Sniper

Hey gang. Taking a slight break from indie horror for a bit. At least a post worth. Today I thought we could do with suspense thriller/action with Tom Berenger and Billy Zane shot in Australia because Panama might possibly been pissed about that. This is Sniper.

Camera man's stalking us, kid.

Master Gunnery Sergeant Tom Beckett (Tom Berenger of The Big Chill, Platoon, Major League, Shoot to Kill, The Field,The Substitute, Shadow of Doubt and Training Day) Marine recon sniper. With 74 confirmed kills, he is one of their best. He and his spotter Cpl. Papich (Aden Young of Exile, Metal Skin, River Street, Paradise Road, War Bride, The Bet and The Code) are on mission to assassinate a rebel leader of Panama and restore free elections. Their extraction was set for night and it happens at daylight. Papich is taken out by a rival sniper and Beckett drags his body to the chopper.

NSC (National Security Council) drums up an inexperienced civilian that's a sharpshooter in the Olympics and a SWAT team with zero combat experience, Miller (Billy Zane of Critters,Blood and Concrete, Millions, Tombstone, Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight, The Phantom, Head Above Water, Titanic, BloodRayne and Samantha Who?) that they feel will work in concert with Beckett, follow the mission and take out the offending rebels As always, it gets complicated by giving Miller rank and lead on this mission. When he doesn't speak the language, has had no time in the jungle and doesn't know the region at all.

With the additional bonus round, Beckett knows the sniper that took out Papich because he trained him. The guy is now a merc and works at the highest bidder. His work speaks for itself. As a huge hampering on the mission, Beckett tells Miller they got to take this sniper out before he does them.

Didn't like The Phantom, huh? Really?

Carrying the motto of "One Shot, One Kill", showing some of the recon movements including the belly crawl that the Marines adapted from the Apaches, along with stealth equals better survival every time. Miller out of his element questions everything Beckett is trying to teach him because he thinks Beckett has lost his crap ages ago. He's been out in the jungle too long and so on.

Penned by writers Michael Frost Beckner (Sniper, Cutthroat Island, Spy Game, The Agency, CSI: Crime Scene Investigations, Gold Fever and To Appomattox) and Crash Leyland (Sniper, The Final Cut, Sniper 2 and Sniper 3) these fellas ratchet up the tension and make the audience feel moment to moment. There is hardly any downtime from scene to scene. These men can die at any time.

Dammit, now I have to pee.

And finally more icing on this crap cake, a former CIA agent nicknamed The Surgeon or El Cirujano (Ken Radley of Big Sky, Home and Away, Dear Claudia, Something in the Air, Like Mother Like Son: The Strange Story of Sante and Kenny Kimes, Stingers and Dying Breed) who is now an enforcer for the drug cartel providing the rebels with money is pissed his traffic flow is being messed with and now hunts through the jungles to find them both. It's a waiting game to see who tips their first hand.

Can Beckett and Miller work together?? Will they get themselves killed or end up killing each other??

Beckett is such a strong character to behold. Marine since Vietnam has been in and out of the hot spots his entire career. Loved that Hollywood figured out a role for Berenger that was hard nosed, tough and made a lot of leading men look soft by comparison. Zane's Miller is the everyman in this. No experience, lot of talent and the sheer terror he feels is what the audience has churning through their guts as well

With this the simplistic story, the complexity of the characters is what really moves the movie along. This lone film can stand alone but has spawned an entire series beyond what anyone probably expected it to. Without this as the foundation, those sequels would have never happened nor would they have the same weight as the original. Yes I do enjoy the second and third movie and looking into continuing you all down this rabbit hole and see if you dig them as much as I do.

The tones change, and the action gets torqued higher but ultimately one shot equals one kill.

Miller, hardly anyone liked The Phantom.