Entertaining action thriller with some terrible writing

Rating: 6/10 (11 October 2019)

I like thrillers, so this movie kept me well entertained, but it was also unintentionally funny thanks to bad writing.
When the movie starts during that mission in Africa, you know Bob's buddy isn't going to live, because he just took out the photo of his girl and started talking about her. Guess what, things go bad and an enemy chopper shows up. Bob tries to shoot it down with his rifle, but of course that's not good enough. Soon, machinegun fire from the chopper turn his buddy into Swiss cheese, but conveniently Bob who was standing right next to him is fine. Even more conveniently Bob whips out a high caliber rifle that he kept just for the occasion (instead of using it earlier).
So Bob gets involved with an assassination attempt conspiracy, but the bad guys lack the imagination to figure out that their plan has too many gaps and there will be people questioning the whole thing. Thankfully for the plot only a rookie FBI agent does and no one treats him seriously. Maybe except for that one female agent who gives him the benefit of the doubt. She is almost an interesting character by the virtue of having nothing about her explained (less said is sometimes more). Unless you count news anchor, shop owner and wife of some guy, the movie has only two female characters (not that more would help the silly plot).
Of course the only person who can help Bob at this point is his best friend's girl who conveniently trained to be a nurse (an protagonist is wounded when he reaches her). What I don't get is, why at this point Bob tries to take blame for his friends death. I mean, he sure could have taken the .50 cal out earlier, but it's not like the whole ordeal was his fault. Was he feeling guilty because his friend joined the army because of him? Also, conveniently the president assassination conspirators were indirectly responsible for the guy's death. And the movie will come up with some more reasons for protagonist to want them dead.
They could have kept the girl a secret from the viewer (instead of foreshadowing her at the begging) which would possibly made her a more interesting character when she finally shows up, but no. At leas they didn't pursue the romance route. It could've happen, they gave hints that it might happen, but in the end, it didn't happen or at least not on the screen (maybe some romance was filmed but later scrapped).
At some point, in the quest to clear his name and get the bad guys, protagonist assaults a well guarded house in the middle of nowhere. As he makes his escape he kills 2 dozen soldiers who probably weren't even part of the conspiracy. Did I mention, he takes out another chopper?
That's some ridiculous action and all, but that's not the point. The point is that the bad guys are really stupid. At the end of the flick, knowing full well that our boy Bob is free and at large, they place themselves in a house in the middle of nowhere (not unlike the one seen earlier) except this time without the army backup. Why are they surprised? You only wonder if Bob was smart enough, not to leave a ton of evidence on the crime scene (but I'm not sure if the writer thought that far).
On a plus note, I actually feel like reading the original novel now.