Anyone who has ever played a First Person Shooter game knows that the Sniper rifle is arguably the most fun weapon to virtually use to take out bad guys, aliens and rogue hippopotami. Perhaps after the shotgun but I am not here to get into an animated discussion about the merits of pretend weapons.
Why then are movies about snipers either dull and boring or simply non-existent? Because being a sniper is waiting around for hours and longer dressed as a tree waiting for the privilege of letting off one carefully aimed shot that’s why. Give a man a shotgun and he’ll lay waste for a day, give that same man a sniper rifle and he might just bore you forever…
The Sniper trilogy lives and dies with your opinion of Tom Berenger. Those that are in favour will derive limited enjoyment from his mere presence. Those that detest the man will find nothing to change their opinion here.
Sniper is not for those people, and in truth it isn’t much chop for the rest of us.
Sniper
Recycling an oft-used plot centring around a gruff veteran being teamed with a hot shot rookie to pull off the impossible mission, Sniper is a B film all the way and unbelievably simplistic when you think about it.
Despite this it is also unexpectedly compelling and worth a watch. More than can be said about the sequels… but more on that later.
Thomas Beckett (Berenger) is the grizzled vet, a longtime reliable killer over many continents. Beckett has been there and shot holes in that, but being at the pointy end of conflict at the orders of those wearing neatly pressed and spotless shirts can be draining after many years. Especially when a dopey decision by the brass costs Beckett his spotter (sniper’s assistant).
With a new target to take down and a newly single sniper, the big wigs decide to bring in some new blood in Richard Miller (Billy Zane – the ‘B’ stands for B movie). Unfortunately Miller is no vet, he isn’t even a soldier but an ex-Olympian with no real life experience not involving rainbow coloured targets. Beckett is understandably perplexed at this new development. But after a two minute briefing Beckett rolls his eyes and takes his orders, ever the loyal soldier.
Meanwhile Miller is getting his own two minutes, which tell the still wet behind the ears rookie ‘You’re in charge. Oh and by the way, feel free to kill Beckett too if you think you have to’.
With that inexplicable development introduced the two man team heads to South America (really Australia, they did everything short of having kangaroos hop across each scene) to kill some nasty drug dealing type that will no doubt kill dozens of innocent Americans. (Given that every cop show and movie seems to insinuate the USA is rife with drugs and drug abuse you start to wonder why they bother.)
The main friction in the film is caused by the differences in the two, the pretty new kid and the old vet who has lived with death for so long. Some of it is forced and some of the decisions make precious little sense, but the film moves along well and retains its interest for the most part.
Final Rating – 7 / 10. As a movie about soldiers who must remain low key and under the radar, there really isn’t much more to it than that. Sniper is low on theatrics, but worth a look anyway.
Sniper 2
Now retired, Beckett wends away his days drinking and escorting weekend warriors on trumped up safari-lite expeditions, before spending his nights trying to dull his active service memories by drinking some more…
This is all before he is called in for an ‘off the books’ job in Eastern Europe, a job so hush-hush that if Beckett is caught or killed the powers that be will disavow all knowledge of his activities.
So confident are they that Beckett will die trying to pull off the gig that they don’t even bother taking his payment details – the inference being that he is unlikely to collect anyway.
But even a covert ops sniper needs a spotter, so in keeping with the ‘off the books’ theme Cole (Bokeem Woodwine) an inmate on Death Row is ponied up.
An old drunk and a thug soon to be executed. Will either be missed? Not really, but then again you could say the same thing about Sniper 2 or 3.
Once again the job goes bad and Beckett must make his way through hostile territory to safety, pausing only to kill many faceless Europeans.
Beckett’s loyalty and blind obedience causes him problems. He is old, has the shakes and is worried that his touch is finally leaving him.
Blah, blah, blah. The usual stuff really. The first half replicates the first, past it Tom teamed with someone he doesn’t get along with – this time surly trash talking anti-authoritarian Cole. The second half lazily cribs from Rambo 2 and Saving Private Ryan without ever worrying either.
There’s lots of puffing, panting and sighing but precious little interest for the unfortunate viewer.
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. I’d be grizzled and grumpy too if I knew I was destined to appear in direct to DVD crap like this, which is pretty dull and uninspired even for direct to DVD crapola.
Sniper 3
What do you do when you are an el-cheapo B movie series with a built in audience and a low budget? You film in Eastern Europe of course!
Wait you’re saying you’ve done that…?
*thinking*
“Give me a minute here” (Holds up hand palm out)
“Have we done Asia yet?”
No. Good.
Thank God for that unfortunate skirmish between the US and Vietnam some four decades ago, Hollywood can lazily keep milking it for some time to come.
With the basic formula set in stone, that being team Beckett up with someone you – and he – wouldn’t expect to team up with and have them go bang-bang, why would you bother throwing money at a product that has a known outcome?
You wouldn’t. And neither would the Sniper 3 team, which is why we have a no-name director responsible for straight to DVD stinkers, and a certain Mrs Berenger in the production chair. I can imagine the conversation; “Look I’ll do your shitty unnecessary movie as long as you give my wife a job. She’ll be yapping at me forever if I spend a few months in balmy South East Asia and she’s stuck in the States”.
Done and done.
Beckett remains washed up, 9 fingered and dodgy-eyed, who better to send into deep dark Vietnam in search of a top secret target? This time an ex-Vietnam vet gone rogue, you know, the same plot that they drag out seven times a year.
Beckett’s teammate this time? A young Vietnamese national. I know right? How ironic considering Beckett spent an entire war killing just the same type of guy!
And you’ll never guess, somehow the stuffed up brass manage to fuck him over and the failsafe job impossibly enough goes wrong, leading to a scenario that isn’t familiar to anyone but those who have seen the first two films in the series… and any of those other millions of films where the same shit happens.
Props must be given for the final kill, which is unlikely of course but at least creative, otherwise this is a sub-par episode of the 80s and 90s TV show Tour of Duty.
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. An unfortunate but all too predictable finale to a series that was out of gas and original ideas before the first film even finished.
Trilogy Rating – 6 / 10. To be honest the only way I can see myself watching the original Sniper is if it happens to appear magically on a TV I am sitting in front of. I wouldn’t buy the DVD and I definitely wouldn’t be hunting it down again.
And that’s my rock solid recommendation for the first film; “I wouldn’t turn it off it was already on”, the other two I most certainly would switch off though. And I’ll watch all sorts of crap.
