It's one of those conspiracy thrillers that keeps on asking you to take a leap of faith, until you get tired of leaping and you just start laughing in all the wrong places.
MovieCrypt.com
August 26, 2007
... the twists within twists become so laughable that you can't take anything seriously... the only thing missing here is a laugh track.
There's enough unsettling paranoia that you don't exactly know how it's all going to turn out. It feels more like it could have come from the early '70s, when happy endings might not necessarily be right around the corner.
Shooter is nothing special, but a combination of appealing performances, intriguing plot twists and exciting action sequences mean that we're never less than entertained.
It jumps from typical action one-liners to political discussions about Abu Ghraib. I mean, you can't have a character named Swagger and expect me to take you seriously.
Ballistic fetishists and anticorporate activists will find common ground in each violent act against political fat cats, but the rest of us are left to wallow in the bloodlust and wonder who switched the reels.
As the body count increases, the kills become so gratuitous that the effect is numbing, like watching a line of metal ducks get pinged at the state fair.
Common Sense Media
December 18, 2010
Gory vigilante political thriller for adults only.
Time Out
April 12, 2007
The film's weird, thin politics become harder to swallow as it lurches from set-up to set-up.