SNIPER RELOADED (2011)
Rating: 2.5 out of 4 /Buy the DVD Here
Directed by: Claudio Fäh
Starring: Billy Zane, Chad Michael Collins, Annabel Wright.
THE PLAN: Son of King Shit sniper Thomas Beckett (played by Tom Berenger in Sniper 1-2-3), Marine Sgt. Brandon Beckett (Chad Michael Collins), sees himself and his men ambushed by a mysterious sniper. He eventually tags up with his father’s old protégé, sniper teacher Richard Miller (Billy Zane), to bring the sniper down and find out whom is behind the set up.
THE KILL: I loved Luis Llosa’s 1993 actionner SNIPER starring Tom Berenger and Billy Zane. And I guess I was not alone; since the flick has spawned 2 sequels since! Namely, the more fun than it should have been 2002 follow up SNIPER II (it helped that Craig R. Baxley of I Come in Peace and Stone Cold infamy directed it, the man knows how to do action right) and the ho-hum straight to DVD SNIPER 3 (2004); which for the life of me I can’t remember beyond the title and Berenger being cool as a cucumber.
And just when you thought (well I thought anyways) that the franchise was RIP done with its one shot, one kill M.O. here comes SNIPER RELOADED (2011) hoping to reboot the franchise and stretch out its lifespan by replacing the aging Tom Berenger with young buck Chad Michael Collins while bringing back The Zane (reprising his role of Richard Miller from the original) to give the sequel some street cred. Did it work for me? Here we go!
Arrow sings: “America f*ck yeah! Coming again, to save the mother f*cking day yeah!
SNIPER RELOADED made for a decent sit down, an ideal Sunday afternoon while getting head type of watch. It blasted out an easy pace, competent camera work and its two leads Chad Michael Collins and Billy Zane kept me in the game, even when the script would take a weed nap. Collins looked the part, was likable/credible in the role and handled the action shenanigans like a champ! Given the proper material; he can make for a worthy successor to Tom Berenger in terms of this franchise. As for The Zane? What can I say; the dude can read a grocery list and make it sound like the coolest shit you’ve ever heard. It’s hard to beat the lad in the charisma and presence department. And here he had a magnificent stache to go along with his well oiled sense of humor to boot! Result? I got Zaned hardcore! Both gents shared a groovy chemistry together onscreen, one that was sadly somewhat underused here (Zane didn’t have enough screen time) but that will hopefully be axed on further in sequels to come.
Story wise; SNIPER RELOADED kind of mirrored the narrative line found in the original SNIPER. In the first film; we had an expert Sniper being tagged to an inexperienced rookie, and here we have a young Marine, foreign to the art of Sniping being coupled with an expert Sniper (Zane). The student from the first film kind of becomes the teacher in this one; I say kind of, cause apart from one scene, he didn’t teach jack-squat… but more on that later. The flick ably made the most of its low budget. Director Claudio Fäh played the “hand held” card for the most part, giving the whole a back-handing “reality” feel to it. Moreover he slyly maximized his Africa setting, upping the production values of the picture. Striking scenery, a couple of giraffes, sprinting elephants… no sound stage here, all locations baby! Respect! The handful of action sequences that went down hit the spot as well. They were raw, visually stimulating (loved the camera mounted on the rifles shots) and well choreographed. So no complaints there!
The Trailer!
Which bring me to my beefs with this bad-boy; its generic, lazy and safe screenplay. The movie set up all kinds of potentially visceral scenarios and did little with them. Am talking: a mysterious enemy Sniper roaming about (who winds up coming off as a Walmart clerk who stole a soldier outfit from the racks instead of the badass he’s supposed to be), a Marine going in on the down low, almost driven by vengeance to find and execute said Sniper, a “you have to think like a Sniper to catch one” thematic, a deep rooted conspiracy, ya name its in there! Alas the screenplay went about telling its story in a connect the dots fashion, rarely running with the slick situations it set up. And no, I don’t count an out of nowhere sex scene that shows no T or A as “running” with what ya got. The same went for the characterization of its lead. Young Beckett is a straight laced good guy and that’s it. His team gets mowed down and he craves payback. Do we feel that anger? That guttural drive to find that Sniper and even up the score? Not as much as I would have liked. The script never prompted him too, hence resulting in a lack of emotional resonance. This is the kind of story that should rile up its audience; have you rooting for the hero to whoop that bad guy ass! I sadly watched it all unfold in a semi detached manner.
Conclusion; for me, SNIPER RELOADED was smooth fun times but came off more as a teaser of what MAY come than the tops reboot it was supposed to be. Ya know how the first X-Men movie acted as a base that then eventually met its full potential with X-Men 2? Well I hope the same happens with this relaunch; cause they have something special here and they need to milk it. I dug Chad Michael Collins in the lead, The Zane owned it and am willing to follow them both in the next SNIPER sequel (s). But hopefully on the next round; they’ll build off a screenplay that takes what it establishes further than level 0.5. One that will also focus on the Beckett/Miller tag-team, edge up its lead and have him become an actual Sniper. You can’t have a franchise called SNIPER without your main dude being a Sniper. But hey that’s just me!
When in doubt and Berenger-less…ZANE!
TOP ACTION: Its kind of a toss up between the action sequence that acted as plot point #1 and the one that sent the flick to its end credit. Hmmm…I guess I’ll go with the finale; there was more kaboom going on.
TOP DEATH: That’s an easy one. Billy Zane blows some dude in half here and it was epic. You don’t f*ck with The Zane, The Zane does the f*cking.
TOP DIALOGUE: Zane had all the best lines, spitting slick gems like “Let your weapon do the talking” – “You piss your pants and learn to love it. I love it so much I’m doing it right now.” -“You can’t fight something that you don’t understand” or “Are you kidding? I’m not gonna live through this!”
FEMALE EXPLOITATION: Some chick’s bare back. What’s the point of having a left field sex scene that has ZERO purpose in terms of the story but to sex shit up, if you’re not gonna give up the goods. Somebody didn’t read his B Movie handbook from top to bottom.
DRINKING GAME: Drink whenever you think: Damn; Chad Michael Collins haircut is a snip for snip reproduction of Berenger’s buzz cut in the original.
TRIVIA: Director Claudio Fäh also handled Hollow Man II (2006) starring Christian Slater.
Let these two badasses run amuck in the next Sniper sequel and I’ll be all good!