journal features

movie review - Shooter

the journal of Michael Werneburg

twenty-eight years and a million words

Kokubunji, 2023.06.08

Once in a while Netflix will recommend an older movie you've never heard of. Too often, these will have the words "Avengers" or "Mission: Impossible" in their name, but once in a while it's something more grounded and enjoyable. I'm not the biggest Mark Wahlberg fan but this movie featuring him has a bit more nuance than his usual work, and has a more sophisticated plot than I was expecting.

The lead is a retired gunnery sargeant, and a veteran. His service included participating in something that was obviously wrong, an action that was somehow not what it seemed. He was little more than a witness but by the current time (in-movie) he is a rather disillusioned fellow. And yet, when They come for him, he agrees to participate in the security for a press conference jointly held by a high profile US politician and a leader from the same region where he was stationed during his service. Alarm bells are naturally going off by this point, and the inevitable betrayal has him injured and on the run. Within seconds he literally runs into someone who becomes his steadfast partner - albeit for interesting reasons - and the two lead very different paths as they tackle the challenge and mystery surrounding the betrayal.

The movie strays into some ham-fisted tropes at times, but is by and large fairly convincing. There certainly isn't a lot of unnecessary crap going on, it's tonally consistent, and we encounter enough of this man's world to understand it by the film's conclusion, and also that that there are many blurred lines around the edges of government activity.

Recommended.

rand()m quote

It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by the dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error or shortcoming; who knows the great enthusiasms, the great devotions and spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best, knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who, at worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly; so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who know neither victory or defeat.

—Theodore Roosevelt, Jr.