Seven Snipers

I have a tradition that i usually follow every year, no matter what season of the year we are talking about. I like to rewatch some classic films that i really appreciate for personal reasons, it could be because of nostalgic cinema memories during the 1990´s or because of VHS release that made a impact on me. One perfect example of this is the 1993 action military film Sniper, directed by Luis Llosa ( who also directed the Sylvester Stallone action film The Specialist, definetely worth a watch ). Why i enjoyed the 1993 film Sniper so much was mostly because of the chemistry between main characters Thomas Beckett ( played by actor Tom Berenger ), and his younger sniper partner Richard Miller ( played by actor Billy Zane ). To see these two men on a mission in the jungles of Panama is both exciting, charming and the film manage to capture the importance of working together as a team. If you make one mistake you could end up dead. I also think that this film looks good in the jungle scenes, it feels like we are actually there on location in Panama. Ever since i bought the Scandinavain DVD release of this film ( must have been over 20 years ago at least ), i try to rewatch this film every year. Because it takes me back to my cinema experience i had with Sniper and that was actually a wonderful experience. I have seen some of the sequels over the years and i can accept Sniper 2 and Sniper 3 basically, both of them with Tom Berenger in the lead role. These sequels are not as good as the original film, but enjoyable as pure action films. The other sequels are....not that good if im being perfectly honest. It felt like they were making too many sequels and they didn´t even bother to care about the characters or the stories. I haver no idea how many more movies they will make in the Sniper franchise, but im sure they will try and milk out money as long as the films do well on streaming or digital. Speaking of snipers, since this summer i was curious to check out an action film with actress Radha Mitchell ( who i especially remember from the 2006 film adaptation of Silent Hill, based on the extremely popular video game of the same name ) simply called Seven Snipers. This film looked like a throwback to 90´s action movies and how can i say no to that? I decided to rent this film on VOD and review it as well. Is this one of the better Radha Mitchell movies in recent years, or is Seven Snipers so bad, you would rather suffer through Mariah Carey´s awful 2001 film Glitter than no one seems to remember but me?

Retired military sniper Voodoo Child ( Radha Mitchell ) lives on a ranch in Australia with her daughter Anja ( Annabel Wolfe ), where she tries to raise her daugher in the best possible way, after being away alot during military service. One day a mysterious man shows up claiming a real estate company is interested in bying her land. Voodo Child don´t buy the man´s offer, and it turns out she was right. It seems that someone from her past wants revenge on her, so she calls in her old sniper team for backup on her ranch. It becomes more clear that another sniper named The Dragon ( Tim Roth ) is the one behind of all of this, who have a certain reason for making this so personal against Voodoo Child.

When i started watching Seven Snipers i was immediately reminded of the 1993 action drama film Nowhere To Run. In that film Jean-Claude Van Damme plays a prisoner who managed to escape from a convict transport, and is now drifting around the countryside. He gets to know a mother and her two children, where a real estate company want to buy the woman´s land. Of course she refuse any offer and the real estate company use force to scare her. There are some similarities between Nowhere To Run and Seven Snipers, at least when it comes to the real estate company who wants to buy main character Voodoo Child´s land. Then it turns out there is a completely different plot here after all, that there is a revenge story behind everything. So even if Seven Snipers started off quite simple, we suddenly move forward in a complete different direction. On the positive side for this film i would say that the sniper scenes are alright, not as effective as the 1993 classic Sniper but still good enough to enjoy. Lead actress Radha Mitchell as the former sniper soldier Voodoo Child does have a cool personality. She is confident, doesn´t take shit from anyone and is not afraid to go into battle. I am actually surprised to see Radha Mitchell do this kind of character considering she have not been in many action films, other than Man On Fire, Olympus Has Fallen and London Has Fallen of course.  Legendary actor Tim Roth ( from Quentin Tarantino classics such as Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction ) plays the sniper character The Dragon. I would say he is alright, but have definetely seen him act better in older classics. I would have liked to see The Dragon character be even more cold, and brutal than we see him in this film. I like the brotherhood among the snipers who help their friend of Voodoo Child, where they really need to support each other during this shootout. On the negative i would probably say that there are a couple of dialogue scenes that felt drawn out, just to have the playtime getting closer to almost 90 minutes. Also, some of the decisions that certain snipers does seem kind of unprofessional in certain scenarios. As a pure and simple action film i still feel that Seven Snipers have enough entertainment value, especially for those who love military sniper films of the 90´s. Director Sandra Sciberras ( who directed the low budget Australian horror film The Dustwalker ) deliver a film that definetely feels like a tribute to old school military action movies at the VHS store, and i do appreciate the effort. Seven Snipers should definetely be a hit at the Elderly Home who are fed up with watching Jeopardy.

Rating: DDD