I spent a lot of time growing up learning to be a rifle marksman. I do not even want to think about how many thousands of bullets I fired or the countless hours of instruction and practice that I put into the sport of competition rifle shooting. Sadly, I never found the desire to take part in actual shooting competitions, but I´ve always taken pride in my ability to hit a dime from a football field away. With my background and love of precision shooting, the film "Shooter" just grabbed my attention and demanded that I watch it. Unfortunately, the shooting elements of the film are both inaccurate, poorly handled and a mockery of the actual art of being a sniper. To give the Mark Wahlberg film "Shooter" any shot at a decent review, I need to look at the film at being another polished and expensive action film starring the former singer who brought us "Good Vibrations."
You always chamber your round before you set your sights on your target. You then take a deep breath and during the slow release of your breath, you kill your target. It is that simple. So why is it that "Shooter" had the main character scope out a can of tomatoes at the range of one mile and then works the bolt and chamber the round of his fifty caliber bullet? That would have certainly thrown off every bit of aiming performed by the character. Maybe I´m looking into this scene a little too deeply, but it was not the only scene that screamed "Hogwash!" The next dirty deed was the main character sniping three bad guys with precision from a .22 caliber long rifle at roughly two hundred and fifty yards. This isn´t an unfathomable distance for the tiny bullet to travel, but considering that the shooter was standing on a boat that was fluctuating with the movement of the water; I have trouble buying into this one as well.
Now that I´ve got my ranting about the unbelievability of the picture, it is time to take a look at the merits of the film itself. The technology was great stuff. I did enjoy seeing the M82 Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle on-screen and if I had the money, I´d buy one in a heartbeat. The .408 CheyTac was even more impressive, but I´ve never been able to see one in person or touch it. The M40 sniper rifle that was also used during the opening sequence of the film is a smaller caliber version of the same rifle I use for my own long distance shooting, the Remington 700. The military uses a .308 Winchester round. I prefer the larger and more potent Remington 7MM Magnum casing. A few other weapons were also seen during the running time of "Shooter," but the CheyTac and the Barrett were easily the coolest pieces of firearm hardware.
Beyond the guns and the precision shooting, "Shooter" is about a Marine Sniper, Gunny Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger (Wahlberg). He is on a secret mission in Africa, when his position is revealed and his spotter is killed. Swagger manages to escape and lives in seclusion in the remote mountains of the United States. He is asked to perform a mission by Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover). The mission involves staging an assassination of the president to prevent such an act from taking place in either Baltimore, Washington D.C. or Philadelphia. Swagger scouts the locations and realizes that only Philly provides a good opportunity to assassinate the president. Johnson and his partner Jack Payne (Elias Koteas) ask Swagger to remain and help supervise the operation. However, it turns out that Johnson and Payne are behind the assassination attempt and try to pin the murder of an African dignitary and attempt on the president´s life on Swagger.
During his escape, he comes across a young FBI agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Pena). Swagger tells Memphis that he was not the shooter and that a beat cop framed him. Pena is told by his superiors that Swagger lied, but he is knocked down to monitoring the telephones after Swagger stole his vehicle. With nowhere to run and almost nowhere to hide, Swagger turns to the widow of his friend and spotter. Sarah (Kate Mara) first attempts to turn Swagger in to the authorities, but she finds his story honest and decides to help him. Swagger enrolls the help of Memphis, who believes a conspiracy may be at foot and the three plot a way to bring Payne and Johnson down and clear his name.
There are many effective moments in "Shooter" that entertains and excites. Some of the shooter lingo and terminology was accurate and all of the elements that are involved in the ultra-long shots are correct. I´ve never been nearly that good and my abilities start to fall off sharply at five hundred yards. I´ve always respected and admired the military snipers and the film at least gives them credit for the amount of skill involved. It makes some mockery of the training by having Swagger train Memphis to be an effective sniper in a relatively short time, but that is just the third and final major complaint I have about the portrayal of actual shooting in the film. Wahlberg is a good action star and Pena is an up and coming actor that we will see for decades to come. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing both Koteas and Glover in the film. Both are fine and underused actors. As far as being an entertaining action film, "Shooter" is not too bad. If you are expecting to sit down and watch a movie with lots of sniping, then you will be somewhat disappointed. As I was.
You always chamber your round before you set your sights on your target. You then take a deep breath and during the slow release of your breath, you kill your target. It is that simple. So why is it that "Shooter" had the main character scope out a can of tomatoes at the range of one mile and then works the bolt and chamber the round of his fifty caliber bullet? That would have certainly thrown off every bit of aiming performed by the character. Maybe I´m looking into this scene a little too deeply, but it was not the only scene that screamed "Hogwash!" The next dirty deed was the main character sniping three bad guys with precision from a .22 caliber long rifle at roughly two hundred and fifty yards. This isn´t an unfathomable distance for the tiny bullet to travel, but considering that the shooter was standing on a boat that was fluctuating with the movement of the water; I have trouble buying into this one as well.
Now that I´ve got my ranting about the unbelievability of the picture, it is time to take a look at the merits of the film itself. The technology was great stuff. I did enjoy seeing the M82 Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle on-screen and if I had the money, I´d buy one in a heartbeat. The .408 CheyTac was even more impressive, but I´ve never been able to see one in person or touch it. The M40 sniper rifle that was also used during the opening sequence of the film is a smaller caliber version of the same rifle I use for my own long distance shooting, the Remington 700. The military uses a .308 Winchester round. I prefer the larger and more potent Remington 7MM Magnum casing. A few other weapons were also seen during the running time of "Shooter," but the CheyTac and the Barrett were easily the coolest pieces of firearm hardware.
Beyond the guns and the precision shooting, "Shooter" is about a Marine Sniper, Gunny Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger (Wahlberg). He is on a secret mission in Africa, when his position is revealed and his spotter is killed. Swagger manages to escape and lives in seclusion in the remote mountains of the United States. He is asked to perform a mission by Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover). The mission involves staging an assassination of the president to prevent such an act from taking place in either Baltimore, Washington D.C. or Philadelphia. Swagger scouts the locations and realizes that only Philly provides a good opportunity to assassinate the president. Johnson and his partner Jack Payne (Elias Koteas) ask Swagger to remain and help supervise the operation. However, it turns out that Johnson and Payne are behind the assassination attempt and try to pin the murder of an African dignitary and attempt on the president´s life on Swagger.
During his escape, he comes across a young FBI agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Pena). Swagger tells Memphis that he was not the shooter and that a beat cop framed him. Pena is told by his superiors that Swagger lied, but he is knocked down to monitoring the telephones after Swagger stole his vehicle. With nowhere to run and almost nowhere to hide, Swagger turns to the widow of his friend and spotter. Sarah (Kate Mara) first attempts to turn Swagger in to the authorities, but she finds his story honest and decides to help him. Swagger enrolls the help of Memphis, who believes a conspiracy may be at foot and the three plot a way to bring Payne and Johnson down and clear his name.
There are many effective moments in "Shooter" that entertains and excites. Some of the shooter lingo and terminology was accurate and all of the elements that are involved in the ultra-long shots are correct. I´ve never been nearly that good and my abilities start to fall off sharply at five hundred yards. I´ve always respected and admired the military snipers and the film at least gives them credit for the amount of skill involved. It makes some mockery of the training by having Swagger train Memphis to be an effective sniper in a relatively short time, but that is just the third and final major complaint I have about the portrayal of actual shooting in the film. Wahlberg is a good action star and Pena is an up and coming actor that we will see for decades to come. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing both Koteas and Glover in the film. Both are fine and underused actors. As far as being an entertaining action film, "Shooter" is not too bad. If you are expecting to sit down and watch a movie with lots of sniping, then you will be somewhat disappointed. As I was.
I spent a lot of time growing up learning to be a rifle marksman. I do not even want to think about how many thousands of bullets I fired or the countless hours of instruction and practice that I put into the sport of competition rifle shooting. Sadly, I never found the desire to take part in actual shooting competitions, but I´ve always taken pride in my ability to hit a dime from a football field away. With my background and love of precision shooting, the film "Shooter" just grabbed my attention and demanded that I watch it. Unfortunately, the shooting elements of the film are both inaccurate, poorly handled and a mockery of the actual art of being a sniper. To give the Mark Wahlberg film "Shooter" any shot at a decent review, I need to look at the film at being another polished and expensive action film starring the former singer who brought us "Good Vibrations."
You always chamber your round before you set your sights on your target. You then take a deep breath and during the slow release of your breath, you kill your target. It is that simple. So why is it that "Shooter" had the main character scope out a can of tomatoes at the range of one mile and then works the bolt and chamber the round of his fifty caliber bullet? That would have certainly thrown off every bit of aiming performed by the character. Maybe I´m looking into this scene a little too deeply, but it was not the only scene that screamed "Hogwash!" The next dirty deed was the main character sniping three bad guys with precision from a .22 caliber long rifle at roughly two hundred and fifty yards. This isn´t an unfathomable distance for the tiny bullet to travel, but considering that the shooter was standing on a boat that was fluctuating with the movement of the water; I have trouble buying into this one as well.
Now that I´ve got my ranting about the unbelievability of the picture, it is time to take a look at the merits of the film itself. The technology was great stuff. I did enjoy seeing the M82 Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle on-screen and if I had the money, I´d buy one in a heartbeat. The .408 CheyTac was even more impressive, but I´ve never been able to see one in person or touch it. The M40 sniper rifle that was also used during the opening sequence of the film is a smaller caliber version of the same rifle I use for my own long distance shooting, the Remington 700. The military uses a .308 Winchester round. I prefer the larger and more potent Remington 7MM Magnum casing. A few other weapons were also seen during the running time of "Shooter," but the CheyTac and the Barrett were easily the coolest pieces of firearm hardware.
Beyond the guns and the precision shooting, "Shooter" is about a Marine Sniper, Gunny Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger (Wahlberg). He is on a secret mission in Africa, when his position is revealed and his spotter is killed. Swagger manages to escape and lives in seclusion in the remote mountains of the United States. He is asked to perform a mission by Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover). The mission involves staging an assassination of the president to prevent such an act from taking place in either Baltimore, Washington D.C. or Philadelphia. Swagger scouts the locations and realizes that only Philly provides a good opportunity to assassinate the president. Johnson and his partner Jack Payne (Elias Koteas) ask Swagger to remain and help supervise the operation. However, it turns out that Johnson and Payne are behind the assassination attempt and try to pin the murder of an African dignitary and attempt on the president´s life on Swagger.
During his escape, he comes across a young FBI agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Pena). Swagger tells Memphis that he was not the shooter and that a beat cop framed him. Pena is told by his superiors that Swagger lied, but he is knocked down to monitoring the telephones after Swagger stole his vehicle. With nowhere to run and almost nowhere to hide, Swagger turns to the widow of his friend and spotter. Sarah (Kate Mara) first attempts to turn Swagger in to the authorities, but she finds his story honest and decides to help him. Swagger enrolls the help of Memphis, who believes a conspiracy may be at foot and the three plot a way to bring Payne and Johnson down and clear his name.
There are many effective moments in "Shooter" that entertains and excites. Some of the shooter lingo and terminology was accurate and all of the elements that are involved in the ultra-long shots are correct. I´ve never been nearly that good and my abilities start to fall off sharply at five hundred yards. I´ve always respected and admired the military snipers and the film at least gives them credit for the amount of skill involved. It makes some mockery of the training by having Swagger train Memphis to be an effective sniper in a relatively short time, but that is just the third and final major complaint I have about the portrayal of actual shooting in the film. Wahlberg is a good action star and Pena is an up and coming actor that we will see for decades to come. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing both Koteas and Glover in the film. Both are fine and underused actors. As far as being an entertaining action film, "Shooter" is not too bad. If you are expecting to sit down and watch a movie with lots of sniping, then you will be somewhat disappointed. As I was.
You always chamber your round before you set your sights on your target. You then take a deep breath and during the slow release of your breath, you kill your target. It is that simple. So why is it that "Shooter" had the main character scope out a can of tomatoes at the range of one mile and then works the bolt and chamber the round of his fifty caliber bullet? That would have certainly thrown off every bit of aiming performed by the character. Maybe I´m looking into this scene a little too deeply, but it was not the only scene that screamed "Hogwash!" The next dirty deed was the main character sniping three bad guys with precision from a .22 caliber long rifle at roughly two hundred and fifty yards. This isn´t an unfathomable distance for the tiny bullet to travel, but considering that the shooter was standing on a boat that was fluctuating with the movement of the water; I have trouble buying into this one as well.
Now that I´ve got my ranting about the unbelievability of the picture, it is time to take a look at the merits of the film itself. The technology was great stuff. I did enjoy seeing the M82 Barrett .50 caliber sniper rifle on-screen and if I had the money, I´d buy one in a heartbeat. The .408 CheyTac was even more impressive, but I´ve never been able to see one in person or touch it. The M40 sniper rifle that was also used during the opening sequence of the film is a smaller caliber version of the same rifle I use for my own long distance shooting, the Remington 700. The military uses a .308 Winchester round. I prefer the larger and more potent Remington 7MM Magnum casing. A few other weapons were also seen during the running time of "Shooter," but the CheyTac and the Barrett were easily the coolest pieces of firearm hardware.
Beyond the guns and the precision shooting, "Shooter" is about a Marine Sniper, Gunny Sergeant Bob Lee Swagger (Wahlberg). He is on a secret mission in Africa, when his position is revealed and his spotter is killed. Swagger manages to escape and lives in seclusion in the remote mountains of the United States. He is asked to perform a mission by Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover). The mission involves staging an assassination of the president to prevent such an act from taking place in either Baltimore, Washington D.C. or Philadelphia. Swagger scouts the locations and realizes that only Philly provides a good opportunity to assassinate the president. Johnson and his partner Jack Payne (Elias Koteas) ask Swagger to remain and help supervise the operation. However, it turns out that Johnson and Payne are behind the assassination attempt and try to pin the murder of an African dignitary and attempt on the president´s life on Swagger.
During his escape, he comes across a young FBI agent, Nick Memphis (Michael Pena). Swagger tells Memphis that he was not the shooter and that a beat cop framed him. Pena is told by his superiors that Swagger lied, but he is knocked down to monitoring the telephones after Swagger stole his vehicle. With nowhere to run and almost nowhere to hide, Swagger turns to the widow of his friend and spotter. Sarah (Kate Mara) first attempts to turn Swagger in to the authorities, but she finds his story honest and decides to help him. Swagger enrolls the help of Memphis, who believes a conspiracy may be at foot and the three plot a way to bring Payne and Johnson down and clear his name.
There are many effective moments in "Shooter" that entertains and excites. Some of the shooter lingo and terminology was accurate and all of the elements that are involved in the ultra-long shots are correct. I´ve never been nearly that good and my abilities start to fall off sharply at five hundred yards. I´ve always respected and admired the military snipers and the film at least gives them credit for the amount of skill involved. It makes some mockery of the training by having Swagger train Memphis to be an effective sniper in a relatively short time, but that is just the third and final major complaint I have about the portrayal of actual shooting in the film. Wahlberg is a good action star and Pena is an up and coming actor that we will see for decades to come. I thoroughly enjoyed seeing both Koteas and Glover in the film. Both are fine and underused actors. As far as being an entertaining action film, "Shooter" is not too bad. If you are expecting to sit down and watch a movie with lots of sniping, then you will be somewhat disappointed. As I was.
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