Shooter - Intelligent action film, featuring a great cast

The main story begins three years after the death of his best-friend and Spotter (the guy who tells the marksman where to shoot) following a botched operation and their abandonment by the military organization they work for.

The reclusive Swagger is recruited by Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover, Lethal Weapon series) to plan, but not carry out, the assassination of the President of the United States in order to help stop an actual impending attempt on his life. This ultimately paves the way for a ready supply of deceptions, betrayals and revelations.

Directed by Antoine Fuqua (Training Day), the film is similar in many ways to The Bourne Identity - Bob Lee Swagger could be Jason Bourne's long-lost twin.

My only criticism is that towards the end I felt I was expected to suspend my disbelief a bit too far. Some of the shots Swagger makes verge on the ridiculous and the physics they use to back up these shots is questionable. However, it's not as though you'd choose to watch a film like this for its realistic perspective. Of course it leans towards being a typical "guy" film, with a conspicuous lack of female characters besides the beautiful and inevitably threatened red-head, Sarah Fenn (Kate Mara, Brokeback Mountain). They don't waste any time with a soppy love story; there is heat between Swagger and Fenn, but that's as far as it goes. Quite frankly, this is a relief and it certainly doesn't render the movie inaccessible to women.

The villains are typical black-and-white baddies - all they need are moustaches to twizzle in accompaniment to the slightly hackneyed, heartless dialogue and arrogant strutting. Still, this is not as much of a criticism as it might sound, since it is enjoyable to watch Glover and Beatty savor their moments on-screen, as well as offering relief from the intensity of the action sequences. Wahlberg's portrayal of the 'wronged man out for justice' role is dynamic and tense, while Michael Peña (World Trade Center), also gives a good performance as his inadvertent side-kick, Nick Memphis.

Shooter is an intelligent action film, featuring a great cast, an engrossing plot and some impressive locations, including the penultimate confrontation on a snowy mountain

Screwed by the military while on a covert mission, sharp-shooter Bob Lee Swagger (Wahlberg) is dragged out of retirement, only to be screwed again. Framed for a Presidential assassination attempt, he goes on the run and fights to clear his name.

From the moment you first see the appropriately monikered Swagger (Mark Wahlberg) slip on a pair of wraparound shades and walk in slow motion to a hard-rocking tune, you understand that Shooter is going to be light on subtlety. Bad guys speak slowly in gruff voices; corrupt businessmen cackle while sucking on cigars; bent politicians whisper conspiratorially in the corridors of power; the good guys are indestructible. If you're looking for a delicate touch, you won't find it here.

But what Shooter lacks in restraint, it gains in tension, action and intrigue. Director Antoine Fuqua already demonstrated a knack for exploring the link between power and dishonesty in Training Day, which did for an intimate story of police corruption what Shooter does for international, multi-layered government corruption. Based on novelist Stephen Hunter's Point Of Impact - an NRA fan's favourite, and the first in a series of novels to feature Swagger - our hero is first seen hidden in full camouflage deep in the Ethiopian mountains, picking off the enemy with a high-powered rifle. When the operation goes wrong, Swagger is left to die.

Naturally, he doesn't, and is next seen three years later, where he's apparently been busy growing a ponytail and making a mountain retreat for himself with nothing but his beer-fetching dog for company. It's here he's visited by Colonel Johnson (Danny Glover) and his suspect team of cartoon cronies, who coerce him out of retirement on a false premise: 'Tell us how to stop the President being assassinated by showing us exactly how you'd do it.'

Despite his acute sense of danger, he fails to spot the set-up, and finds himself framed for the attempted assassination. With two gunshot wounds, the world's hardest and most resourceful man hits the road, and with the help of his former army buddy's wife Sarah (Kate Mara) and FBI rookie Nick (Michael Peña), unravels the truth behind the hit.

Ultimately, Shooter is flawed, but nevertheless takes you on an enjoyable, occasionally seat-gripping journey, its focus on impressive military weaponry and hard action softened by Fuqua's fascination with flesh-bearing cleavage and womanly curves. There are worse movie combos.

Mark Wahlberg ... Bob Lee Swagger
Michael Peña ... Nick Memphis
Danny Glover ... Colonel Isaac Johnson
Kate Mara ... Sarah Fenn
Elias Koteas ... Jack Payne
Rhona Mitra ... Alourdes Galindo
Jonathan Walker ... Louis Dobbler
Justin Louis ... Howard Purnell
Tate Donovan ... Russ Turner
Rade Serbedzija ... Michael Sandor (as Rade Sherbedgia)
Alan C. Peterson ... Officer Stanley Timmons
Ned Beatty ... Senator Charles F. Meachum
Lane Garrison ... Donnie Fenn
Zak Santiago ... Senior Agent
Michael-Ann Connor ... Junior Agent