Solid Hong Kong Action Cop & Robber Friends 'Sniper' provides the solid Hong Kong action you want. Stylish action, and the formulaic cop vs robber who are also best friends and torn by loyalties.First off I don't speak a word of Cantonese and saw 'Sniper' without the benefit of subtitles, yet was still able to understand the plot.As with most HK films, there is far more action than in real HK. Heavily armed gangs around every corner committing elaborate robberies that would put Dillinger to shame. Hence the HKPD needs a large expert sniper force armed (with airsoft guns) to the teeth to coordinate with their SWAT teams which also just happen to be right in the middle of the action.Our tragic hero cop is Fang. A badass sniper.Our sympathetic robber is Jing a former police sniper disgraced after a hostage rescue went wrong. Jing wants revenge on the police and the gangster would caused the whole hostage situation in the first place. Since no one here seems to agree on the gangster's name, I'll call him Ge.Upon his release from prison Jing puts his elaborate and unique plans for revenge into action. Jing shadows Ge's gang and learns of their plan to rescue him during a prison transport.As Ge's gang stages their elaborate armored car holdup rescue they face off against the ruthless Fang who kills 4 of them dead with one shot.But Ge's gang receives unexpected tactical support when sniper fire erupts from Jing on a sky scrapper and the rescue succeeds. Jing has now earned his way inside Ge's gang for revenge.From the incredible accuracy of the sniper shots, Fang realizes that Jing is back and he's play for the wrong side.Never a dull moment. As I said you can follow the movie just fine without subtitles or dubbing. It's a great film that can break the language barrier.

Good HK action film about HK police snipers. The story is about a new recruit into HK police sniper team. He has a mentor that teaches him the ropes of the trade. In the mean time, an ex-sniper from his squad has gone rogue and killing his members. The new recruit must take on the challenge, and hunt down his ex colleague.This is a quality movie that is entertaining. The mood, the suspense, all adds to the story. Location scenes are also great in this movie. It's adds fresh perspective to Hong Kong movies. It's also one of Edison Chen's best performances. The movie has cool looks, good action, and good acting. It's also one of a kind movie that's about snipers in Hong King, and was a good movie to watch.7.5/10

The Sniper is not going to reinvent the wheel, but it does approach its plot with a certain snazz that you just can't help but smile at. The basic thrust of the film is that a Hong Kong police sniper team have just recruited a new hotshot shooter (Edison Chen) who is shaping up to be just as good as their last top shooter. Turns out, that last guy (Xiaoming Huang) went to prison for head-shotting a hostage during a cluster. Now he's out of prison and decides to go rogue. Uh-oh. Needless to say, the sniper scenes (both the action and training ones) are very cool. The rest? Not so much. One of the good guy snipers has a sub plot about his suicidal wife that goes absolutely nowhere. The villains of the film have nothing to do but serve as devices for the rogue sniper's plot arc. They could have been more important to the story and still have co-existed with Huang's character. Aside from the young hotshot and two other snipers (including Richie Ren as the team leader), the rest of the team remains virtually silent and unknown. They have cool code names like Forest King, Iceman and Rabbit - but no back story or anything memorable about them whatsoever. Again, The Sniper isn't doing anything new, but what it does do is entertaining enough to enjoy it. The English translation of the original title is Godly Gunslingers. How cool is that? Makes a nice double feature with Tom Berenger and Billy Zane's Sniper.

Chinese action film isn't quite as good as the start promises, but it still a good way to spend time in the dark. The plot has a young cop recruited by the Hong Kong Police for their sniper corps after remaining cool under fire in the films opening set piece. From there the plot spins out as the young turk is trained, chafes at the by the book methods and flirts briefly with the dark side, in the form of an ex-sniper who wants revenge on the sniper corps. The action scenes are well done (especially considering there is only so much you can do with sniper rifles) and are the sort of thing that you really wouldn't mind seeing again (because you'd be surprised what you can do with sniper rifles). When the film is on it really works well. The problem is that the stuff away from the action or training sequences aren't as good as the rest of the film. Part of the problem is that there seems to be too many little side bits going on for an 85 minute movie. Things seem to be brought up and then are done away with and characters seem to come and go. Of course this being an action movie thats not why you're watching the film, however it would have been nice if the non-shooting bits hung together better so they film had more weight and didn't seem do breezy. Action film fans of all stripes will want to take a look.