SEVEN SNIPERS Reviewed by GREG KING
Director: Sandra Sciberras
Stars: Radha Mitchell, Tim Roth, Ioan Gruffudd, Damien Ryan, Annabel Wolfe, Charles Cottier. Ryan Kwanten, Pacharo Mzembe, Bianca Williams.
There have been a lot of movies featuring snipers – from the classic The Day Of The Jackal featuring Edward Fox’s steely assassin; Shooter with Mark Wahlberg as Bob Lee Swagger; the Sniper franchise starring Tom Berenger and later Chad Michael Collins; and American Sniper from Clint Eastwood. Now we get Seven Snipers, an Australian-made B-movie and action thriller. Seven Snipers also marks the first film produced by Monster Pictures, who are better known as a distributor of horror films.
Kris “Voodoo Child” Hendricks (Radha Mitchell, from Blueback, etc) is a former sharpshooter and elite military operative who has spent years hiding away on her farm in rural Australia, hoping to raise her strong willed and rebellious 16-year-old daughter Anja (rising young star Annabel Wolfe, from tv series Home And Away, etc) in a safe environment. Kris has deliberately kept her past hidden from Anja. But then her chequered past catches up with her, placing both her and Anja in danger.
A ruthless warlord known as “the Dragon” (played by Tim Roth, from Pulp Fiction, etc) who once held Kris captive during one of her final missions before she managed to escape, has finally tracked her down. He is looking for revenge. However, Kris is able to call upon some of her former colleagues for help. Former colleague White Dog (Damien Ryan) brings along four other heavily armed snipers. Among them is Milk (Ioan Gruffudd, from tv’s Hornblower series, etc), Junior (Charles Cottier, from Home And Away, etc), Nico (Pacharo Mzembe, from Sleeping Dogs, etc), Kaldayev (Bianca Williams, from Elvis, etc).
Thus ensues a deadly cat and mouse game as the various snipers crawl through grass lands and hide behind farm equipment while trying to track the Dragon. The Dragon is able to pick them off one by one, leading to a climactic showdown between Kris and the Dragon.
Seven Snipers was written by former producer Andrew O’Keefe (2015’s Crime & Punishment, etc), and his screenplay is stripped back to basics with little in the way of flab or wasted minutes. He was apparently inspired by Frederick Forsythe’s novel The Day Of The Jackal. Director Sandra Sciberra (Surviving Georgia, etc) maintains an air of suspense throughout, and the action is well staged. There are lots of bullets fired and a few bloody deaths.
Most of the action is confined to a single location. The film has been nicely shot by cinematographer Andrew Conder, who captures the open spaces and makes the drama less claustrophobic.
Mitchell brings a nice desperation and physicality to her role here, and she makes for a strong, formidable female protagonist. Roth is not given a lot to do here as he maintains a fairly stoic demeanour as the Dragon, but he does exude and air of menace, which is enhanced by his on-screen persona of playing some truly vicious villains in the past. Wolfe brings spunk to her role as Anja. Ryan Kwanten brings charm to his small role. But most of the supporting cast are largely one-dimensional characters and given little depth. Only Gruffudd stands out as Milk.
Seven Snipers is a well-made generic action movie that will appeal to a certain audience.
★★★
