GOOD PERFORMANCES MAKE `SNIPER' BETTER THAN MOST ACTION FLICKS

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, January 30, 1993                   TAG: 9301300246
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium
GOOD PERFORMANCES MAKE `SNIPER' BETTER THAN MOST ACTION FLICKS
"Sniper" is a good action movie that could have been a very good action movie, maybe even a great one.
The plot could hardly be simpler. Thomas Beckett (Tom Berenger) is a United States Marine sniper who kills people in Panama. (Don't ask why an American would be doing that in a foreign country, with the permission of the local government; that part of the story has nothing to do with reality.) Beckett's current assignment is to assassinate a politician with drug connections.
Assisting him, and in theory his superior, is Richard Miller (Billy Zane), a hotshot from Washington. Miller has an Olympic medal for shooting, and some experience with a S.W.A.T. team, but he has never actually killed anyone.
Following the traditional "buddy" formula, Beckett and Miller dislike each other immediately. When they get into the jungle (Queensland, Australia, standing in for Central America), a few more sadistic villains show up, and their mission becomes more complicated.
Peruvian director Luis Llosa handles the action and the locations well. The film looks and feels authentic.
The script by Michael Beckner and Crash Leyland sticks to the basics - will Miller kill? - and that part of it doesn't generate much suspense. But these are interesting, complex characters, and Berenger and Zane do excellent work with them.
Their believability raises "Sniper" above the level of a genre picture, but the film doesn't take the next step. As heroes, even heroes of popular entertainment, snipers are morally questionable. They are, after all, assassins, murders.
At times, the characters come close to examining the moral questions about their work. Both the name Thomas Beckett, and Miller's hesitation suggest that the men will engage the ethics of their profession.
But they don't. Perhaps it's unfair to criticize the movie for not being something it wasn't meant to be, but the implications are there. As it is, "Sniper" is still an involving well-told story that most action fans will thoroughly enjoy.

Sniper: **1/2
A Tristar release playing at the Salem Valley 8. 98 min. Rated R for violence, strong language.

by Bhavesh Jinadra by CNB