The Sniper Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.0
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		2.5

The Sniper Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov August 3, 2009

There is enough style but hardly any substance in Dante Lam’s “The Sniper” (2009). The film arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors MegaStar. The supplemental features on the disc are sparse – making of featurette, deleted scenes, and original theatrical trailer. English-friendly. Region-Free.

Huang Xiaoming

Someone is terrorizing HKPD. Hartman (Richie Ren, Breaking News), a top sniper, suspects that it is his ex-colleague Lincoln (Huang Xiaoming, Legend of the Black Scorpion) who was demoted and sent to prison for accidentally killing a hostage a few years ago. Together with OJ (Edison Chen, Dog Bite Dog), a young and ambitious sniper, he embarks on a mission to neutralize the mysterious shooter. Soon, he reveals himself – it is indeed Lincoln.

A bloodbath ensues. Lincoln is convinced that Hartman and HKPD must be punished. He teams up with a gang of criminals and eventually kills their leader – the man responsible for the hostage situation that cost him his career and reputation.

The HKPD bosses agree that enough is enough. They sent their entire Sniper Squad to take out Lincoln who has gone mad. The snipers meet their ex-colleague in a large warehouse, somewhere on the outskirts of Hong Kong.

The Sniper is a film that would have not gotten much international exposure had one of its stars, Edison Chen, not been involved in a highly publicized sex scandal. In 2008, explicit photos of Chen and a number of well known Hong Kong actresses were published on the Internet. Since then, there has been an enormous amount of interest in his work.

The Sniper is directed by Dante Lam whose impressive The Beast Stalker has encouraged many to conclude that the HK action genre is staging a comeback. Earlier this year, The Beast Stalker earned two Asian Film Awards nominations, one for Best Supporting Actor (Nick Cheung) and one for Best Editor (Chan Ki Hop), and won the Best Actor Award (Nick Cheung) granted by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society.

The Sniper, director Lam’s latest film, is unlikely to achieve similar success. While at times impressively lensed, The Sniper employs a number of overused clichés that never allow it to evolve into something more than the sum of its parts.

What partially redeems The Sniper is the impressive arsenal of weapons used by the main protagonists. There is hardly any mention in the supplemental features provided on this Blu-ray disc about these weapons, but director Lam and a team of military specialists spent a great deal of time making sure that the replicas used in The Sniper look as authentic as possible. Once you see the film, I believe you would agree that they did a fantastic job.

Cinematographer Cheung Man Po (The Beast Stalker) has given The Sniper a stylized look, one that at times appears awfully similar to what John Schwartzman (The Rock and Conspiracy Theory) favors. The use of color, light and shadow is particularly intriguing.

The final twenty or so minutes in The Sniperare rather impressive. The main protagonists engage in an all-out shootout where visual effects guru Stephen Ma (Exiled), a man whose expertise is often sought by Johnnie To, shows what he is capable of. Most unfortunately, the rest of the film is far less enticing. The music score is plain and easily forgotten.

The Sniper Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in its original aspect ratio of 2.39:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Dante Lam's The Sniper arrives n Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors MegaStar.

This is a very puzzling transfer. There are portions of it that look absolutely stunning. Clarity, detail and contrast are of near reference quality. Yet, elsewhere I spotted heavy edge-enhancement, artifacts and digital noise. During the second half of the film, a lot of the nighttime scenes look a bit soft as well. I also detected plenty of contrast boosting, which will likely annoy the more sensitive amongst you. Frankly, I don't have a good explanation as to why there are such major fluctuations with the video quality. It really is quite puzzling to see that in a matter of minutes The Sniper could switch from looking incredible to looking average. For the record, aside from a few tiny flecks, there are no major scratches, warps, debris, or dust to report in this review. (Note: Even though this Blu-ray disc is marketed as Region-A, it is in fact Region-Free. Therefore, you will be able to play it on your PS3 or SA regardless of your geographical location).

The Sniper Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1, Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1. I opted for the Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track and later on did a few random comparisons with the other two tracks for the purpose of this review.

Generally speaking, the Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track does not disappoint. The bass is strong and full-bodied, the high frequencies not overdone, and the surround channels mostly adequately used. I must admit, however, that I expected to hear a much tighter audio treatment. I thought that the abundance of shootouts in The Sniper would have given the audio encoders responsible for the Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track plenty of opportunities to shine. Instead, while far from disappointing, the Cantonese Dolby TrueHD 7.1 track does just about enough not to be described as average. This being said, there are absolutely no issues with it. The dialog is crisp, clear and very easy to follow. There are no disturbing pops, cracks, hissings, or dropouts that I detected either. All in all, this is a good but not impressive audio track.

The Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 track is, as expected, unimpressive. Generally speaking, its basics are intact – the bass is strong, the high frequencies not overdone and the dialog crisp and easy to follow – but its dynamics are far from pleasing.

I tested only two scenes with the Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1 track on – the tower shootout and the final shootout at the warehouse. As far as I am concerned, both scenes sounded practically identical to what I heard with the Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1 track. For the record, MegaStar have provided optional English, Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The Sniper Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Original theatrical trailer - (2 min, 1080p).

Making of - a standard featurette broken into three parts. The overwhelming majority of the comments here address the main characters and their placement in the film. Raw footage from a few key scenes is offered. With optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles. (15 min, 480/60i).

Deleted Scenes - a gallery of deleted scenes. None are subtitled. (7 min, 480/60i).

The Sniper Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Dante Lam's The Sniper will appeal primarily to those of you who like flashy action films. There is no denying that a few of the shootouts in it are rather impressive, but everything else is painfully familiar. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of MegaStar, looks good. I am, however, convinced that it could have looked a lot better. RENT IT.