Sniper 3

The third stop in the series. Likely Tom Berenger's last go round. A story that nicely comes full circle, Sniper 3 ends up being the next best thing to the original and far and away the best sequel. The original established mood, tone, character and such. I like it a lot, good flick. Sniper 2 didn't do much right in my book. It's sole asset was its brief expansion on Beckett's character. Finally what is there to say about Sniper 4; aka Reloaded? Hi Billy Zane, maybe? Nice to see Miller again.

I won't rundown the story to Sniper 3 like it's epic. It's not, but besides being serviceable - it opens up plenty on Beckett's character, background and isn't that what we tune in for at this point in the road? Yes, the return to it's jungle roots (so to speak) is welcomed, the supporting cast is decent and the sniping portions of the movie feel right, but Beckett's up and down slope is this sequel's strongest asset. Weak spots? Every sequel has dealt lies and predictable betrayal and this one's no different. Oh and taking out a rival sniper with a handgun from quite a distance. That scene made me wince.

The casual moviegoer can rightfully be excused for perceiving Sniper 3 as nothing more than another dtv offering, but fans of the series will want to give it a go. I enjoyed the opening and the finale's efficient ending with what I perceived to be a wink and nod to the original. I went in with lowered expectations because of Sniper 2, but 3 delivered. A good bookend to Beckett's saga.

Although sniper Thomas Beckett is still known as a master of his "art", his loss of a finger and deal with the Corp to stay with a training programme has now earned him a reputation as a pain in the ass washed out old man. However the NSA need a sniper to take out a Vietnamese drug warlord who has moved into international terrorism. The problem is that this "warlord" is former CIA and Beckett's spotter who has taken his former role of using drug running to fund black ops for the US and expanded it, with the "presumed dead" label helping him to do it.

I'm not sure what made me try this film although rest assured that the offer of a Tom Berenger three-quel is not usually what has me forming a "Star Wars" style queue at my cinema. It was actually reasonably good for what it was though, despite doing no one thing really well and generally accepting for a level of serviceability across the board. This can be seen in the many things it tries to do. It wants to have a conspiracy/shadowy NSA men thing; a "sick of the killing but am nothing without it" character thing; an action movie thing and, weirdly, an Apocalypse Now thing as well. Being a direct to video third film in an unremarkable series, I doubt that dropping all of these and focusing on one would have made them any better so actually it does do a reasonable job of having a bit of everything.

If you're looking for a solid direct-to-video thriller then the little touches surrounding Beckett and Finnegan will be of interest and perhaps be a welcome addition to what the film is doing. Anyone expecting it to do much more than the basics with Beckett's supposedly broken man other than having him mumbling something about being "tired" will be disappointed because of all the things the film does, it generally doesn't take them beyond this level. The film still engages though, despite the way the action rarely actually reflects the stealth of the title or the "one shot" of the tagline. Pesce does an OK job of directing given the usual b-movies he does (which I suppose this is another one of).

The cast are mixed and do mostly do the job , albeit a job where not a lot is asked. Berenger does "grizzled" well and wears it like a pair of old slippers here. In terms of depth or understanding of his character I'd suggest he doesn't bring much out, but then he doesn't really need to. Mann is on hand to do "oriental side kick" duties as is often the way; I like him as he is an attractive man and has an easy charm and he gets to do a fight scene in return for playing second fiddle. Arndt and Duffy are suitably shadowy but the surprise find for me was a solid presence from Streutker. Better known to those with taste as Rawls from The Wire (and if you haven't seen this show then I would suggest you perhaps put that above things like Sniper 3 in your rental queue), he manages to do a good job with basically what is a half-baked rip off of Kurtz. His character is stupid, his motivations worse and the jail room scene just too close to being a spoof but yet the man has presence and he makes for a good big character opposite Berenger.

Overall then, a fairly serviceable DTV thriller. It has lots of things going on but does none of them beyond a level that could be politely called average. However by having them there it does help make the film feel slightly better than it is and, for all it did, I reasonably enjoyed it.

I liked the casting choices. Of course Tom Berenger is the perfect actor but John Doman, Denis Arndt, William Duffy and especially Byron Mann were convincing in their characters. The Vietnamese cast and crew were phenomenal. I liked the very well-written story, no loose ends. All the information that was told in the story was used with it's conclusions. I like the location choices in Vietnam. I loved the music (WOW). There was a Southeast Asian theme but not over the top stereotypical. The music was hip and matched the screens of the movie. I like the cinematography. The lighting at the dock with Quan and the informant, spooky. Great job, really !!

Sniper was a solid and moody thriller boosted by some top notch action sequences. Sniper 2 proved to be a very solid sequel and not that far behind the original. Sniper 3 is every bit as good as, if not slightly better, than part 2 as it expands somewhat on Beckett and gives you more of an insight into this interesting character.

Retired Marine sniper Beckett, now teaching this profession, is given a one off assignment; track down an kill and old friend who's been supplying weapons to the enemy.

The action scenes are good, production values surprisingly good, the story is mostly well written and the film is fast paced. These are all qualities that make a decent film and Sniper 3 is definitely a very decent action/thriller. Tom Berenger adds more layers to Beckett's character and gives a very good performance.

The Sniper trilogy is well worth watching, every movie has something going for it.

Yet another bad movie that showcases Tom Berenger's awesome acting talents. I seriously feel so badly for this guy as he was one of the best film actors of the '90s, I mean this was the same guy who was in "Platoon" for crying out loud. He had some pretty classic bad-ass quotes in this as you can always usually expect at least one of them per film but sometimes you get blessed with a few. As average as this was it actually fared substantially well for a direct-to-video release since it was definitely well done in that regard. The action was okay, the best ones were when Beckett is behind the rifle though, as you probably could've guessed. I liked this but I still couldn't help but let out a silent prayer that TB gets one more big-budget movie deal before he's through with Hollywood because he's way too cool to let him slide into oblivion. Please think about it!

Final Quarantine:

Movies: Didn't quite make it there did it.?

DVD Purchase: Only if you need to complete the trilogy.

Rental: Got my money's worth and that's what counts.