The Shooter

source: The Shooter

source: The Shooter

I once used Wesley Snipes' name as a clue to go ahead and watch a new, untried film in which he appears. So now, for the first time, my Snipes-Method of film recommendation has failed. Utterly. I should first have come here to see these reviews. Snipes ought to be ashamed to allow his otherwise earnest efforts to be so wasted in "The Contractor". One of my worst flick fears has come to bitter fruition. I feared that the shaky, blurry, pseudo-documentary, "unconsidered" directing and editing style (first brought to my attention by the Paul Greengrass-directed "Bloody Sunday") might propagate to other films. Greengass' sickening style was then brought to nauseatingly new heights in the last two of the Bourne trilogy films. My fear had come to pass. In my opinion, these films are made really bad by these motion-sickness-inducing methods, which mistake blurry swipes for "action-enhancement". But the "Bourne Franchise," as Greengrass so loving calls his cash cow, apparently convinced others in Hollywood to go unprofessional in the quest for fast, big bucks. Read my lips, you Hollywood types. Action needs to be clearly photographed and presented, not merely hinted at by poor, lazy cinematographic techniques. And "The Contractor" goes so far as to emulate "The Bourne Ultimatum" in inanely-repeated sound bites, in hopes their juvenile (apparently-evaluated) audiences can't sense them. For example, if I hear a cop radio crackling "Yankee-Romeo" one more time, I'll just scream. The chances are good I won't hear it again: I certainly won't ever view "The Contractor" again. I recommend to those of you who have yet to see "The Contractor": just be content with the tranquility this lack affords to your life. 2 out of 10; I am tempted to lower that to a 1.

Don't really know where to start with one of the worst films I have had the displeasure to watch in a very long time. From the setting which was quite obviously and very clear to anyone who has visited London for even 1 day will agree...was not London. To the much unexplained way how Snipe's character managed to escape the country back to the US without a single problem. Then he convinces the girl and grandmother to visit him in America, how on earth did Grandma agree to that...he's an assassin! Well that's the ending how about during the film, well unfortunately that didn't fare much better. We have British cops driving an amazing range of cars, I'm sure it was an eighties Vauxhall Belmont which chased the taxi after the assignation, but a modern Subaru Imprezza escorting the prison van in a few scenes prior. SO19 or whoever the gun toting arm of the Met they were trying to portray was happily running around the streets with their guns out chasing after Snipe's along with the CIA. There were children walking around, but the police were still stating they had a clear shot to shoot him, does this happen in London? No it doesn't, I live there. We also have the very implausible travel from central London to the airport (let's say Heathrow for arguments sake) within 5 minutes of receiving a call. We also have terrible American accents, a young girl who's posher than the Queen, but lives in Elephant & Castle. What does it say for British police when helicopters and a number of officers at Snipe's location can't find Snipe's and he manages to evade capture by hiding behind some stairs? The train station was obviously not even on UK soil and the fight scene sound effects were terrible. The plot was also extremely poor, boring and been written and filmed a lot better a thousand times before. But there were a few notable actors cast in this film, what were they thinking and please don't let that sway you to watch this film! This film didn't seem to know what it wanted to be, if you are going to concentrate on the dramatic aspects from the aftermath of an assignation then you need a strong rigid plot with plausible scenery and setting, this is something the viewer has time to take in and appreciate and if you do it wrong then you notice it. If you want an all out action film (which this is not) then continuity and scenery can be put to the side.

Wesley Snipes is an ex-killer for the CIA, living contentedly on a ranch. He's asked to come back to kill a bad, bad man.... and realizes it's a set-up to get him killed. He also needs to take care of 15-year-old Eliza Bennett because the writers must have seen THE PROFESSIONAL and said "I can do that!" No they can't. It's a decently acted movie -- it's got Charles Dance and Lena Headley -- but it's so derivative that you'll watch it and wonder as it plods self-importantly through its plot points, why they stole this particular twist from that movie, instead of a different plot twist from another. Or any of ten others. It went straight to video. Now it's on the higher-numbered cable channels.

Ex-CIA spook James Dial (Wesley Snipes) finds himself in over his head after being called back to do a job to assassinate Jahar, a terrorist, that he botched up when he attempted years prior, only to see said job blow up in his face due to circumstances out of his control. He finds himself on the run from the head of the very same organization that has hired him, as well as the British police, with the only friend in this catastrophe being a 13 year old girl who he finds at the safehouse assigned to him. Horrible direction, unsympathetic characters and a script that leaves one wanting (to put it mildly) hampers an otherwise serviceable, if dully predictable film. Think of it as "Leon" for idiots if you will, but i'd rather not think of it at all.

Wesley Snipes is James Dial, an assassin for hire, agent of the CIA and pure bad-ass special operative. During his free time Dial dons a cowboy hat and breeds horses with macho names such as Beauty. Enter agent Collins, his supervising officer. Enter a new assignment - kill a terrorist that is in UK custody. Of course the United Kingdom being an allied state is a great place for covert ops and head-shots outside of courtrooms. The assassination is a big success apart from the fact, that the escape plan blew. So Dial's partner and local liaison gets killed in action trying to escape the police, whilst Dial becomes hot property with the London coppers trying to get to him and CIA trying to dispose of him. Fortunately for Dial the safe-house is routinely visited by a teenager Emily Day (Eliza Bennett), who loves hanging out with cold-blooded killers with arrest warrants and help them escape from the evil UK law enforcement... With a script like that need I say more? On the plus side Wesley Snipes is Wesley Snipes (be that a pro or a con) and the movie is quite engaging. On the minus editing is very disjointing and has a hurl effect on the stomach.

"The Contractor" is the best DTV Snipes movie yet. The plot: Agent James Dial (Snipes) has to take out a target in London. It goes as planned, but the police and his former employers are after him. The movie has a good mix of action and drama. Snipes (finally) looks interested in the material and it shows. Lena Headey and Charles Dance also have their time to shine too. It's fast-paced and suspenseful. I think it's better than the similar titled\plotted "Shooter" with Mark Wahlberg. "The Contractor" was actually called "Shooter" but it was changed for obvious reasons. In the end: I'm excited to report that "The Contractor" is worth seeing and not the usual piece of DTV junk that Snipes has foisted upon us in the past. For more insanity, check out: comeuppancereviews.com

After watching this I thought to myself, there are either too few good writers & directors or lots of producers. At any rate, this is a terrible movie. Terrible in a way that it's not fun, but rather makes you grit your teeth and quiver. Makes you shout "this is wrong" at the movie. Immersion is zero. By now most of you are probably used to the terrible errors/weirdness-es in movies that has computers hackers etc. in them. This movie is like that in every aspect. The only good thing about the movie is the little girl Emily, brilliantly played by Eliza Bennett. I hope she becomes big, and make this ..thing at least worth something. Do yourself a favor. Don't watch this. There is not even proper action in it. Total waste of time.

I wouldn't call it awful, but nothing at all shines in this movie, and it is encumbered with some seriously unbelievable basic plot development. It starts out well, but once the main hit is done, it devolves into a long subplot around a young girl which is not compelling, and some action scenes which are theatre of the absurd unrealistic. For example there is a prolonged shootout at the airport in which the lighting is all stroboscopic. No explanation for that. How credible is it that a airport storage area is going to have lights that flash on and off confusingly, and just enough to let Snipes do his incredible escape schtick? This is one of far too few action scenes punctuated by pointlessly drawn out set ups that just fails to draw one into suspending belief. In addition, the whole premise seems to be that the United States CIA team can shoot the place up but get away with it by saying "national security" to the Brits. This gimmick relies on a stereotype that is to far afield from reality to be satisfying. There are a lot better action movies out there. Better formulated, better executed. This one is entertaining at times but there is just not enough meat on the bone and after a while it becomes downright boring -- something that should never happen in a good action movie.