Conspiracy By the Numbers

This weekend I headed to the movies, and saw “Shooter” starring Mark Wahlberg. In it Wahlberg is an ex-sniper who is recruited by the government to stop an assassination attempt, but what happens is he gets framed for the assassination by the very guys he’s working with. Seems like an exciting premise, and who doesn’t love a good conspiracy story? Only thing this isn’t that story.

“The Shooter” is a paint by numbers type of movie. Nothing surprising EVER happens. You can see the ending a mile away, and yet I was hoping it would surprise me. It didn’t. All the characters are one dimensional characters that do not ever surprise us. I swear one scene where the girl in the movie is captured just seemed like an excuse to get her semi-naked holding a shotgun. I just felt like this movie was phoned in, which is disappointing. I like Wahlberg, and I thought it might be a good action flick to go see. You know mindless stuff, but something that has its share of action. Even those scenes are predictable.

I say skip this film and catch it on the DVD. The one thing I did notice in this film is that they used CGI for some of their explosions When the helicopter comes crashing down you just know. Some of it was interesting, but noticeable if you look, and I was bored so I looked.

Another reason I wanted to see the movie was that it was partially filmed here in Philly, and wanted to see what they filmed. To the movies credit Philly looks good. Some nice shots, and some interesting local flavor, but nice pictures don’t make a movie. The shooter really misses. (sorry I couldn't resist)