Nerdly » ‘Sniper: The Last Stand’ Review

27th Jan2025

‘Sniper: The Last Stand’ Review

by Jim Morazzini

Stars: Chad Michael Collins, Arnold Vosloo, Vusi Kunene, Ryan Robbins, Noxolo Dlamini, Scott George, Sharon Taylor, Sizo Mahlangu, Rob Van Vuuren | Written by Sean Wathen | Directed by Danishka Esterhazy

Sniper: The Last Stand is the eleventh film in a franchise that began back in 1993 with Sniper and continued on through films like Sniper: Rogue Mission and most recently Sniper: G.R.I.T. – Global Response & Intelligence Team. After so many entries, many franchises are running out of steam and getting by on past glories, will this be any different?

The film opens with a ten-minute sequence where the members of Operation Phoenix track arms dealer Ryker Kovalov (Arnold Vosloo; The Mummy, Condor’s Nest) to his headquarters in the jungles of Costa Verde only for him to trigger his doomsday weapon.

The film then travels back to forty-eight hours earlier and Brandon Beckett’s (Chad Michael Collins; Dead Zone, Legion of the Dead) arrival at a remote airstrip in Costa Verde, a trip that involved being on six planes in the past thirty-six hours and not even knowing what country he’s in.

Colonel Modise (Vusi Kunene; A Reasonable Man, House of Zwide) tells him it’s an off-the-record job and introduces him to the rest of the team which includes returning character Zero (Ryan Robbins; Scorched Earth, The Philadelphia Experiment), Angel (Noxolo Dlamini; Death of a Whistleblower, Silverton Siege), Hilo (Scott George) and Hera (Sharon Taylor; Guiding Emily, Stargate: Atlantis), known as The Axe Twins after their weapon of choice and Zondi (Sizo Mahlangu; The Red Sea Diving Resort, Warrior), a sniper for whom this will be his first mission.

Their target is Kovalov who is holed up somewhere in the jungle where his weapon designer Maxxim (Rob Van Vuuren; Slumber Party Massacre, Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom) is developing some sort of super weapon. The objective is to bring them back alive, but if that isn’t possible, put them out of business, permanently.

Director Danishka Esterhazy (Level 16, Killer Body Count) and writer Sean Wathen (Escape the Field, It Lives Below) use the flashback to provide the standard introductions, training scenes between Beckett and Zondi, etc. Then they jump from the team moving out to the aftermath of the blast we saw in the prologue, saving the viewer the usual trekking through the jungle clichés and working a morbid little twist into the proceedings as well.

This sets up an Alamo-type face-off against the corrupt Prime Minister’s personal militia that takes up the film’s last half. That not only results in plenty of action but a good amount of suspense, as the filmmakers have already made some unexpected choices when it comes to the film’s earlier casualties. Between that and the rather ominous title, Sniper: The Last Stand, I wasn’t sure just who would make it to the final credits.

Given the franchise’s enduring popularity, Sony obviously gave it a better budget than many of its straight-to-streaming efforts. There are plenty of extras for the film’s battle scenes and several explosions that were either done practically or with much better CGI than usual. It’s a welcome change from films where they try to make a handful of stuntmen look like an overwhelming force.

On top of that, Sniper: The Last Stand benefits from a better-than-usual script and direction. I was worried about this because, while I’ve been a fan of the director’s previous work, and Escape the Field was an entertaining, if familiar, film neither Esterhazy nor Wathen had any experience with action films, both coming from a background of horror films.

I shouldn’t have worried, as the dialogue through the film’s first half stays interesting and the action scenes in the second half, such as Hera’s fight against several machete-wielding enemies, are well staged and cinematographer Trevor Calverley (Slay, Lake Placid: Legacy) does a good job of filming them.

Apart from the leads, the cast is mostly unfamiliar outside of their native South Africa, which is too bad as they give solid performances, better than many I see in international productions shot there. Among the leads, Vosloo is the standout, giving a wonderfully hammy performance that made me wish his character hadn’t been killed off so quickly, leaving just the faceless militiamen as enemies.

Overall, Sniper: The Last Stand is a worthy addition to the franchise and a solid action film in its own right. Like most of the others, it works as a stand-alone film, so you don’t have to have seen the previous entries to enjoy this one.