Regardless on your feelings regarding the seemingly unkillable Sniper franchise, you have to admit that for a cinematic series that most people don’t even realise exists, it’s certainty an impressive feat. In fact, I don’t think anyone who ever saw the sweaty Tom Berenger/Billy Zane original back in 1993 could have ever predicted that years later, we’d be getting an eleventh installment in 2025! While that means the Sniper films have technically out-Fast & Furioused the Fast & Furious films (currently stuck on an even ten with one spinoff), the series has seen a similar shift from the gritty, earlier films that featured a permanently miserable looking Tom Berenger, to a more comic booky action romp that’s predominantly focused on Chad Michael Collins’ sharp shooting spawn.
But as the previous entry, G.R.I.T., took matters into campy day glow territory with a brightly dressed cult and more quips per minute than a Deadpool supercut, where left is there for Sniper to go? Is it really time for the franchise to take its last stand?
Despite having a perfectly good special ops team of their own, G.R.I.T. team members Brandon Beckett and Zeke “Zero” Rosenberg find themselves on loan to a crack team of freedom fighters who wish to purge Costa Verde of the threat of nefarious arms dealer, Ryker Kovalov. Zero is on board thanks to him taking previous cracks at the smug bastard before and someone obviously thinks that third time’s the charm, however Beckett has been recruited to Operation Phoenix in order to take rookie sniper under his wing and groom him to become every inch the long distance killer he is – but here lies a bit of a problem; while Beckett is supremely confident at taking orders, he’s always been a little squeamish about giving them.
After we’re introduced to the new team that contains the usual amount of badasses (that’ll be woman warrior, Angel), eccentrics (say hi to the appropriately named Axe Twins) and even a connection to Beckett’s past (computer expert Nova is the son of the guy Beckett was framed for assassinating a couple of movies ago), we start absorbing a couple of narrative curve balls that manage to flip the mission from a standard op to a desperate battle for survival. It seems that Kovalov has been tirelessly trying to finan e the creation of the next generation of weaponry and as a result, Beckett’s team is suddenly reduced by less than half with around a hundred members of the local militia on the way.
However, a handy exfil is off the cards when the survivors realise that they have to stay put to ensure that the details of Kovalov’s super weapons are properly disposed off. Before you know it, we’re in an Alamo-style situation where a handful of troops have to fend off grossly superior numbers in order to make sure the mission is completed. Have Beckett and Zero finally reached the end of the line – or will the gods of direct to streaming movie making throw them a much needed bone?
I’ve got to admit, while a large share of the Sniper output has fallen into the realms of middle of the road, two-star, patriotic actioner, the most recent entries have managed to be quite fun thanks to the use of filmmakers who weren’t afraid to have a little fun and add some quirks into a franchise that, for the most part, was quite po-faced. Yes, there’s an argument to be made that the inclusion of female ninja snipers, bickering sex traffickers and gaudily dressed cults seemed to be steering the movies from Call Of Duty to Saint’s Row, if I were to use a video game allegory. However, as the films got sillier, the more I was finding I was enjoying them, I’ll freely admit that even though I had a ball with Oliver Thompson’s Sniper: G.R.I.T., it probably was a step too far into comic book glibness. But then, why shouldn’t these films be fun – sure, I appreciated the far more sober original trilogy which saw Tom Berenger scowl his way through proceedings, but once the franchise restarted back in 2011, it seemed to equate seriousness with just being plain dull. However, with Thompson noticably absent from this eleventh installment, you can tell that the powers that be are trying to mute that humour a little, which gives franchise newcomer Danishka Esterhazy a chance to remold the tone a little.
While you wouldn’t exactly credit the director of The Banana Splits Movie to give an action franchise a slightly straighter face, Esterhazy not only does a good job, but employs enough tricks to ensure that you get a little nervous as the film enters its free for all, final act. But firstly, the movie mamages to play some effective little tricks on you, such as starting the film with Operation Phoenix already underway to whet our appetite only to rewind the plot back a bunch of hours to then introduce the characters who by now are already in deep shit. There’s nothing too flashy here and most of the players might have well have KIA tattooed on their foreheads, but much like Thompson before her, Esterhazy is working overtime to drag the audience out of its direct-to-streaming apathy in order to get us to actually care about some of these guys. I have to tip my hat too, because even though I’d hardly include Brandon Beckett and Zero in my list of all-time beloved characters, as the movie starts to shift into a The Wild Bunch mindset that sees a depleted force facing impossible odds, you genuinely start to feel that that Last Stand subtitle may have ominous overtones.
OK, so it won’t have you drenched in dread, forboding and have you screaming at the screen like the trash furnace scene in Toy Story 3 (surely the true yardstick for fear of character mortality in modern day cinema), but the fact that Sniper 11 had me feeling anything other than boredom and mild irritability is nothing short of remarkable. In fact, I guess this may mean that Sniper has finally broken through to be on my radar even though it still carries a hefty amount of flaws in its military-grade pockets. While you have to credit the production for delivering copious and innovative action sequences that include “onesie” corridor fights, extended shootouts and one of the axe twins defiantly earning her name, there’s nothing here that you haven’t seen dozens of times before. Similarly, while Collins has been given more of a commanding role as the chaos moves him from being a mentor to Sizo Mahlangu’s rookie sharpshooter, to taking full command, the actor still seems fairly bland whenever he’s tasked with anything other than fight scenes and quip trading with a returning Ryan Robbins. Also, it’s quite cruel of the film to set up Arnold Vosloo as the big bad only to use him disappointingly sparingly even if it does set up a rather important twist, but while Sniper: The Last Stand may be a small fry compared to other, modern action sequels, it’s quite the big deal within the Sniper franchise itself.
So Sniper has bullseyed itself yet another above average entry, but is this really the last stand for a series that’s finally settled into a favorable rhythm? Well, here’s a clue: go to Letterboxd, type in Sniper: No Nation and see what you get…
Let’s face it, when they find their optimal vantage point, snipers are fucking unstoppable.
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