Director Antoine Fuqua keeps the testosterone flowing in this framed-man-on-the-run thriller, and the always reliable Wahlberg comes one step closer to making everyone forget about the Marky Mark years. (We're not quite there yet.) But the crushing two-hour-plus running time and Tom Clancy-for-dummies plot sabotage the film, which becomes particularly ridiculous in the last 30 minutes. By the time Ned Beatty shows up late in the movie as the baddest of the bad guys, the makers of SHOOTER almost seem to be intentionally going for humor. It's too bad, because Fuqua has a talent for filling his plots with nuance, while maintaining a brisk action-movie pace.

• http://www.sfgate.com/chronicle

Sur le plan technique, TIREUR D'ÉLITE est un film d'action de premier ordre. Le réalisateur Antoine Fuqua (JOUR DE FORMATION) a le sens du rythme et de l'effet. Il arpente ici les arcanes d'un thriller politique qui se situe à mi-chemin entre RAMBO et LES TROIS JOURS DU CONDOR. (...) Cela dit, le récit ne remplit malheureusement pas toutes ses promesses. L'intrigue est parfois confuse, des personnages périphériques sont laissés en plan, et le dénouement, réécrit à la toute dernière minute, sacrifie la réflexion au profit d'une approche plus simpliste. (...) Mark Wahlberg est (...) crédible dans le rôle, notamment sur le plan de l'expertise qu'affiche Swagger. L'acteur, sélectionné aux Oscars cette année grâce à AGENTS TROUBLES, parvient à donner un semblant de profondeur à son personnage dans un contexte où, pourtant, ce dernier se retrouve «seul contre tous».

• http://www.lapresse.ca

Directed by Antoine Fuqua and written by Jonathan Lemkin, SHOOTER is based on the novel Point of Impact by Stephen Hunter, who, when not turning out pulp fictions, works as a film critic for The Washington Post. Mr. Fuqua, the auteur of such rococo diversions as TRAINING DAY and TEARS OF THE SUN, likes to keep the volume cranked and the action relentless. Like many contemporary action directors, he overshoots and overedits, cramming his films with inexplicable, unnecessary visual and aural noise. This maximalist approach can tax the nerves, though it has the benefit of keeping you on alert. It’s also pretty enjoyable. Mr. Fuqua, who happens to be surprisingly good with actors, does have a knack for chaos.

• http://www.nytimes.com