How to ruin an excellent Stephen Hunter novel

Rating: 1/10 (7 April 2007)

'Shooter' starts fairly well, and then takes a precipitous downward spiral that never recovers. "Point of Impact" is an excellent action novel that is the first of a series of Robert Lee Swagger novels. A Viet Nam sniper who barely survived his war demons, he lives alone in Arkansas with his dog. He is consulted on an assassination attempt, when implicated in that assassination attempt, he hunts for the killers to clear his name. This is where it deviates from the book and descends into a comic book Bruce Willis type action film that loses all credibility. The terrific end of the novel is missing in this movie. To the detriment of the screen writer, he butchered the novel--he did not improve on the novel at all. My girl friend enjoyed the movie; I found the movie very unsatisfying, so much, I have to give it a failing grade, 'F.' Even Mark's beard looked pretty awful. Read the novel; do not see this movie, it was awful.