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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
 Posted - 04/21/2007 : 3:19:19 PM
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Today I've seen this one, and although it is an OK film - director Antoine Fuqua does his best to keep the action restrained - it has some really dumb writing, packed with far-fetched stuff and gaps of logic.
The plot revolves around a former Marines sniper (Mark Wahlberg) who is asked to help prevent an attempt of assassination against the President. Needless to say, the murder takes place, although not exactly as expected (it is actually one of the most clever moments in the script), and Wahlberg is framed. The rest of the film is a combination of Three days of the condor and every recent actioner you can think of, and that's where the main gaps of logic exist.
First of all, Wahlberg doesn't try to disguise himslef or change his appearence, yet he moves around the country without the police being a major concern. Hell, that he even escapes the city where the attack takes place is a miracle.
And then there's several people that the bad guys should have checked before, yet they don't manage tocontact until they've helped Wahlberg, or -in the climatic scene - an evidence that proves that Wahlberg's character has been framed, which is extremely idiotic.
Hey, even the politics in the movie are messed up. Wahlberg starts as a sort of libertarian, then, on just one scene, he transforms himself on a firm partidary of the system (what?), only to become an angel of vengeance -Charles Bronson style- at the very end*. And meanwhile the film itself flirts with leftwing as it attempts to denounce the political-economical leathership of the U.S. Yep, even Iraq is mentioned.
Anyway, Shooter is a sort of fun actioner, but I ended up thinking at some point the script was rewritten by teenagers or something.
* Although I don't think there's nothing exactly conservative nor left-wing in blasting out criminals, I think we'll all agree in that this kind of behaviour is more prominent (and perceived as adequate) on Reagan-era actioners. |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2007 : 8:17:41 PM
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| Watched it. Didn't like the overt politicization. In total, it was an imminently forgettable movie. |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2007 : 10:09:48 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Neville
The plot revolves around a former Marines sniper (Mark Wahlberg) who is asked to help prevent an attempt of assassination against the President.
Oh, I guess that there are no ACTIVE Marine snipers?
For me this is often a stop sign in a movie: some government agency hires or forces a civilian or ex-agent to take a job that they should have DOZENS of regular agents for.
This was the plot of a horrible spy "thriller" in the sixties where British Inteligence forces an ex-OSS agent to kill a Soviet scientist. They CLAIM that using one of their regular agents would compromise the operation, but they use a COUPLE OF DOZEN agents to carry out an overly complicated and moronic con-job that could have ended up with the poor American shlub SHOOTING one or more of the British spys!
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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Citizen Carrier
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
322 Posts |
Posted - 04/21/2007 : 11:15:12 PM
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quote:
For me this is often a stop sign in a movie: some government agency hires or forces a civilian or ex-agent to take a job that they should have DOZENS of regular agents for.
[img]http://adorocinema.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes/rambo-2/rambo-2-02.jpg[/img]
A certain gentleman approaching his dotage wants to know just exactly what are you insinuating by that remark! |
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Neville
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
Spain
1590 Posts |
Posted - 04/22/2007 : 01:52:37 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Greenhornet
quote:
Originally posted by Neville
The plot revolves around a former Marines sniper (Mark Wahlberg) who is asked to help prevent an attempt of assassination against the President.
Oh, I guess that there are no ACTIVE Marine snipers?
For me this is often a stop sign in a movie: some government agency hires or forces a civilian or ex-agent to take a job that they should have DOZENS of regular agents for.
There are active snipers, but you'll love this: The reason to use Wahlberg is because (double drum roll) he's the best!!!!
Which of course means he'll cause the whole plot to fail. When will the bad guys learn and hire "the second best" man instead?
To Citizen Carrier: I didn't like the overpolitization either, it seemed like half of the writer's brain thought it would help keep the film grounded in seriousness - which it didn't. I would have liked it better if at least the film tried to maintain a consistant "message", instead of going throughout the whole political spectrum.
Still, the bit in which the drunken polititians brag about how the got away with it, behaving as high-school brats who just placed a whopee cushion on the director's office was lots of fun. |
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Greenhornet
Holy Cardinal and Five Star General of the Righteous Knighthood of Jabootu
1791 Posts |
Posted - 04/22/2007 : 11:26:07 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Citizen Carrier
quote:
For me this is often a stop sign in a movie: some government agency hires or forces a civilian or ex-agent to take a job that they should have DOZENS of regular agents for.
[img]http://adorocinema.cidadeinternet.com.br/filmes/rambo-2/rambo-2-02.jpg[/img]
A certain gentleman approaching his dotage wants to know just exactly what are you insinuating by that remark!
Guys with machineguns are exempted, of course.
"The Queen is testing poisons." CLEOPATRA, 1935 |
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