Sniper: Ultimate Kill

Decent movie and continues the story-line nicely. It was good to see all the characters together and the ending was good. Overall its a good way to kill a couple of hours if you want some good kills and scenery.

The seventh 'Sniper' franchise movie (the original was released way back in 1994 and I bet you they had no idea the characters from that film would be popping up twenty-three years later!) and the fourth to star Chad Michael Collins as Brandon Beckett, son of the legendary sniper from the original movie. Collins has really made the starring role his own.

'Sniper: Ultimate Kill' is the first movie to feature the trio of Brandon Beckett, his father Thomas (Tom Berenger) and Richard Miller (Billy Zane).

If you've enjoyed the previous instalments in this franchise, you're going to enjoy this one. Plenty of no-frills sniper action, a little intrigue, and the added bonus of seeing the original 'Sniper' stars reunited.

Sure, the uniforms might not be right, Brandon Beckett shouldn't have facial hair because he's a Marine, acting is sometimes a little wooden and the dialogue sometimes a little cliched, and there are plot holes so big you could drive a tank through them...but it's entertaining and true to the previous six movies.

Having new bullets/technology makes killing as easy as it ever was. Some think Snipers are easy killers anyway - considering the distance they have from their targets and all that. Now I have no idea how many movies we have in the Sniper series ... and I seriously have to rewatch the very first one they made. I remember it fondly and hope it is so - it was succesful enough to spawn so many ... well sequels of sorts.

Tom Berenger is still at it, but he lets the young ones do the heavy lifting and work. It is still nice to see him and Billy Zane back - even if it is in a smaller capacity. So while this isn't perfect, there are enough interesting moments to make this a more than decent watch.

Did not expected to enjoy this movie.

Good acting by Chad, Janay, billy Zane, and Tom and antagonist sniper.

Good production values for a DTV movie, couple of good action scenes with sniper tension.

Overall nice watch.

Jesus Morales, a Colombian drug lord has hired a sniper, known as 'El Diablo', to eliminate the competition and thus control the flow of drugs from Colombia to the United States. An operation to capture or kill Morales and his sniper is launched. It is led by DEA agent Kate Estrada and includes USMC sniper Master Sergeant Brandon Beckett. After an early setback it becomes clear that El Diablo is a skilled professional, rather than a self-taught amateur; it is also clear that he has a state-of-the-art rifle firing experimental homing ammunition. Estrada and Beckett will have a hard time getting their targets.

This is not a great film, far from it, but for a straight to DVD release it is pretty solid. There is a good amount of action and some decent moments of high tension. There are also plenty of clichés and technical errors not to mention the fictional ammunition available to the snipers... it would have been much better if had kept things more real. There are some fairly poor effects; showing CGI bullets as they head to their targets got old ages ago. On the plus side the acting is decent enough and we didn't get any cliché romance between Beckett and Estrada. I can't really say how it compares to other films in the 'Sniper' franchise; the only other one I've seen was the original and that was over twenty years ago. Overall not a must see but a solid enough film if you have ninety minutes to kill and enjoy the genre.