One Shot. One Kill. No Exceptions.
Starring: Tom Berenger, Billy Zane, J.T. Walsh
Starring: Luis Llosa
1993 | 99 Minutes | Rated R
“Nail that mother fucker now!” – Thomas Beckett
Sniper is one of those movies I had seen when I was younger but haven’t seen again in years and years. I happened to pick up a few DVD packs and put together the whole series pretty quickly so I’m pretty excited to dig in and relive a little of my youth.
U.S. Marine Sergeant Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) is assigned to seek out and kill rebels in the Panamanian jungle but his partners have a penchant for getting killed during the missions. Richard Miller (Billy Zane) is a government agent and Beckett’s new partner. Miller is a crack shot but has never seen combat. Together they plan to seek out an important rebel leader, while avoiding a rogue marksman who frequents this part of the jungle.
Thomas Beckett has seen his fair share of time in the jungle picking off bad guys. One shot, one kill. Tom Berenger does a surprisingly good job as Sniper’s resident badass. He’s not a guy I would normally think of for a badass role but he pulls it off well.
Billy Zane’s Richard Miller is an award winning, cocky sharp shooter.This is Billy Zane’s wheel house. If I ever get a chance to cast an action movie and need a cocky, rich guy – you better believe I’m calling Billy Zane. Do you think his arrogance gets him into trouble at some point? I bet it does…
It’s no coincidence that there is a small Rambo reference as the movie has a similar feel to First Blood 2.
Sniper starts a little slow – as you might expect a movie about a sniper to do. It isn’t jammed packed, wall to wall action. In proper sniper form there is planning and waiting and then we get some great bursts of action.
The action really kicks into high gear for the finale though but it changes from a decent sniper movie to something more generic. It’s fun but seems a little out of character for the way the rest of the movie had played out.
Sniper probably isn’t the most memorable movie. There aren’t really any scenes where I look back fondly and remember it for. It’s just a solid but average action movie. I don’t have much bad to say about it but you also won’t catch me waxing poetic again anytime soon.
Action Movie Fanatix 