Sniper: Ultimate Kill

Having been watching the "Sniper" movies since the very first movie, which I had on VHS. Then I have been more and more disappointed as the franchise progressed.

This 2017 addition to the franchise was actually the better of the last couple of "Sniper" movies.

Sure the plot was predictable, but the acting was good and the action was good. So that made it up for the movie having a very generic and straight forward plot.

The sniping sequences were especially good, which did add a lot of flavor to the movie.

The special effects in "Sniper: Ultimate Kill" were quite good, and I had not expect to see this kind of graphic violence in a movie such as this.

I was genuinely surprised and entertained with this movie.

It was quite interesting to have both Billy Zane and Tom Berenger return to reprise the two characters whom started the franchise, despite they did nothing more than just stand around and talk. Would have been a nice treat to have them return to the field as snipers.

As a stand alone movie this is average fare, nothing more.

The sniper scenes lack any real tension and its all very predictable.

Honestly though, how many more movies does this dodgy franchise need?

Is it trying to become Police Academy???

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.

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.

1. Story: poor storyline, looks like someone made a 90 minutes movie out of 10 minutes story. 2. Screenplay: they tried but!! 3. Directions: looks likes a 10th grader school boy