Starring: Tom Berenger, Billy Zane, J. T. Walsh
Director: Luis Llosa
Producer: Robert L. Rosen
Screenplay: Michael Frost Beckner and Crash Leyland
Music: Gary Chang
Released by TriStar Pictures
Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) is one of the best snipers in the U. S. Military -- an expert on the jungles of Panama with 74 confirmed kills to his name. Now, the National Security Council has decided that a candidate for Panama's upcoming Presidential election needs to be eliminated. Beckett gets sent in, but not on his own. Along with him is Richard Miller (Billy Zane), Beckett's superior and new partner. Although Miller scored well on the range, he has never killed anyone, and Beckett isn't sure he's capable of doing so.
Sniper starts out with a slickly-filmed, tense action scene that promises a thrill-a-minute experience that the remainder of the movie is unable to deliver. There are about five or six similar sequences throughout the one-hundred minute running time, and, while all are energetic and taut, it's what's in between that bogs down an otherwise-promising film.
The reliance upon formulas is another obvious weakness. The screenwriters, Michael Frost Beckner and Crash Leyland, never venture into uncharted territory. From start-to-finish, everything in Sniper is predictable -- a classic example of the lack of daring that comes from Scriptwriting 101. Take the relationship between Beckett and Miller, for example. These guys are the two classic "comerades in arms" who don't like each other. But the tension beteween them feels manufactured, and Miller doesn't gel enough as a character to give a real edge to their interaction.
The action scenes are expertly-choreographed, and, even though the slow-motion bullet effects have been lifted from Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves (where the projectile was an arrow, not a bullet), they work to good effect here. Unfortunately, director Luis Llosa has trouble pacing the long periods between shootings, especially in the first half of the movie where there's a lot of aimless meandering around in the jungle.
Action fans probably won't be offended, provided they're not expecting Berenger to be America's answer to James Bond. There are occasions when Sniper shows flashes of promise, although most of these are short-lived. The film is capable of providing a one-hundred minute diversion for anyone who has nothing better to do. The potential is here for something much better, but, unfortunately, Sniper shoots itself in the foot.
© 1993, 1996 James Berardinelli