COMPANY: Stage 6 Films
RUNTIME: 91 mins
FORMAT: Netflix
PLOT: The son of a renowned sniper decides to track down the sniper who ambushed his squad when they were sent to rescue a white planter in the Congo.
REVIEW: Going into Sniper: Reloaded, I really wasn't expecting much. I loved the first two Sniper movies but hated the third, and knowing that this was a Tom Berenger-less sequel didn't really give me any hope for it. Surprisingly though, I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. Chad Michael Collins plays the estranged son of Tom Berenger's character from the three previous movies (and surprisingly actually looks like he could be related to Berenger), but he lacks Berenger's charm as he's a bit bland and it doesn't help that Collins is essentially the male version of Kristen Stewart when it comes to showing emotions. Luckily his slack is picked up by the supporting cast, as they're all mostly serviceable to outright great, with the love interest character certainly having the eye candy department covered (and then some).
The action scenes are also pretty tense, especially since in the majority of them the characters (and us, the viewers right along with them) have no idea which direction the bullets are flying at them from, or where the next shot could be coming from. The movie is filled with many suspenseful scenes that keep you pretty riveted to the screen, and not just in terms of action ones, but some good character moments that are filled with suspense as well. In addition to that, the locations they used to shoot this movie were all breathtakingly beautiful, and the movie itself almost felt like a mini-vacation during most of it.
It was also great having Billy Zane back for the first time since the original movie - he totally owned every scene he was in and it was fun seeing how his character has changed in the time since the first movie, while also paying homage to it. It also surprised me just how much Zane was in this. I was expecting a one or two scene cameo, but he was pretty much the second-main character. With that said, Sniper: Reloaded could have still benefited greatly from a Tom Berenger cameo though, since this was the only movie in the series that he wasn't in and it would have been totally geektastic to have both him and Billy Zane share one last scene together in the series.
If I had one main complaint though, other then the lead actor's lack of emotion, it would be that despite this being a Sniper movie, there's very little actual sniping going on - the main lead out and out refuses to snipe at all until the final showdown scene at the very end, so the movie could have been a bit better had they actually implemented more sniping in this Sniper movie. With that said however, the lack of him sniping actually made the build-up to when he finally does give in and agrees to snipe quite worth-it and the scene is easily one of my favorites in the entire movie because of that.
Overall, Sniper: Reloaded is not as good as the first two movies were, but leaps and bounds better then horrid Sniper 3, and it's also a great jumping-on point for those unfamiliar with the series as it acts as kind of a light reboot in a 'Sniper: The Next Generation' kind of way.
7/10 rooms in the Psych Ward