Sniper 2 (2002)

Weary veteran sniper Tomas Beckett (Tom Berenger in fine rugged form) comes out of retirement in order to take out a deadly rogue general in Serbia. Beckett is assisted by laid-back deathrow-bound convict Cole (a solid and likeable performance by Bokeem Woodbine), who will be granted his freedom if he succeeds in helping Beckett out.Director Craig R. Baxley keeps the absorbing story hurtling along at a brisk pace, builds a good deal of tension, and stages the thrilling action set pieces with skill and flair. Berenger and Woodbine play off each other well, with Berenger's tightlipped intensity nicely contrasting with Woodbine's ingratiating breeziness. Moreover, there are sound supporting contributions from the fetching Erika Marozsan as perky and helpful contact Sophia, Tomas Puskas as political radical Pavel, Dan Butler as the shady Eckles, and Linden Ashby as no-nonsense colonel McKenna. The compact script by Ron Mita and Jim McClain draws the main characters with depth and offers a few neat twists. Both David Connell's slick cinematography and Gary Chang's moody score are up to par. A fun little Grade-B action thriller.

OK, let's get started here. The plot itself is decent. Kill a renegade general responsible for ethnic cleansing and then escape. But that is only the beginning. What is screwed up is that Beckett, who is the main character, is called back from retirement into service, even though he lost his index finger he uses for shooting (and has to use his middle finger for shooting). And Beckett is teamed up with a guy named Cole, who was in jail for killing an officer he suspects betrayed them (he rants about it in the movie in the middle of a battle). The only real good part of the movie is when the Serbian general (who really is Hungarian) is assassinated. The makers of the movie must be on weed. They think that no one will notice that the Serbs are all speaking Hungarian (which has no connection at all to Serbian language even though both nations share the same borders together). Of course, they thought wrong. And since when was a Mosin-Nagant, which Beckett uses, a Mauser? Beckett claims that it's a Mauser. And I thought military personnel were to know their guns. The mission itself supposedly takes place after Milosevic was overthrown in 2000, yet the Serbs claim in the movie they are victims of so-called UN-backed atrocities, but Serbia rejoined the UN after Milosevic was ousted. The acting is poor in many cases as well. For example, Beckett throws his arm up in the air just to look at his watch and when he gives Cole a 'serious' lecture, Cole is about to laugh but holds it in. Had the makers actually PUT serious effort into making this movie I would enjoy it. But unfortunately this is not the case.Overall a 4/10

Though I like Tom Berenger as an actor, i must say this movie is almost appalling with its contempt of correct/authentic details. The expert don't use the correct names/brands of the gun they are using, nut much worse is, that all Serbians speak Hungarian and the city (supposed to be somewhere in Bosnia) is actually Budapest, which rather easy to notice to anybody who knows the city (you can even read it on tram signs) or Hungary. That alone gives you the feelings, that the producers treat the audience as ignorant, clueless morons being unable to tell one European country from another (in the case of 2 ethnically and culturally rather distinct countries not even neighbouring each other).

Sniper 2 is not worth your time. I had no misconceptions about this flick beforehand, but I admit disappointment in being proved right. The original Sniper on it's own level was definitely enjoyable so it was only by being a fan of the original that made sitting through this mildly bearable. I have a real hard time envisioning people who aren't familiar with the original Sniper enjoying (much less watching) this. Sniper 2 carries the original's moniker, but it's only through the miracle of direct-to-video bastardization that it lands at our feet.For those unfamiliar with the original, the underlying story followed hard-ass Sgt. Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) in the Panamanian jungle where he put to use his excellent sniping skills and jungle know-how for the US government carrying out sanctioned "hits" so to speak. Without giving away any deeper plot elements or spoilers to the original film - and as you can probably piece together yourself - he survived the first time out and is back for more in "2".Surprisingly Sniper 2 actually rolls out with a nice atmospheric opening.... that lasts all of two minutes. After that my dismal expectations were met and the brief goodness gave away to the bad. For instance the movie pulls out a tried and true scene where two agency suits show up to recruit Beckett for a mission. The set-up is low energy verging on lousy all except for Beckett's "price" for doing the off the books job which rings true to character. The actual mission itself is so uninteresting and basic that I just knew I was about to see betrayals and lies pop out sooner or later. So color me unimpressed in the story department, but at least there's Beckett. This time around he's teamed up with Jake Cole (Bokeem Woodbine). A US marine we're told is on death row, but for reasons never drawn upon, fleshed out or explained. This is the extent of Cole's character development too. Again after the fiasco of the original, I'd suspect Beckett would be a tad more apprehensive about new partners, but Cole's record "7 real world missions. 3 confirmed" seems to put him at ease. So with all the loose pieces in place the duo trot off to some nondescript European locale to bounce a bullet off some third world would-be dictator. The fact the movie can't even carry out the set-up nor the actual act with a modest amount of energy pretty much dictates the rest of this mess. Only towards the end of the film does the flick come close to something worthwhile and the only thing that barely salvages this train wreck is Berenger's return as Beckett.It feels as if everyone involved in this movie knew that they were making junk because Sniper 2 never once feels like anything more than a direct to video experience. The story, the sights, the smells, it's got as much excitement as peeling carrots. It's technically well made from a workman's perspective, but it's blunt, lacking both atmosphere and excitement. Making things worse is it doesn't even make for a decent sniper movie. Some parts of the film feel like they could have been fitted into almost any other B-grade action movie and had some sniping angle tacked on to them afterwards for namesake. Having also been removed from the jungle and placed amongst streets and bombed out scenery robs much atmosphere and much needed backdrop for a movie supposed to be primarily about snipers and their art.Take for instance one scene that happens on a public street. There's machine guns firing off, things blowing up, the ramming of cars, characters running, a fireball explosion -- everything you need to get the juices pumping. Yet there is no excitement and there is no sniping. The last half tries to get something going by spring-boarding in this rival enemy sniper, but by this point it's hopeless. All the film's enemies up to this point were underdeveloped and this enemy sniper is no different. Not to mention the whole dueling sniper aspect is rushed and rather short having been tacked onto the near end. Blah.Sniper 2 is just by-the-numbers film making. The kind of bad sequel we all expect these days. The only people who should be disappointed to see how truly mediocre it is are fans of the original. If you fall in that boat be forewarned. Beckett is back and while the movie does expand on his character, the whole thing is dull.