Starring: Richie Jen Hsien-chi, Huang Xiaoming, Edison Chen Koon-hei, Bowie Lam Bo-yee
Director: Dante Lam Chiu-yin
Category: IIB (Cantonese and Putonghua)
It's often difficult to judge a movie solely by what transpires on screen, and nearly impossible when - as in The Sniper - its stellar lineup includes the past year's most scandal-plagued celebrity.
Once a viewer gets over the initial jolt of seeing Edison Chen in a context other than the sex-photo incident, however, his performance as an arrogant shooter is such a natural fit with the general perception of the actor's personality that it's easy to believe he's police rookie OJ and not a tabloid headline. That the character isn't terribly interesting has little to do with the actor but is a by-product of a plot that, for all its energy, loses steam about 20 minutes before its blood-splattered finish.
In a way, the scandal is partially to blame for the picture coming across as a letdown after Beast Stalker, a superior collaboration by director Dante Lam and scriptwriter Jack Ng Wai-lun that was completed after The Sniper but, due to Chen's temporary exile from the entertainment world, was released first. The relative flatness of OJ, his superior officer Hartman (Richie Jen, above left, with Bowie Lam), and their nemesis, former police shooting champion Lincoln (Huang Xiaoming), lacks the richness of Beast Stalker's heroes and villains, nor are The Sniper's plot elements as intricately interwoven.
