If you’re the kind of person who feels letdown at the recent news that Sylvester Stallone’s Expendables sequel will be PG or at the generally watered-down state of current Hollywood action movies, then The Sniper could be up your alley. The kind of action movies that come out of Hong Kong are like Hollywood action movies of the 80s outrageous and over the top while at the same time seeming to take themselves a little too seriously.
The Sniper is actually about several snipers; veteran sniper Hartman (Richie Ren) recruits rookie shooter OJ (Edison Chen) to be trained to become one of a select few, elite police sharpshooters brought in to handle volatile situations. Meanwhile, demented sniper Lincoln (Xiaming Huang) is released from prison where he was serving time for manslaughter after a hostage situation went awry and soon starts sniping his way through a hit list of his former colleagues.
Director Dante Lam is extremely capable of delivering pulse-pounding, excessively violent gun fights and the fact that the heroes and villain are deadly talented snipers mean these sequences have real scope (pun intended), although he’s also capable of handling smaller scale action, as one brutal scene that takes place in a lift demonstrates. Unfortunately Lam’s sweeping camerawork is sometimes aided by some dodgy CG effects that can make it feel like you’re watching a cut-scene in a video game. But ultimately, with its effective action and testosterone fuelled camaraderie, The Sniper often feels reminiscent of Top Gun, which is no bad thing.
Overall Verdict: Like Top Gun but with massive rifles instead of fighter jets, and just as dementedly enjoyable as that suggests.
Special Features:
Trailer
Reviewer: Adam Pidgeon