Pretty good movie that could have been great

Rating: 6/10 (15 February 2008)

Lots of excellent action, right down to the wonderful descriptions of how long-range snipers have to account for so many factors when trying to hit a small object from over 900 yards. Heroes in the movie are wonderful patriots, down-to-earth people. My huge problem is who the villains are. Just like the first Mission Impossible movie and The Good Shepherd, among others, many recent thrillers are casting the U.S. government as "the bad guys." Crazy liberal references to WMD in Iraq and Abu Ghraib were made during a key scene involving what otherwise would have been a terrific scene with Levon Helm as a Tennessee gunsmith. And twice near the end one of the bad guys taunts the living daylights out of Swagger (Wahlberg) by claiming "I won, you lost." PLEASE, Hollywood, SPARE US THE SUPER-LIBERAL, PIOUS, HOLIER-THAN-THOU MALARKEY!! It was bad enough when you used to always have Germans or South Africans as the villains, but recently you are picking on the CIA, the FBI, and the U.S. Government in general!!