Stephen Hunter fans will hate it

Rating: 1/10 (16 April 2007)

I was eager to see this movie because I'm a fan of Stephen Hunter's books about Bob Lee Swagger, but I was quite disappointed after seeing it.
Fans of mindless action might like it, but people who've read "Point of Impact" will not.
First, it strays from the book. I know this is necessary in movies, but there were important details in the book that didn't need to be changed, but were anyway.
Second, it contains a lot of Bush-bashing. OK, we get it, Hollywood doesn't like Bush. Enough, already.
Third, the ending is very UNcharacteristic of Hunter's Bob "The Nailer". I can't believe he allowed his name to be in the credits.
Most importantly, there's absolutely no character development. I realize if they stayed true to the book the movie would be so long it'd be unwatchable, but this was ridiculous. Even people who liked the movie wonder why certain plot points happened.
It's as if they tried to cram too much of the various plots in the book into the movie to satisfy the "Point of Impact" fans, but had to change it around and edit the hell out of it to satisfy the average action movie fan. They ended up failing on both fronts.
Except for Ned Beatty, all the primary characters were totally mis-cast. Danny Glover has got to be the worst actor in America still getting work.
If you can't make a movie based on a book the right way, you shouldn't do it at all.