Sniper: Ghost Shooter

As former military, I'm particular about realism. Although this movie had it's share of cinematic liberty, for a sniper movie, it was actually quite good. As soon as I saw "Billy Zane" in the opening credits, I groaned a little. He has matured quite a bit since "Sniper"...plus, they didn't play up the role of GMSgt "Gunny" Beckett too much (the lead role is his son, Brandon Beckett), so that made it less like a sequel and more like a continuing story line. It was just a good, action-packed "heavy on the sniper action" flick. If you like military movies, specifically sniper movies, you'll enjoy it. You won't say it's the best sniper movie ever, but you'll watch it to the end without puking.

Not as good as Shooter (Mark Wahlberg), not as good as the original Sniper (Tom Berenger), but a darn close third place, with every other sniper movie falling way behind IMHO. A little too much cheese at times, but countered with some slightly comedic moments (the Russian talking about John McClane from Die Hard...yippie-ki-yay, MF'er, etc). It had it's snicker moments for sure, but pretty much action-packed from beginning to end, which I love.

Overall, a definite watch. Maybe not a "keep forever and watch again and again", but unless you're one of those people who want to dissect cinematography (really well done here), or the director's mood or previous works and how it compares, you'll enjoy it for what it is. Lots of sniper shots, lots of "Semper Fi" moments, and just a decent movie. I'd watch it again, but not anytime soon.

Then it might have made more sense. It goes from little details like throwing a small bit of camouflage over just the rifle's scope (why bother?) to breaking the world's best encryption with a field laptop (WTF?). I, too, was waiting for the inflatable boats to be sunk by mini-gun fire from Apache attack helicopters. They must be using a brand-new armor plated rubber. And what's with those bad guys standing on a porch being picked off one by one by the sniper protagonist when there is a door for them to run thru and take cover? Snipers generally work solo, and for good reason - not in squads. Some were in ghillie suits, but most were not.

Sniper: Ghost Shooter is a very light duty action flick to be watched if nothing better is available.

Sniper was a good action film. It moved along at a decent pace, played the tension between old hand and up-and-coming newbie well and threw in a fair amount of tension.

In accordance with the law of diminishing returns, this one barely registers. Sure, if you like mindless running around "having a gunfight" every 20 minutes with people taking impossible shots and dying in "throw your arms and legs out" style you'll probably enjoy it.

If you're looking for a half decent plot, characters who are bit more than 2 dimensions and a "twist" that doesn't telegraph its arrival in neon lights then look elsewhere.

I happened to stumble upon the 2016 movie "Sniper: Ghost Shooter" by random chance here in 2023. And seeing Billy Zane returning again to the "Sniper" franchise, of course I opted to sit down and watch what director Don Michael Paul had to offer.

As for the storyline and script in "Sniper: Ghost Shooter", then writers Michael Frost Beckner, Crash Leyland and Chris Hauty put together an enjoyable and entertaining enough script. It wasn't the best of storylines in the "Sniper" franchise, but it was enjoyable for what it turned out to be; that being a rather action-packed storyline. There wasn't any twists or plot surprises for the 99 minutes that the movie ran for, which made it a fairly predictable and a bit generic storyline, actually.

The acting performances in the movie were good, and it definitely was nice to see Billy Zane return to reprise the role of Richard Miller again. The movie also had some other familiar faces on the cast list, with the likes of Chad Michael Collins and Dennis Haysbert. All in all, I will say that the entire cast ensemble in the movie put on good performances to bring both the storyline and the characters to life on the screen.

There is actually a good amount of action throughout the course of the movie, to the extend where it starts to feel like a war movie, given all the skirmishes that the snipers were in, fighting against adversaries with fully automatic weapons and rocket launchers. It was a shame that the writers opted for this approach, as it became more of an action-oriented movie, instead of the lie-in-wait-and-wait-for-the-shot movie that the 1993 first movie "Sniper" in the franchise was. Sure, the action was good, and the movie was certainly entertaining enough for what it was. Just don't go about expecting an archetypical sniper type of movie.

My rating of "Sniper: Ghost Shooter", from director Don Michael Paul, lands on a five out of ten stars.

Some performances not so good, one or two special effects could be better, quite a bit of corny dialog. Would have been really good if not for those things. Well worth watching as long as you don't take it seriously and you like action movies with lots of shooting and blood. Some reviewers have said some of the things would never happen like that. They probably didn't like Die Hard either.