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Home > Blogs > Sir Critic on Cinema > Archives > 2007 > June > 25 > Entry
Home (Re)Viewing: Shooter, Black Snake Moan
The video outlets this week offer a not half-bad action thriller, and a strange but affecting drama from the director of Hustle & Flow.
Shooter: Between Four Brothers, The Departed and now this, Mark Wahlberg has developed solid action-hero credentials. In this kind of inversion of In the Line of Fire, he plays a marksman assigned to protect the president from assassins, but the baddies turn the tables on him and frame him. It’s never too hard to guess where the movie is headed, and it suffers from the multiple endings syndrome that drags down many a thriller these days, but Wahlberg and co-stars Michael Pena (his Secret Service ally) and Kate Mara (the haunted love interest) put it across. Full review. GRADE: B-
Black Snake Moan: Craig Brewer’s follow-up to Hustle & Flow didn’t find much of an audience in theaters, and it’s not hard to see why: the story of a tortured bluesman (Samuel L. Jackson) trying to cure a raging nymphomaniac (Christina Ricci) isn’t exactly megaplex fare. But its very strangeness is an asset, making it less than predictable. The two leads are fantastic together, and Ricci has never been better. Indeed, their story is so compelling that when Brewer tries to focus on Ricci’s beau (Justin Timberlake, in a strong turn), the movie loses steam because that subplot isn’t as well written. Still, Brewer maintains his extremely strong gift for creating a sense of place and picking a killer soundtrack. GRADE: B+
Also out today
Pride: The latest in the line of inspiring true life sports dramas starred Bernie Mac and Terrence Howard in the story of a swim team. It didn’t make much of a splash at the box office, but it’s one of those films that’s bound to have a long shelf life on DVD.
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