The Sniper

If not for the picture scandal, this film would have been released about a year ago, and would likely have solidified Edison Chen's position as box office draw given his stellar performance in crime-action flicks like Dog Eat Dog and Blood Brothers, and pop idol fare such as Initial D. But we know what had happened over the span of a year, though I suppose the decision to hold this film back would have helped it in increasing the curiosity surrounding this, given his last / first performance since the scandal. After all, the producers have to make the best out of the situation.

His character in Sniper is a typical Edison Chen persona – young, brash and impatient, toeing the line of the good and possessing that streak of arrogance. As OJ, he aspires to be the top shooter amongst the SDU Sniper Unit, and is mentored by the team leader Hartman (Richie Jen, who also starred as a sharpshooter in Johnnie To's Exiled) who discovered him during a mission, and is impressed by the upstart. Given the attributes of a sniper – confidence, decisiveness and ruthlessly accurate, egos are swelled and clashes are part of the game, where while it's a team effort, you can't deny those strong individual desire to excel above the rest.

The unfinished business of the earlier generation comes back to haunt the team in the form of the disgraced, and once top shooter Lincoln (Huang Xiaoming), who in a rash, negligent act gets sentenced to imprisonment, and upon release swears revenge on his once buddies. For a moment there was a tussle for the apprentice ala Star Wars style, where the young one found his training under his mentor too stifling and never appreciative of his abilities, and on the other, darker side, becomes seduced by sexier techniques which seem to be the path toward instant results and glory.

But alas the story unfortunately becomes quite fluffy, with the dramatic moments just excuses to string the action sequences together. The runtime under 90 minutes also provided a feeling that the film has been super summarized, given a lot of sub plots being introduced briefly, but never really reaching second base, especially with the relationships of the snipers and the opposite sex. You would wonder why they had even bothered to devote time to this aspect, just to know that the crazed nut Lincoln is terribly infatuated with his girlfriend, OJ's girlfriend is a one scene wonder, and Hartman's estranged wife lies comatose most of the time, waking only to shed tears and raise her voice. I guess in a sniper's life, the only "wife" they take care of, as in the prologue, is their rifles, to protect it with their life or professionally, they're screwed.

Dante Lam's star has been shining rather brightly, and I have enjoyed his recent effort in Beast Stalker. Here, he crafted some wonderful sniper action scenes without resorting too much on the looking-through-the-scope syndrome, striking a balance in being instructional, yet adequately paced to be tension-filled. What I appreciated is his fusion of that psychological element a sniper brings to the table, of the ability of how one man well hidden, and well trained, can take out a platoon or company, because of that element of fear that is introduced. Too bad for the many cardboard supporting villains and victims though, and that strange need to CG some dark clouds and fake lightning to drape many scenes.

Undoubtedly the show belongs to the ensemble cast in oozing machismo as they do battle, but you can't help but to feel that it is Edison who's pulling in the crowds in what could be his last hurrah. In a cruel twist of irony, his character here can't wait to talk to and provide snide remarks to the media, which is a far cry in the real situation he's in now. One can only wonder how things would have turned out if not for that moment of accidental folly.

Tagline: More like a video game than an actual movie…

Review by Neo: For whatever reason, The Sniper does not seem like a movie, but rather like a kid playing the latest shooting video game. The effect certainly oozed everything that is cool and nothing else. Maybe it is because of the producer cutting and chopping every possible scenes of the notorious Edison Chen, The Sniper just never seems to care about the characters or the story for that matter. The film is ultimately uneven, makes next to no sense and rather like a mindless action flick, with zero substance.

The movie is basically about sniper cops fighting criminals. Richie Ren is a top sniper cop and somehow recruits Edison Chen after witnessing his snipe-ring abilities. Huang Xiaoming used to be the very best sniper cop, but after an accidental killing in an hostage situation, Huang is jailed and subsequently dismissed from the force. As with all routine and cliché movies goes, Huang ends up moving on to the dark side and help the criminals to hunt down sniper cops...

Not a clever or intriguing story, especially one would expect more from the director of Beast Cops and Beast Stalker. Usually, it is safe to say that Dante Lam likes to focus on characters and a look at Anthony Wong, award winning display in Beast Cops and Nick Cheung in Beast Stalker, already provides adequate evidence. Here, director Lam forgets the need of a story, partly due to the relentless cutting of most of Edison's scenes. Unfortunately, the movie suffers and by the final showdown, there is no character for the audience to care about and no emotions to be felt by the awaiting audience.

Firstly the performance of Edison Chen is quite frankly uninteresting, bland and quite crap. It is perhaps a blessing in disguise for the cinema of Hong Kong to lose such a talentless actor. It goes without saying that Edison can't act and despite having praised his abilities to play a dog in Dog Bite Dog, there is no doubt within my mind that Edison still cannot act and thinks he is cool, when obviously he is not. Maybe, he can play another dog or mentally disturbed character, if he wants to prove me wrong. While cutting his scenes, makes the film uneven or even raising questions of making no senses, at the end of the day, the film is far better without Edison, than with it. So my advice to him, is stay away from Hong Kong for the better.

Moving on to Richie Ren, it's been a while since Richie last made a decent movie with a decent enough role. Richie is a decent actor with decent presence, but it's been 3 yrs since Johnnie To's Exiled and to see him go further and further away from reaching his potential in useless flicks like Contract Lover and The Sniper, it is just frustrating. Sure, he has enough presence to carry the flick, but career-wise, Richie isn't heading the correct direction. As for Huang Xiao-Ming, his overacting is more frustrating to endure and quite frankly, his villainous turn fails to convince. The much missed Mango Wong (last seen at the cinemas with Ghost Office/ Conman 2002), is a welcome addition and instill some sparks in an otherwise rather dull flick with even duller characters.

All in all, The Sniper is simply a critical failure and a commercial failure. Whatever, Dante Lam's intention is, it will probably remain unclear. Maybe he turned into his Heat Team (2004) mode, but even that was funny and cool at the same time. Maybe he turned his head back in place, after this and churned out Beast Stalker. Needless to say, the sniper shooting is cool to watch, Richie Ren is cool dude and so is Huang Xiao Ming to a degree and of course, Edison is just plain crap. The main thing is that this is a movie, but it never seems to run like one. Like the failure of mindless action flicks in Hollywood, for example, Ballistic - Ecks vs. Sever. While The Sniper never seem to reach that height of disappointment, but when you are aiming for a target as low as this, the only loser that comes out of this is ultimately the paying public. For the last time, and hopefully will be, the film is a cool and bad, but nothing can be worst than Edison, himself … (Neo 2009)

I rate it 3/10

• www.thehkneo.com

Solid Hong Kong Action Cop & Robber Friends 'Sniper' provides the solid Hong Kong action you want. Stylish action, and the formulaic cop vs robber who are also best friends and torn by loyalties.

First off I don't speak a word of Cantonese and saw 'Sniper' without the benefit of subtitles, yet was still able to understand the plot.

As with most HK films, there is far more action than in real HK. Heavily armed gangs around every corner committing elaborate robberies that would put Dillinger to shame. Hence the HKPD needs a large expert sniper force armed (with airsoft guns) to the teeth to coordinate with their SWAT teams which also just happen to be right in the middle of the action.

Our tragic hero cop is Fang. A badass sniper.

Our sympathetic robber is Jing a former police sniper disgraced after a hostage rescue went wrong. Jing wants revenge on the police and the gangster would caused the whole hostage situation in the first place. Since no one here seems to agree on the gangster's name, I'll call him Ge.

Upon his release from prison Jing puts his elaborate and unique plans for revenge into action. Jing shadows Ge's gang and learns of their plan to rescue him during a prison transport.

As Ge's gang stages their elaborate armored car holdup rescue they face off against the ruthless Fang who kills 4 of them dead with one shot.

But Ge's gang receives unexpected tactical support when sniper fire erupts from Jing on a sky scrapper and the rescue succeeds. Jing has now earned his way inside Ge's gang for revenge.

From the incredible accuracy of the sniper shots, Fang realizes that Jing is back and he's play for the wrong side.

Never a dull moment. As I said you can follow the movie just fine without subtitles or dubbing. It's a great film that can break the language barrier.

I'm an avid fan of HK action in general. There are many great HK action movies. And even after John Woo went Hollywood (although he went back, his recent movie being Red Cliff, which was produced in Asia) there was someone (Johnnie To) who filled in his shoes. And he did a great job in doing so.

But this is a completely different "beast" we get here. This is obviously very "Hollywood"-style, very fast and unfortunately not very good. It has some good action scenes and the intentions of it's filmmaker is noble, but unfortunately it takes too long to get to places, which makes it drag a little. Not bad by any means, but not really what you could/would expect from a good HK Action movie either.

Good HK action film about HK police snipers.

The story is about a new recruit into HK police sniper team. He has a mentor that teaches him the ropes of the trade. In the mean time, an ex-sniper from his squad has gone rogue and killing his members. The new recruit must take on the challenge, and hunt down his ex colleague.

This is a quality movie that is entertaining. The mood, the suspense, all adds to the story. Location scenes are also great in this movie. It's adds fresh perspective to Hong Kong movies. It's also one of Edison Chen's best performances.

The movie has cool looks, good action, and good acting. It's also one of a kind movie that's about snipers in Hong King, and was a good movie to watch.

7.5/10