Film & TV

DVD Review: Sniper: Ghost Shooter

An elite military squad finds themselves getting picked off each time they face a particular terrorist enemy who seems to be able to pinpoint their location.

With a mix of new and old faces, Sniper: Ghost Shooter revives the tired Sniper series of films, despite being the sixth outing of the franchise across more than 20 years.

Beginning with the 1993 film, Sniper, starring Tom Berenger, the film went on to sporn Sniper 2 & 3 almost 10 years later, followed by another long gap before Sniper: Reloaded (2011) and Sniper: Legacy (2014).

SniperGhostDVDIn this latest outing, Billy Zane returns as Richard Miller, who appeared in the original film and the 2011 Reloaded sequel. Also returning from Reloaded and Legacy, is Chad Michael Collins as Sgt Brandon Beckett, the son of Berenger’s original hero.

In Ghost Shooter, the elite military sniper squad is sent to protect the Trans-Georgian pipeline from a squad of terrorists but each encounter results in the squad being picked off by an invisible shooter. On an unauthorised mission, Beckett learns that the terrorists are tapping into satellite feeds to use the military’s own drones to locate their personnel. When the brass won’t believe him, Beckett and his team are forced to improvise and remove their GPS tracking in order to stay alive.

Don Michael Paul returns to the Director’s chair after helming Legacy and knows this terrain well. The action is tight, the gunfights are explicit and the tension is palpable as shooters line up their shots and make a call.

Chris Hauty’s script is not afraid to kill of main characters, adding to the excitement of this military action thriller. Running at approximately 90 minutes, there’s not a lot of time for exposition so the dialogue is tight and the action is plenty. The only thing overlooked is a satisfying conclusion to the friction between the grunts and the brass in charge, but this may be a deliberate choice to carry over into a future film.

Sniper: Ghost Shooter is a direct-to-DVD release but returns the franchise to its former glory. It’s an enjoyable military action flick for any fan of the genre.

Reviewed by Rod Lewis
Twitter: @StrtegicRetweet

Rating out of 10:  7

Sniper: Ghost Shooter will be released on DVD from 25 August 2016.

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