In the jungles of Panama, Marine sniper Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) loses his partner during an ill-timed extraction. Inexperienced Richard Miller (Billy Zane) is sent down to Panama to be his next spotter and his commander on a mission without Congressional approval. They are to kill a leading rebel candidate before he could win the upcoming election. There is also an expert rebel sniper in the area who was Beckett's former student.

This is a fine military action thriller. Berenger is very effective. Billy Zane is good as the over-compensating ambitious new guy. Their relationship generates good tension. It doesn't have anything special but it's done well.

I watched this movie back in 1993/1994 when it came out, on VHS back then. And I had a very good memory of it! So I watched an uncut version of it lately. And my memory got clearer. I know why I liked it back then (it does criticize a few things in war, human beings and other things) ...

... but I also know now, that it's not one of the best anti-war movies ever made! This might be one of the better Tom Berenger roles (with the B-movie "Substitute") and he really is good in this one. Billy Zane delivers a good performance too. But it still leaves you with a feeling that there could've been more ... if maybe a better director were at hand, this could've been considered a classic! One thing is for sure though: One scene is classic and it has to with a bullet and the camera ... if you watch it, you'll know what I mean!

I remember being mildly entertained by this slow moving action film back in the day and re-watching it now, I was again mildly entertained. Tom Berenger plays an army sniper who is saddled with a new young know-it-all partner, Billy Zane, and the two must work together on a dangerous mission in South America. The one part of the film that was burned into my memory is a key sequence where the two are outside a military compound trying to move into position for a shot on their target. The best moment of that sequence is Zane looking through a scope across the field only to see a clump of grass unexpectedly slide across the field, which is Berenger stealthily getting into position. The build-up to this sequence of Berenger and Zane trekking through the jungle is not especially well written, but the two actors make the most of it and do manage to make it watchable. The events of the film occurring afterwards aren't all that interesting either. The filmmakers clearly wanted to make this a taught psychological thriller of dueling snipers and diverging world views, but the script is nowhere smart enough for that. I did see that Walon Green ("The Wild Bunch" "Hill Street Blues") was one of the executive producers and Barry Levinson ("The Wire" "Bugsy") was attached to direct at one point, so very likely this was going to be a much smarter film somewhere along the line. Still, that one set piece in the middle of the film and strong performances by Berenger and Zane make "Sniper" worth checking out. The great J.T. Walsh also appears in the film, but if you want a great sniper duel film, watch "Enemy at the Gates" instead.