Shooter

Mark Wahlberg is quickly becoming one of my favorite actors. He’s gotten so good that he almost salvages garbage like this. An ex-Special Forces marksman (Wahlberg) is asked to stage an assassination scenario as a precautionary measure for protecting the president. But someone really does get shot—the whole thing’s a setup. Wahlberg’s character is the perfect patsy, because he’s got a three-word name, just like Lee Harvey Oswald (Bob Lee Swagger). Danny Glover plays the evil dickhead who set him up, while Ned Beatty plays the evil senator because, well, movies like this always have an evil senator. Wahlberg gets through it gracefully, but he’s deserving of better fare than this. It’s unfortunate that his Oscar-nominated turn in The Departed was followed up with something this subpar.