Boston's Finest

One of the cool things about being from a major city is when television and movies shoot in your home town. The Wahlberg's are also two of the cities favorite celebrities so the fact that Donny Wahlberg is so heavily involved in the show just adds to its appeal for a Bostonian. The show is a documentary style look at the Boston police force. It follows a few different police officers that are in a number of different units of the department. Regular patrol men and women, drug investigators, and detectives give the viewers a complete inside look into Boston's crime fighting scene. Just like any major city there  is plenty of action, but the show also covers some of the personal lives of the reappearing characters.

My favorite part of the show is obviously seeing the city I grew up in on TV, but I also really like the pace of the show. The show really takes on the schedule of the police officers it's about. There are times where the specific characters are just with their families and friends, and we get to see what they are really like not just what their job turns them into. Then all the sudden they are in the thick of a drug bust and the shots are much more shaky and fast paced. I think it would be an unrealistic depiction of the job if they only showed the police officers running down criminals. Of course that is part of their job, but we have too many shows on TV that just try to show people that side of their personalities. People want to see gun fights, chases, and people getting arrested. It makes good TV. But Boston's Finest breaks away from that script and takes us in to these peoples lives.

Probably the coolest scene of the entire show for me was when the patrol men pulled someone over right outside my aunts apartment. But I think that everyone can like this show, not just people from Boston.

Shooter Review

I watched the movie Shooter tonight, starring Mark Wahlberg, and like all movies I watch now-a-days, I can't help but analyze the crap out of them.  This movie was no acception. It is an action movie so you're going to get a ton of your cliche gun battles, walking away from fiery explosions, to good to be true combat moves and techniques, among many other things.  The basic premise of the movie if you haven't seen it is Mark Wahlberg's character plays an ex marine sniper who gets commissioned by the Government to track down and thwart a potential assassination attempt.  Without his knowledge, his acceptance to help is a death sentence and they end up framing him for the killing of a head of state in some god for saken african country instead of the President of the United States to cover up some greedy crap.  Long story short, Mark Wahlbergs character out runs them all, out smarts them, and kills them all, and manages to escape a free man and clear his name.

I know what you're thinking, "that sounds awful and super cliche" and it totally is cliche, but my god it is good.  Mark Wahlberg first and foremost is an incredible actor.  I have loved him in every movie I've seen him in, he always fits the character he is meant to play extremely well.  His acting is one of the major highlights of the film.

From a directing standpoint, the director does a fantastic job of creating suspense (kind of like we watched in The Fast and the Furious).  Everything from music, body language, to editing, slowing time down, all of the landmark things you expect, he does to a tee, but, he also does some other things that knock it out of the park.

The story is quite good to begin with.  Sure, it is cliche, but even though I've seen it before, I'm on the edge of my seat the entire time because you just don't know what is going to happen next or what badass thing Mark Wahlberg is going to do to the enemy.

I also enjoyed how the enemies in the movie are very well defined but are not your average movie enemies.  One is a senator, one is a high ranking military official, and others hold offices in different branches of government.  I personally love conspiracies and do think the government has a lot more power and does a lot of things behind our back that we will never know about or choose to ignore.  This movie does an awesome job of showing you how easily the government can sway a country to think one thing when it couldn't be further from the truth.  The movie does a great job of asking the question we all fear the most, "Can one trust the government that they choose to give power too?"

Overall, after watching shooter tonight, it has become one of my favorite action movies.  It also got a 4 and a half star rating on Netflix which is pretty good in my opinion. I highly recommend it if you haven't seen it and are looking for a good action movie to watch.

Tyler Chadwick