Masturbatory, gun-obsessed and predictable

Rating: 2/10 (23 November 2012)

In a world where the shots are called by sadistic, cynical and frankly eager killers there is only one man who can save us all - a sadistic, cynical and frankly eager killer.
Quite rightly left to die after a mission in friendly territory killing innocent people, our hero Mark Wahlberg (played by Marky Mark) goes into seclusion, only to be coaxed out again when the President's life appears to be in danger. All is not as it seems though, and soon our killer is on the run, accused of being a killer. Only he can hunt down and kill-from-a-distance-by-shooting-in-the-back the real killers.
This movie is a string of clichés to the backdrop of gun-obsession that appears to be marketed at backwater, macho, pick-up riding men's men. At one point my partner and I spontaneously laughed out loud when we were subjected, at an inappropriate moment, to 15 seconds of Wahlberg walking ridiculously towards the camera in slow motion, a giant US flag as his background - A scene which highlights the general masturbatory tone.
Both dialogue and action are hammy and unrealistic at best. For example, Marky Mark turns up at the house of a woman he doesn't really know. Shirtless and injured, he explains in graphic detail how she has to cut into his wounds and stitch him up, before sucking on an aerosol and passing out. Only in an ill-thought out, macho fantasy world would this woman silently take on such a burden of a known assassin without politely telling him to "f@*& off" or at least phoning the police while he was asleep. The movie continues in this vein, and the underlying philosophy seems to be that what we need in this world is a man who's really good at shooting and prepared to murder from afar anyone whom he thinks is bad, or anyone who hangs out with them.
If you want action, find a film like "Taken" or the Bond films, where at least the characters have some complexity and drive. Even the fight scenes of this movie are boring.