Shooter 4K SteelBook review

Mar 09, 2022- Permalink

In the 2007 film Shooter, Mark Wahlberg plays a former Marine sniper, Bob Lee Swagger, who is asked to come back and help prevent a Presidential assassination attempt. When he finds himself double-crossed by a group with tentacles in the halls of power, he sets out to clear his name and bring justice to the traitors with the assistance of Michael Peña, who plays an FBI agent. Paramount Home Entertainment is celebrating the film’s 15 anniversary with a 4K limited-edition SteelBook release, which I had a chance to review.

The 2160p HEVC / H.265 encoded 4K digital transfer with Dolby Vision and HDR10 is presented in a 2.35:1 aspect ratio. Shot on film, IMDb indicates there was a 2K digital intermediate and I haven’t seen if there was a new 4K scan. Regardless if this is native 4K or upscaled 2K, the detail in the image looks amazing with a light filmic grain. Close-ups reveal every hair and pore, while textiles, environments and weaponry look great. The HDR does wonders for the colours. Bright whites, deep rich greens and browns, and popping primaries. There’s no digital noise or compression artifacts nor is there any damage to the 15-year-old print. It’s a great video presentation.

On the audio side, there’s an English DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 soundtrack as well as German, Spanish, French and Japanese Dolby Digital 5.1 tracks. Subtitles are available for English, English SDH, French, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Portuguese (Portugal), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain) and Swedish. Phew! Your subwoofer will appreciate the mix with gunshots and other action effects landing with a real oomph. The surrounds are used well to space both effect and ambient sounds and place the listener in the action. The score is powerful and dialogue is clear, centred and well-prioritized. Though an Atmos upgrade would have been nice, this soundtrack is no slouch.

The 4K Steelbook features a black and white photo of Swagger holding his sniper rifle on the front, along with some red, glowing embers. The back features the text “I Didn’t Start It But I Mean to See it Through.” There’s a digital code. One extra that’s missing is a director’s commentary from Antoine Fuqua that was on a previous Blu-ray release. There is a trailer, some deleted scenes, a look at Independence Hall, and an almost 20 minute “making of” featurette.

Well-directed action, amazing visuals and great sound makes Shooter an easy recommendation for fans of the genre.