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I was a big fan of the first Sniper film when I was younger. A kid at school who was obsessed with military memorabilia lent me a copy on VHS telling me it was good. And it was good. Unlike all the action movies that I was used to, Sniper was a film about stealth and outsmarting your opponent. It was more action-oriented and a more intelligent film starring Tom Berenger as the sniper and Billy Zane as his apprentice. Berenger has starred in two direct-to-DVD sequels that I have sitting on the shelf but have not gotten around to watching yet but this is the first time Zane has returned to the franchise. Sniper: Reloaded is the fourth in the series but is really something of a reboot (hence the ‘Reloaded’ monicker).
In Sniper Reloaded, Chad Michael Collins takes the role of Sgt Brandon Beckett, an apparent descendent of Berenger’s character Thomas Beckett. This is established early on when a picture of Thomas is shown pinned to his son’s paperwork (is that a cameo?). The film is framed as a recounting, with Beckett describing the events during a preliminary interrogation at a courtroom his superiors are conducting during his breakdown, trying to figure out what happened in a place called Congo. He narrates that fueling this conflict was an ordinary peacekeeping operation under the auspices of the UN that his team was part of. Fresh directives were issued – identify, extract, and secure a certain Jean Van Brunt (Rob Fruithof), a resident of the Congo of interest to the UN. Van Brunt is reached out to, but he is shot at by a sniper and killed during the retrieval. The platoon of soldiers attempts to return fire and find some cover. Beckett’s unit is picked off by the sniper one at a time, so Beck is forced to make a dash instead. He is hit, falls into a trench, and passes out, leaving him unconscious and presumed dead by the assassin sniper.
As Beckett wakes up, he is being taken care of by a local hunter, Martin Chandler (Patrick Lyster), who patches him up. Next, they search the Van Brunt residence trying to piece together why he would have been a victim, only to find his teenage daughter armed and prepared in the house. While Beckett wants to escort her to safety in a UN installation, they first take a round back to Chandler’s camp. The camp suffers from the overage of militia stealing the orphan children he was hiding, leading to a firefight. The children are snatched away by the rebels, and this is when Richard Miller (Billy Zane) learns that Beckett (the son of Beckett) requires some help and he boards a flight to the Congo.
Zane arrives in the 38th minute, which is where my worry starts to escalate since it seemed like we were going to be sorely disappointed. Luckily, his part was well suited for the story and there wasn’t a real reason for him to show up sooner, so I can’t really complain too much. His dry humor and goofy behavior really make this movie shine. His straightforwardness and directness are at times even comical, as he shifts from one business matter to another with astonishing speed. While training junior snipers about long mission suffering, he is asked: “What do you do if you have to pee?” and he bluntly says “Simple. I go in my pants. The way I feel at this moment, I love it so much I am going in my pants right now.” Zane also has an amazing Dolph Lundgren from the opening scene of The Expendables moment (“Too low”) in the last minutes of Sniper: Reloaded. Let’s just say that we witness the consequences of him firing a little too close to someone with a high-powered rifle.
As expected with the filming being done in Africa, a lot of great location work is available. There are also opportunities to capture nation-like footage of giraffes, elephants, and rhinoceros in their natural habitats. I was somewhat put off by the hunter’s comment on how wonderful Africa and its wildlife is, yet, in my mind, I knew he wanted to put a lion’s head on his wall. In the midst of the fire-fights, there is also quite an interesting bit of camera work done; there is a camera fitted to the rifle so that you can see the face of the soldier while he is firing at his foes. There is also some bit of saving private Ryan’s nausea-inducing fast-motion vomit cam, but thankfully it’s not as common. Most of the shots are rightfully taken through the scope of Beckett or Miller’s rifle.
Chad Michael Collins starred as the main lead and did a good job, even though Zane’s character surpasses him in coolness. Chad convincingly plays a young soldier, and I can’t be the only one who thinks that. His last few roles on TV seem to have been about soldiers nearly all of the time. As a sniper movie, there’s no punchfighting in this one only gunfire but the material is very solid. For the hand-to-hand bits of the action, it’s very clean and methodical on the goodie’s side with pistols, while the baddies are firing automatic weapons when the drones move around. All, with the exception of the antagonist, a mysterious sniper who shot Beckett in the beginning. Beckett and Miller slowly form a bond, and there are a few decent scenes where Miller trains his new sniper protege.
I think I should talk about her too, new actress Annabel Wright and her role as Lieutenant Ellen Abramowitz. While her role is not substantial, it does feel that the producers cast her and then attempted to figure out what to do with her. There’s some sex that happens, but you don’t get to see much of anything and from time to time she seems to be wielding a pistol or comes on stage in an officer’s uniform. Not much to the character at all. All the other characters serve their purposes well but they just couldn’t give her a decent part.
I, for one, liked Sniper Reloaded more than the previous ones. Everybody did well in acting the action was on point, and even with some of the dull periods towards the middle particularly those scenes that were overdramatic in which Beckett and Abramowitz seemed to try and force a romance the film is fast-paced with a few solid plot twists. If recall correctly, the final scene also featured glimpses of the possibility of a fifth installment, and I for one look forward to it. If it is anywhere near as good as the fourth one, I’m all for it.
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