6.4 | / 10 |
Users | 0.0 | |
Reviewer | 3.0 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Tom Berenger and Billy Zane load their weapons for hair-trigger suspense and through-the-heart action in this non-stop guerrilla adventure exploding with raw firepower. One shot. One kill. No exceptions. By that hard and fast rule, legendary Marine sniper Tom Beckett (Berenger) serves his lonely duty. With a dossier boasting 74 confirmed kills, he may be ready for his final assignment. But is he ready for his toughest? As his spotter, the Pentagon has chosen GS-9 Richard Miller (Zane) — a silver-medal marksman aiming for a Washington promotion. Together the bush-savvy gunner and the inexperienced bureaucrat must track down and eliminate a powerful rebel leader and his Columbian drug-lord financier. It's a suicide mission into the jungles of Central America, where a man carries his life in his hands — and lives it one bullet at a time.
Starring: Tom Berenger, Billy Zane, J.T. Walsh, Aden Young, Kenneth RadleyThriller | Insignificant |
Drama | Insignificant |
Action | Insignificant |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.85:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0
French: Dolby Digital 2.0
Spanish: Dolby Digital 2.0
English SDH
Blu-ray Disc
Single disc (1 BD)
Region A, B (C untested)
Movie | 3.5 | |
Video | 4.0 | |
Audio | 3.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 3.0 |
Sniper is an interesting film that goes where others have gone before it: examining the psychological state of fighting men and their evolution in the fields of battle. But this film looks at two opposing perspectives from two very different men: a longtime sniper with a lengthy list of confirmed kills to his name who is focused on his mission, unafraid to pull the trigger, who thrives on the adrenaline rush of the kill. On the other hand is a man who has yet to kill another human being. He's not experienced and he's not particularly eager to get that first kill under his belt. The men clash with one another more frequently than they clash with the enemy, and the film's story centers on how their clashing personalities, contrasting combat experiences, and willingness to take human life must evolve if they're to survive their mission.
Sony once again impresses with a catalogue Blu-ray release. From the opening minutes it's clear that Sniper is going to thrive on Blu-ray. While the picture is not perfect, it's steadily filmic, nicely detailed, and richly colorful. Grain is not intense, but neither is it scrubbed away. Excellent clarity on instruments inside choppers, jungle leaves and terrain, military uniforms, beads of sweat, stubble, face paint, and pores are all in evidence throughout, and with much of the action taking place at a very deliberate pace, with the camera lingering on characters setting up, moving slow, or preparing to fire, there's ample opportunity to enjoy the sort of in-depth richness the image has to offer. Colors are likewise solid, Most of the intense output comes in shades of green, whether because of jungle foliage or various military uniforms. Bursts of red blood add some additional color intensity. Black levels, particularly at night, are deep enough. Flesh tones are true. The print is free of any serious blemishes and the encode reveals no troublesome after-effects. This is a solid image all around.
Sniper shoots straight onto Blu-ray with a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 lossless soundtrack. The track is solid all around, never lacking anything more than tighter definition and lifelike clarity. Indeed, the track can be a bit unkempt at times. Interior rattling on a train at the 27-minute mark lacks dynamic clarity, sounding a little chunky, rendering the scene sounding a bit artificial and a touch hollow. Certainly tighter, modern audio engineering would have benefited such a scene, but even as less than perfect this example, and others like it, at least recreate a sense of essential place, even if fine detail is lacking. Conversely, the track offers some excellent jungle atmospherics in play, including singing birds and chirping insects scattered all over the listening area at varying volume and apparent distances from the central action, helping to build a believable jungle atmosphere that draws the listener into the world and sets a critical stage in any number of scenes. Listeners will enjoy good depth to chopping helicopter rotors and nice power to gunfire. Gunplay is a sonic highlight, whether considering the depth of a single report from a sniper's rifle or the rat-a-tat fire from AK-47s and other weapons randomly spraying and praying in blind hope of hitting a sniper who has just fired a weapon, probably from a distance those infantry weapons cannot even reach. But the sense of stage fill and essential accuracy and volume make for a satisfying symphony of gunplay as various scenes call for it. Saturating rain towards the end falls not with lifelike detail but at least a good sense of balance and basic immersion. Dialogue is clear and center positioned for the duration.
This Blu-ray release of Sniper contains only one supplement: the film's Theatrical Trailer (1080p, 2:18). No DVD or digital copies are included with purchase. This release does not ship with a slipcover.
With the deluge of Sniper sequels on Blu-ray already, it's a surprise that it took Sony so long to bring this original – and still the best – to Blu-ray. The picture is solid, brimming with character tension and playing out in the midst of good pace and tight action. The Blu-ray is disappointingly devoid of meaningful supplemental content but the video and audio presentations rate as a firm "solid." Recommended.
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Part One
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