A movie that would not have been out of place in the run of paranoid-political thrillers of the 1970s,Shooterworks an entertaining variation on the assassination picture. Mark Wahlberg, carrying over good mojo fromThe Departed, slides neatly into the character of Bob Lee Swagger, master marksman. Swagger has retreated from his duty as an off-the-books hired gun for the military, having become disillusioned with his government (switching on his TV at his remote mountain cabin, he mutters, "Let's see what kind of lies they're trying to sell us today."). Ah, but the government needs Swagger to scope out the location of a rumored attempt on the life of the president, so a shadowy government operative (Danny Glover) begs Swagger to use his sniper's skills to out-fox the assassin. From there--well, spoilers are not fair, since the movie has a few legitimate shocks and a very nice wrong-man scenario about to unfold.Anovelby the Washington Post's Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic Stephen Hunter gives the movie a logical spine, even if the premise itself is the stuff of conspiracy theorists. Wahlberg gets support from Michael Pena, as a skeptical FBI agent; Kate Mara, as a trustworthy widow; and Ned Beatty, trailing along memories ofNetwork, as a supremely cynical Senator. Along with the well-executed action sequences (the previously unreliable director Antoine Fuqua gets it in gear here), the movie includes a few potshots at the Bush administration. No, that doesn't putShooterat the level ofThe Parallax VieworAll the President's Men, but it provides some tang along with the flying bullets.--Robert HortonBeyondShooterMore Sniper / Hit Man  Movies on DVDMore DVDs with Mark WahlbergThe NovelStills fromShooter(click for larger image)