Sniper: L'ultimo baluardo

Sniper Brandon Beckett (Chad Michael Collins) and Agent Zero (Ryan Robbins) are part of a group of elite international soldiers sent to Costa Verde to stop an arms dealer with a superweapon. This opens with a fine action section with the group attacking the final boss. The villain activates his superweapon which throws everyone back. Then the movie goes 48 hours earlier and the audience has to wait. It is a lot of introductions and preparations and training. Very little of it is compelling. The movie loses any pace it had earlier. I do like the Canadian axe fighters for all the old fashion action cheese. The middle is so boring that I would suggest the fast forward button.

Until I looked this movie up I had no idea that the underwhelming 1993 Tom Berenger/Billy Zane movie 'Sniper' had 10 direct-to-video sequels. This is the 10th. I haven't seen any of the intervening movies and I may have missed some references and callbacks. Fortunately for me the dialogue is a combination of rah-rah trailer lines and exposition dumps so I had no problem following along.

Elite ex-Marine sniper Chaz Michael Michaels joins the world's most diverse special-ops squad to take down Imhotep and free the people of Costa Verde, who are downtrodden because their country exists in the shadow of its dynamic big-budget neighbor Val Verde. Imhotep has devised a weapon which causes the same concussive damage to human tissue as a grenade - except it requires databanks of servers, it's effective to a shorter range and it works 10,000% more slowly. Diabolical!

To keep this deadly new weapon of minor destruction from falling into the wrong hands, Chaz and his friends must fight off the private army of the commie fascist dictator of Costa Verde, which is also conspicuously diverse and includes a whiter-than-Icelandic woman with an eyepatch. Some might call this immersion-breaking; but if you think about it, a commie fascist dictator is about the most likely person to insist on DEI hiring policies in his private army.

This movie is an unapologetically corny slice of low-budget 1980s-style action cheese. It's refreshing in its simplicity, its clunky optimism, its straightforward morality and its violent action. Turn your brain off and just have fun with it.

"a leader knows the way, goes the way and shows the way.

Leadership is an action, not an position."

but that the team who chose its chief because its will follow him until the end for its action continues over the death.

Indeed, The phrase "efile noma ephila" means "whether dead or alive" ("que ce soit mort ou vivant") in Zulu. It's an important expression in Zulu culture, showing their strength and determination to keep going no matter what happens. It reminds the Zulu people to stay strong and true to their values, even in difficult times.

This phrase is used in stories, proverbs, and songs to teach lessons about being tough and staying connected to their community and ancestors.

So, "efile noma ephila" is a way of saying that the Zulu people will keep going and stay strong, no matter what.

Nb: The name "Esterhazy" comes from Hungary. It is connected to a place called Esterháza near Dunajská Streda, which is now in Slovakia. The Esterhazy family started in southwestern Slovakia and became important in Hungarian history, especially with people like Count Nikolaus Esterházy and Prince Paul Esterházy.

Count Nikolaus Esterházy (1583-1645) was a powerful nobleman in Hungary. He helped the Habsburg monarchy and fought against the Turks. He became Palatine of Hungary and was important in making Hungary stronger.

Prince Paul Esterházy (1635-1713) was Nikolaus's son and the first prince of the Esterházy family. He was a great soldier, fought the Ottoman Turks, and supported the arts. He made the Esterházy family very rich and powerful.

The movie starts off well enough, with an excellently acted villain. Too bad they kill him off immediately. There's a lot of backstory on most of the characters, but unfortunately very little on him. The weapon scene is unrealistic and far too short.

I think they ran out of plot 1/3 of the way into the movie. It was enjoyable until then. At that point, though, it's just another hour of fighting -- unrealistic fighting at that. The fights with the females are the worst; they're slowed down so we can see what badasses they are supposed to be. Five members of a militia that's heavily armed with guns decide instead to battle against one woman with knives and machetes instead of just shooting her.

We don't really get enough information about the bad man running the country.

Manuel Rodriguez-Saenz and Arnold Vosloo play their parts well. The rest of the cast just doesn't have enough to work with.

They're definitely resting on the popularity of the other Sniper movies.

Want act-ing? Get you some Laurence Olivier. Want act-ion? This is it. Plot? Sure there's a plot. Evil arms dealer, mad scientist, super weapon, ruthless dictator, loyalist militia, elite band of freedom fighters . . . Have you put together the mission yet? Of course you have.

Why didn't the militia bad guys just shoot the brave lady freedom fighter instead of letting her hack eight of them to pieces with twin battle axes? Please.

I just wish all these action stars would listen when I tell them to pick up the fallen bad guy's Kalashnikov instead of trying to fight off the rest of the bad guys with a half-empty SIG.

Kinda corny Butch-and-Sundance ending though. So the director got to have a little fun with us. Grin and bear it.