Sniper II

Tom makes this film, and it is a decent late night film that was intended to a b film, What surprised me was the budget, what the US dollar can get in Hugary. I mean they got tank, choppers, lots of troops, and a believable military actors. This is still a B movie, but watchable. PS they leave room for Sniper 3 with the ending. It was a power one. 6/10

The first Sniper film starring Tom Berenger and Billy Zane was one heck of movie. And I wasn't surprised when I discovered that Sniper had its own set of sequels. Thankfully, for this franchise, just because they are Direct-to-Video sequels doesn't mean the writers left out what happened from the first film. Sniper 2 does retain some good qualities but it lacks a lot of what made Sniper (1993) the best.

Tom Berenger is back as the intelligent and deadly marksmen, Thomas Beckett. After having a frustrating retired life, he's persuaded to take on another mission by the U.S. government. This time, it's to take out a leader named Valstoria in Europe. It's great to see Berenger playing Beckett again because who else could? Berenger has a way of making his character cool and smart at the same time. Accompanying Beckett is Cole played by Bokeem Woodbine. Woodbine's character is arrogant and by listening to him talk rudely to Beckett just didn't seem like a good match. Zane's character, Richard Miller. was arrogant too but in a different manner; he had no experience being a sniper.

Something that really throws this film off track is the location. The first Sniper film took place in Panama. Dense heavy jungle, where every bit of the soldier had to be covered in camouflage. The location here is the middle of a city. There's no room for this now. Making things even more off beat is how this sequel turned itself into an actioneer film. There's absolutely no hint of thriller genre in the running time. As Beckett said originally from the first film:

"We'll wait days, for one shot one kill."

There's no extended waiting time here. It's "On your mark, get set, go". Several cars blow up, multiple gunfights, and lots of explosions. Sure it's a different angle but there's nothing to be thrilled about anymore. The explosions do the job. All the audience has to do now is leave their brains at the door. Why make such a successful first film and then turn it into a brain-dead action franchise? Thriller films engage their audiences, but not like this. I did enjoy it to a certain extent but I wasn't enthralled by it.

Then there's the whole issue of Beckett not understanding what the Europeans are speaking. How come he doesn't know? Beckett's the smart one! Why does he have to play Zane's role in this film and be the one who's always behind the eight ball? It's almost like he took a back seat for this film. One thing that made me a bit happy was knowing that Gary Chang was back again to make the score to this sequel. It wasn't totally the same as before but it at least tried to recall the elements of the first movie to show its resemblance.

Sniper 2 is not the best sequel even with Tom Berenger and Gary Chang reprising their roles. The story is at least faithful to the first film but nothing else is truly memorable about it.

I liked the first "Sniper" movie and especially liked Becker (played by Tom Berenger). He's a solemn and sometimes grumpy sniper who bickers and argues (but also looks after) anyone he's partnered with on a mission. I saw the original film as more of a `character study' of this solitary Becker character, and was not disappointed that the sequel was mostly a character study as well. Though of course there is plenty of action and suspense as well!

"Sniper 2" re-works the same formula as the first film, but with some differences. Becker is a little older, but he's still grumpy (but protective) as ever. The guy he's partnered up with in this film is different than the somewhat green and annoying Billy Zane character in the first film. I liked this new guy pretty well.

And I liked seeing Becker again. I'd grown fond of Becker in the first film, and I thought the sequel held up well. Sure, it could have been better, but really, it was not bad at all. It's a solid film--not earth-shatteringly great, but if you enjoyed the way the first movie went, and especially enjoyed the characters, then you'll like this film.

Finally, a sequel that's much better than the original.

I can't understand why this only got five stars. maybe there aren't enough vehicles crashing and bursting into flames, so it doesn't appeal to those who like mindless action flicks.

This movie definitely has a B-movie "look" to it, and I can't explain what that means. It's just dark, or something. I'd probably blame it on the PD, though that's a guess.

Regardless, the screenplay is decent, the acting is excellent, and the direction / editing is strong, non-boring, and lacking in most of the typical cliches that you would expect from this genre. This is not a classic, not something I want to watch more than once, but a totally engaging and entertaining action flick that didn't once insult my intelligence.

I give it a solid seven stars.

I just watched this movie. Firstly, movie is not near as good as Sniper 1. And secondly some words about this so called Serbian fighters. I'm from Slovenia and I speak Serbian language. But in this movie I didn't understand not even one word. At the end of the movie I saw this list of actors. Those names are not Serbian but Hungarian. I don't know who (I know only that he's mind doesn't work as it should) said to director of this movie that Hungary and Serbia is one and the same country. Language, habits, mentality,…nothing is the same in these two countries. It's very sad that someone is making a movie about country and he doesn't even knows basics about this country. Movie quality: 3/10 Geography knowledge: 0/10