
There is some nice location shooting, including a couple of scenes on a trackless and snowy slope among some majestic mountains. The requisite action scenes are well done too. I kwelled when Wahlberg walks away from a house and it explodes behind him. And what does he do? He continues walking. A less imaginative director would have Wahlberg dive in slow motion towards the camera while the fireball blooms behind him.
Not a bad film, for what it is.