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Shooter

Republicans get gunned down

By BRETT MICHEL | March 21, 2007

2.0 Stars

VIDEO: Watch the trailer for Shooter.

It was only a matter of time before the Democrats had a version of Rambo to call their own. Too bad it’s as dull and generic as their last couple of candidates. Bereft of the personality that earned him an Oscar nomination for The Departed, Mark Wahlberg hits his marks as Bob Lee Swagger (!), a former Army sniper who’s retreated to hermetic mountain life after his country abandoned him during a Mission Gone Bad. Colonel Isaac Johnson (Danny Glover, mumbling like Menino) persuades a reluctant “Gunny,” whose only companion for the past three years has been his dog, to “plan a presidential assassination” –– in order to prevent a real one. Antoine (Training Day) Fuqua’s latest might as well have been called The Patsy: Bob Lee is set up, shot twice, and forced to run, jump, and seek revenge with large guns. All this has something to do with a corrupt senator (a snaky Ned Beatty) and blood for oil, but no matter –– the Republican bastards killed Gunny’s dog!

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Home for dinner: Dorchester’s ‘tough guy’ grows up. By Brett Michel

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