Shooter (R, 2007)

Mark Wahlberg stars as Bob Lee Swagger, a government-trained sniper with a keen eye for accuracy and a long memory. Destroyed by the fact that the government left him behind in Ethiopia and by his best friend's death in a gun fight, Swagger has retired into the far reaches of the mountains. But then Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover) comes calling, asking Swagger to defend his country from an imminent presidential assassination. Soon, Swagger is consulting on how a marksman would shoot the president -- only to be shot twice himself and then accused of the attempted assassination. Along the way, FBI agent Nick Memphis (Michael Pena) starts to unravel the weak case against Swagger, and eventually the pair find themselves facing down the U.S. military. But can they stop the bad guys and get justice for the people unfairly killed in Africa?

With a name like SHOOTER, you wouldn't expect this political thriller to be sedate and dignified. But you also might not anticipate the extent and graphicness of the movie's violence -- or its unrelentingly depressing message. Over-the-top violence aside, Shooter is determined to sell viewers on the belief that the U.S. government is rotten to the core. By the time Senator Charles F. Meachum (Ned Beatty) says "There's always a confused soul who thinks one man can make a difference, and you have to kill him to convince him otherwise," viewers aren't surprised -- they're nauseated.

That's not to say there aren't fun things about Shooter. It's like a combination of CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, MacGyver, Syriana, and Rambo. People who love shoot-em-ups, explosions, and car crashes will be in heaven (no pun intended). And Pena is a standout as the sharp-minded recent academy graduate. He provides the heart in this otherwise bloody-but-heartless film.