Better than most in this genre

Rating: Null/10 (19 April 2007)

I have included a spoiler warning as a precaution although I am only going to talk about the first half hour (about a quarter) of this movie.
Expert sharp-shooter Bob Lee Swagger (played by a very solid Mark Wahlberg) lost his friend and spotter in an operation in Africa because the support camp pulled out at a critical moment, leaving them behind to face a battalion of soldiers, artillery and even helicopters. Survived, he quitted and lived in idyllic seclusion in the company of just one faithful dog. Three year later Colonel Isaac Johnson (an equally solid Danny Glover) seeks him out because he is one of the few men in the world who can foil an assassination attempt on the US president during his public appearance in one of three big cities, with a shot fired from a mile away. After checking out the three potential targets on location, taking into consideration the impact of wind on the bullet that will have to travel 6 seconds, Swagger eliminates Baltimore and Washington, focusing on Philadelphia. Comes the fateful day. The government security people, under the direction of Swagger, sets the trap for the would-be assassin. Climax. Only ten seconds to the anticipated shot. Can they stop and catch the assassin in time? End of the movie? Well, my half-hour is up, and it's only the beginning.
Without divulging anything further, let me just say that this movie is better than most in this genre. You would of course see the intrigues and double-crosses, but the plot here, unlike many no-brainers you have seen before, has evidence of a brain behind it. The pace may be just a little slack at times but the actions, when you get them, will not disappoint.
What I like best about this movie is its guts, in giving people in power and high places a relentless hard slap across the face. But times have changed too. Unlike the good old days of James Stewart and Gregory Peck, when justice under the system always prevails, we are shown a harsh reality in which the system is not working any more. Poetic justice has to be bought, with violence and violation of the system, taking the law into your own hands. Has our world really come to this? It's impossible not to ask, emerging from the escapism of the cool dark cinema into the reality of cold, harsh daylight.