Sniper 3 (2004)

Deadly sniper Tom Beckett is recruited by the CIA to go to Ho Chi Minh City and take out a ruthless drug dealer who turns out to be an old war buddy he thought was dead.

Director:

P.J. Pesce

Writers:

Michael Frost Beckner (characters created by), Crash Leyland (characters created by)

Stars:

Tom Berenger, Byron Mann, John Doman

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Tom Berenger	...	Thomas Beckett
Byron Mann	...	Quan
John Doman	...	Paul Finnegan
Denis Arndt	...	William Avery
Troy Winbush	...	Captain Laraby
Jeannetta Arnette	...	Sydney
William Duffy	...	Richard Addis
Nophand Boonyai	...	Tran
Dom Hetrakul	...	Chu
Govit Vattanakun	...	Chinaman
Naraporn Chainin	...	Vietnamese Woman
Zawit Subanunt	...	Vietnamese Policeman
Bangongsak Kansai	...	Vietnamese Policeman
Aoyama Isao	...	Asian Bodyguard
Ken Streutker	...	Neil Finnegan

Storyline

Sniper Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) is hired by NSA officials, William Avery (Denis Arndt) and Richard Addis (William Duffy) to perform a covert operation to eliminate a suspected terrorist. The terrorist turns out to be a friend of Beckett's and the real purpose of the mission turns out to be something other than what Beckett was told.

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Plot Keywords:

sequel | third part | betrayal by a friend | betrayal | sniper | 

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Taglines:

Everyone is a target.

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Genres:

Action | Drama | Thriller | War

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong violence and language

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

2004 (USA)

Also Known As:

Sniper 3

Filming Locations:

Chiang Mai, Thailand

Company Credits

Production Co:

Destination Films, Sandstorm Films

Technical Specs

Runtime:

90 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

All the signs in the so-called "Ho Chi Minh" city are in Thai, which doesn't look even remotely like Vietnamese. Vietnamese language is written in the Western alphabet, with accent symbols over some letters. Thai has its own alphabet, quite indecipherable to Westerners.

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Goofs

When Beckett and Detective Quan are in the tunnels Beckett is carrying a sidearm in his left hand and rifle with his right hand with the index finger "missing", but in another shot it is carrying the rifle in his left hand and the handgun in his right showing the index finger on the trigger.

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Quotes

Quan: Remember, one shot is probably all you get.
Beckett: One shot is all I need.

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Connections

Followed by Sniper: Legacy (2014)

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Soundtracks

Drop The Bea(s)t
Written by Tim Jones
Performed by Tim Jones

User Reviews

A fairly serviceable DTV thriller that doesn't do anything that well or that badly

Although sniper Thomas Beckett is still known as a master of his "art", his loss of a finger and deal with the Corp to stay with a training programme has now earned him a reputation as a pain in the ass washed out old man. However the NSA need a sniper to take out a Vietnamese drug warlord who has moved into international terrorism. The problem is that this "warlord" is former CIA and Beckett's spotter who has taken his former role of using drug running to fund black ops for the US and expanded it, with the "presumed dead" label helping him to do it.

I'm not sure what made me try this film although rest assured that the offer of a Tom Berenger three-quel is not usually what has me forming a "Star Wars" style queue at my cinema. It was actually reasonably good for what it was though, despite doing no one thing really well and generally accepting for a level of serviceability across the board. This can be seen in the many things it tries to do. It wants to have a conspiracy/shadowy NSA men thing; a "sick of the killing but am nothing without it" character thing; an action movie thing and, weirdly, an Apocalypse Now thing as well. Being a direct to video third film in an unremarkable series, I doubt that dropping all of these and focusing on one would have made them any better so actually it does do a reasonable job of having a bit of everything.

If you're looking for a solid direct-to-video thriller then the little touches surrounding Beckett and Finnegan will be of interest and perhaps be a welcome addition to what the film is doing. Anyone expecting it to do much more than the basics with Beckett's supposedly broken man other than having him mumbling something about being "tired" will be disappointed because of all the things the film does, it generally doesn't take them beyond this level. The film still engages though, despite the way the action rarely actually reflects the stealth of the title or the "one shot" of the tagline. Pesce does an OK job of directing given the usual b-movies he does (which I suppose this is another one of).

The cast are mixed and do mostly do the job , albeit a job where not a lot is asked. Berenger does "grizzled" well and wears it like a pair of old slippers here. In terms of depth or understanding of his character I'd suggest he doesn't bring much out, but then he doesn't really need to. Mann is on hand to do "oriental side kick" duties as is often the way; I like him as he is an attractive man and has an easy charm and he gets to do a fight scene in return for playing second fiddle. Arndt and Duffy are suitably shadowy but the surprise find for me was a solid presence from Streutker. Better known to those with taste as Rawls from The Wire (and if you haven't seen this show then I would suggest you perhaps put that above things like Sniper 3 in your rental queue), he manages to do a good job with basically what is a half-baked rip off of Kurtz. His character is stupid, his motivations worse and the jail room scene just too close to being a spoof but yet the man has presence and he makes for a good big character opposite Berenger.

Overall then, a fairly serviceable DTV thriller. It has lots of things going on but does none of them beyond a level that could be politely called average. However by having them there it does help make the film feel slightly better than it is and, for all it did, I reasonably enjoyed it.