*** Spoiler Alert ***

I saw Shooter over the weekend. Shooter is set in the USA in the present day. The main character, Bob Lee Swagger, is played by Mark Wahlberg. He was a sniper in the army until he was left for dead. He is able to escape, but now doesn’t trust anyone and he lives out in the mountains alone with his dog. Three years after being left for dead Government agents come and ask him to help protect the president. They need him to help them stop a sniper who is going to shoot the president from over a mile away. Since he is one of the 3 or 4 people in the world who can make the shot they need his help to stop the would be assassin. He reluctantly agrees to help them and proceeds to survey the potential target areas and find the most likely one. On the day of the potential attack he agrees to go along and help watch since he knows what to look for. However, instead of stopping the attack the government officials shot the man standing next to the president. He was the Prime Minister of Ethiopia. They then frame Swagger for the shooting and say he was trying to shoot the president and missed. The next half of the movie is spent with Swagger recovering from a gun shot he sustained while trying to escape after the assassination attempt, and then trying to find who framed him. Once he figures it all out he arranges a meeting with the guys that framed him because he gets some dirt on them. He then turns himself over to the FBI and proves that he did not make the assassination attempt. However, he can’t prove that they framed him so the FBI lets him go and no one is charged with the assassination. Swagger then takes matters in his own hands and kills everyone involved in framing him including a US Senator.

The end of the movie caught me off guard because there was a lot of cold blooded killing by the “hero”. I’m not use to action movies where the Justice system doesn’t work out for the good guy in the end. It was a unique ending that I’m not use to seeing. Up to that final killing spree the movie was great. There were some great shooting and explosion scenes that were really cool. There is one scene where Swagger shoots down a helicopter that was really sweet. Also, there are a couple scenes with the token hot girl that were really funny.

I’m still not sure how I feel about the ending of the movie. If I was in Swagger’s shoes I would want revenge for everything that I was put through, but I don’t think I would just go and kill everyone involved. I liked the movie over all, but the ending just left a bad taste in my mouth.