Shooter

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I'm going to go out on a limb here: Mark Wahlberg can't act and to be even nominated for Best Supporting Actor for The Departed, a film he was hardly in, was a sham. There, I've said it. He was great in Boogie Nights, but that was ten years ago and Shooter is another typical performance from a man whose talents don't go beyond a moody frown. Wahlberg frowns - sorry, stars - as Bob Lee Swagger, an expert sniper who retired from the army three years ago when his superiors left him behind enemy lines. He is coaxed back into the fold by Colonel Isaac Johnson (Glover), who needs Swagger to plan an assassination attempt on the president because there is a fear that a real assassination attempt is in progress, and only a gifted sniper would know where the shooter would be perched on the day. However, it's a double-cross: the assassination attempt is pinned on Swagger and now he must find out who set him up and why. Shooter is what the Bourne movies would look like if Michael Bay got his hands on them - realistic to a point but soon falls into the usual, ho-hum, straight-back-and-sides action thriller bracket with big explosions and then even bigger explosions. There's nothing here to distinguish it from Sniper II, or, to a lesser extent, Sniper, while the dialogue, apart from a few cutting zingers, is too stiff and lacks flow. It must have suited Wahlberg down to the ground.