Shooter DVD > Reviews > Shooter, better with the extras.

Author's product rating:   

Did you enjoy it?	Liked it
Story	Satisfactory
Characters / Performances	Satisfactory
Special Effects	Outstanding
Soundtrack	Unmemorable

Advantages:	Action packed, great extras on DVD
Disadvantages:	Bit too predictable and Morgan freeman sucks .

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Shooter, 2007, rating 15.

I bought this film as a 3 for £20 from HMV and have only just got round to watching it. It is directed by Antoine Fuqua (Who???).

Mark Wahlberg, yep, Marky Mark the rapper for all those that remember him that way, is in yet another film, he is certainly a prolific actor these days. In this film he plays Bob Lee Swagger Special Forces sniper.

The opening scene sees Swagger camouflaged and waiting in some hills in Ethiopia, his trusted 'spotter' by his side, they have clearly been waiting some time, and the spotter, Donnie makes the fatal mistake of showing Swagger a photo of his girl back home, that's it, you just know he is a dead man, always happens! It's almost as predictable as the bit part college guy going into the dark room in a slasher movie.

An American convey comes into view, and they are about to be ambushed by some rebel forces......Donnie starts reeling off targets, wind speeds, metres to each target, speed of vehicles etc. it is actually quite tense and one of the better parts of the movie. Swagger starts shooting, taking out rebels at will until a helicopter spots them and starts firing. At this point, you guessed it, Donnie becomes dead!! Swagger realises that as this is a special undercover mission, he has been left to die by his superiors.

Of course he makes it out, and in time honoured tradition, we see him three years later, retired, living in a log cabin in the mountains with a dog for company and an arsenal of weapons for comfort. I have to say, the scenery alone makes the film good, it is fantastic.

Anyway, he gets the compulsory visit from a CIA/FBI man who used to be a colonel in Special forces, to try and persuade him to do one last job, for the good of the country.............hang on, am I reviewing Rambo, Commando, any Jean Claude Van Damme or Steven Seagal film?, No, I must remember, it is called Shooter.

After some reluctance, of course, Swagger accepts his mission, of course, gets set up, of course and has to spend the next hour and a half trying to unravel a conspiracy and sort everything out. I will tell you no more than that or it will spoil the plot.

Like all good conspiracies there is wheeling and dealing at the heart of government. Like all good action movies, bombs, guns and killings a plenty. There is the very clear line for Swagger between right and wrong.

Oh, I nearly forgot, Morgan Freeman; a classy actor, who is terrible in this film, false accent playing a character that could have come out of a poor comic book school of baddie acting.

~~~~~Okay, the good bits~~~~~

• It lasts just over two hours but flies by, plenty of action and good pace.
• The 'study' of sniping as a profession is dealt with well.
• The relationship between Swagger and an FBI guy, Memphis is developed reasonably well.
• Scenery is good, as is the cinematography.
• Wahlberg is quite a good actor in this.
• The DVD extra are as good, if not better, than the film.

~~~~~The bad bits~~~~~

• Just too damn predictable, the plot, the twists.....I had worked out the whole film with the first 20 minutes..........I was even telling my wife and son..."helicopter over the horizon any minute now".
• Morgan Freeman just stinks in this.
• Music is boring.

~~~~~Overall thoughts~~~~~
It is a good old action/thriller/conspiracy, and if you like that genre you will like this. As far as intelligent viewing goes, forget it. An action romp for a boring Wednesday evening........oh yeh, I quite liked it, lol.

**********DVD Extras**********

~~~~Commentary by Director~~~~
Basically you can choose to watch the movie with a running commentary, no thanks.

~~~~Survival of the Fittest; The making of Shooter~~~~
An interview with the novel writer about how he came to research and write the novel.
An interview with the Director
An interview with Mark Wahlberg
An interview with Micheal Pena
A really interesting insight into sniping, both Mark Wahlberg and the director attended sniper school. There is some footage of this and an 'assessment' by a serving sniper. Wahlberg actually shot targets at 1,100 yards. fantastic information in this extra about ballistics, types of bullets and so on. Then a whole insight into camouflage and the snipers 'trade'. Combined with the Directors insights into how the scenes werec 'made, for me, this was more interesting than the movie.

~~~~~Independence Hall~~~~~
Again a really great insight into one of the major scenes of the movie. A serving US sniper talks about the area in which a 'hit' in the movie takes place. To tell you more would give too much of the plot away. Some interesting background into the area, history and culture of Independence Hall in Philadelphia.

~~~~~Deleted Scenes~~~~~
These only really make sense after watching the movie, quite interesting but not essential to me.

Updated from a review I posted on Dooyoo, same member name.