The Marksman [Import]

Synopsis:
With terrorists holding a recently decommissioned Russian nuclear reactor hostage and the possibility of it being reactivated as a bomb, it's up to the elite US Army Rangers to go in and stop the Terrorists and save their hostages before the worst can happen. The Rangers are joined by the Marksman (Snipes) a consummate professional loner as they go in. But not everything is as it seems. When things go awry, only the Marksman can save the day.

About the Movie:
If my synopsis sounds silly, it's because this entire movie is. I'm a fan of Wesley Snipes, so I picked this up when it came out, sight unseen. Bad idea.

Unfortunately, this is by far the worst movie I've seen Wesley Snipes in. He's been in some mediocre films, indeed, but this one takes the cake. Filled with hammy actors and crippled by a ridiculous screenplay and ridiculously sloppy film editing, this movie screams "B-movie."

First off, The whole plot of this movie was just plain silly. Russians allowing the US Military to do an anti-terrorist operation at one of their own nuclear facilities, simply because US citizens were on location? Russia would never allow such a thing any more than the US would if the situation were reversed. Worse is the suggestion that they'd allow a military airstike on their soil. And what was up with the air combat? There was no reason for it but to see stock footage of airplanes flying about.

Secondly, the acting by many of the main characters was terrible. Undoubtedly editing and direction had some blame in this as well, but the acting overall was just atrocious. Snipe's female opposite (Emma Sams) was the worst offender of all, her lines delivered with all the conviction of a high school stage performer. It doesn't help that her dialog is just poorly written. Most of the movie's dialog is. And don't get me started on the attempted "romance" between her and Snipes.

Thirdly, I hate when movies get things so ridiculously wrong. Since when have any Special Forces run around with heavy, thudding footsteps, clearly visible flashlight beams waving around and talked in full voices while behind enemy lines? REAL special forces use night-vision, barely audible throat mikes and hand signals, and they also learn how to walk without sounding like the Spanish Inquisition. This movie had those guys running around like they were a bunch of amateurs playing paintball. Worse, their behavior towards one another was just as ridiculous. The Rangers in this movie didn't even pretend to act like a tight knit military unit.

Honestly, just a little more attention to these details and the quality of this movie would have jumped up by 3 notches.

Fourthly, in a number of spots in this film, the camera direction and film editing was terrible. The most notable occurrence of this was near the end during a firefight. The camera switched from an inside view to an outside view of a window, and in each case, the actor was in different positions and worse, moving completely differently. It was distracting and glaringly bad. This happened in a number of other places. Editing film is an art, and in this case, someone was using a preschooler's fingerpaints.

Yeah, this movie was just bad. It's the sort of movie you get a bunch of friends together to watch and make fun of the entire time. The sad part is that this movie takes itself so seriously. Wesley Snipes must be desperate for a job to take on this garbage. Frankly, his performance in this movie is so unmemorable, that you could have slotted in just about anyone and it would have come out the same.

About the DVD:
The Marksman comes in a standard plastic snap case. Overall picture and sound were decent and really I didn't notice any major issues with either.

Other features included a single aternate language track and a complete lack of subtitles, something I found a little odd. Likewise, the special features on this disk are not special at all, consisting only of theatrical trailers.

Clearly there was minimum effort put into this DVD release.

Bottom Line:
The DVD is bare bones and the movie, well, don't bother unless you LIKE watching turkeys. This movie is pretty bad. Don't say I didn't warn you. A 1 star movie and DVD release.

This movie is simply a cookie-cutter, straight-to-video, low budget, poorly acted stinker. I like Snipes, especially in the Blade trilogy. To see him in this film (though you don't see as much of him as you might think - he may have 20 lines of dialogue throughout) is really embarrassing after seeing his better work. I guess all actors take some jobs for the money, and all I can say is that I hope he got a boatload for this one. Emma Sams, the lead female actress, does such a poor American accent, that she almost seems as though her dialog was dubbed in. The rest of the actors are directly out of the B-list and placed in sterotypical roles that are boring and predictable. And the military scenes? Ugh. This film was written/directed/produced/advised by folks with just enough knowledge of the military and operations to be dangerous. For example, the captain of the US aircraft carrier USS Eriske (or something like that) wears a hat that says "SSN Eriske" - for those in the know (and many who aren't), an SSN is a nuclear powered SUBMARINE. Not a carrier. Screw ups like that are prevalent throughout the movie - to include the almost total lack of hand signals during tactical movement on target by the "Ranger" team sent in with Snipes - everyone seems to prefer to operate by the ultra-covert "talk in your normal tone of voice when the enemy is nearby" tactic (haha). And the individual Rangers seem to get to follow their own orders if they don't feel like following the orders of their senior officers ("I'm outta here!" is one memorable line) Oh well. It may be worth a rental if you are a big Snipes fan, or if you have 90 minutes of your life you don't need or want back.

On the one positive note - the movie location scout did a great job - the "set" which actually appears to be in Russia or one of the Russian republics, is actually pretty cool, and may even be the saving grace of this film.

Got the movie and was very excited at the prospect of a Wesley Snipes action spectacular. The editing is horrible, the props (fake MP-5's, fake UZI's, helicopters that are obviously been cheaped out - could not even afford a huey.) - the action sequences are few and far between.

If you are looking for an action movie - skip this one. If you are drunk and looking to lose 2 hours of your life that you will never get back - or suffer from insomnia - watch this POS.