
Tough guy Thomas Beckett is a US Marine working in the Panamanian jungle. His job is to seek out rebels and remove them using his sniper skills. Beckett is notorious for losing his partners on such missions. This time he's accompanied by crack marksman Richard Miller, who's more of an office-type. Together they plan to seek out an important rebel leader, whilst avoiding a rogue marksman who frequents this part of the jungle.... (Full plot summary below)
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Tough guy Thomas Beckett is a US Marine working in the Panamanian jungle. His job is to seek out rebels and remove them using his sniper skills. Beckett is notorious for losing his partners on such missions. This time he's accompanied by crack marksman Richard Miller, who's more of an office-type. Together they plan to seek out an important rebel leader, whilst avoiding a rogue marksman who frequents this part of the jungle.
Leave your thoughts about Sniper.
| Chicago Sun-TimesRoger EbertSniper expresses a cool competence that is a pleasure to watch. It isn't a particularly original film, but what it does, it does well. We've seen so many bad movies about guys walking through the jungle with rifles that it's interesting the way this one grabs us through its command of the locations and its storytelling skill. |
| Chicago TribuneGene SiskelBest of all, is this knock-out, though overused, optical effect of a bullet hurtling and whizzing through space toward its target. Sniper is sure to appeal to armchair assassins and fantasy war-gamers. Beyond that audience, Peruvian director Llosa's American debut will appeal to anyone interested in well-made and well-acted pictures that compensate with skill for what they may lack in inspiration. |
| Hartford CourantMalcolm JohnsonIt's difficult to see waves of gung-ho action nuts racing to see this saga of an old hand and a young hotshot tramping though miles of tropical greenery. |
| VarietyJames BerardinelliAction 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. |
| Chicago TribuneClifford TerryOnly mildly exciting as it grinds toward its conclusion, Sniper falls apart in the last reel as writers Michael Frost Beckner and Crash Leyland dispense with credibility by turning the rebel and drug lord's forces into the Keystone Kartel, invoking a Magic Bullet and attempting an Oliver Stone denouement. Unfortunately, director Luis Llosa is no Oliver Stone. |
| Los Angeles TimesMichael WilmingtonA movie for people with time to waste, Sniper is about as compelling as a Soldier of Fortune magazine cover set to music. |
| The New York TimesVincent CanbyAs written, directed and played, Miller is as much of a nonentity as Beckett. Their initial enmity and subsequent reconciliation have no more dramatic impact than the battle scenes, which look as if they were planned by amateurs. The two central characters remain as vague as their targets, who are briefly seen at a distance through gun sights. |
| Baltimore SunStephen WiglerIt's for those of us for whom killing people with high-powered guns in the movies is not only as good as sex but maybe better -- a sacrament for our age... [A] poorly written, badly directed film. |
| Fantastica DailyChuck O'LearyA solid action movie with an interesting performance by Tom Berenger as a gruff and tough loner. |
| Flipside Movie EmporiumRob VauxAll it has going for it is Tom Berenger and a whole lot of atmosphere. Luckily, that's all it needs. |