Sniper: Reloaded

[cooltouch]

I subscribe to Netflix -- the Instant flavor as opposed to the one that sends you dvds. Well, there's a movie there that's been popping up in the queue lately called "Sniper: Reloaded" -- released in 2011. Starring Billy Zane and Chad Michael Collins, it's a reprise of sorts of the earlier "Sniper" with Zane and Tom Berenger. Collins plays Beckett's (Berenger's) son and Zane plays the same role, just some 18 years later. It's a solid good film with some realistic battle footage, but what really got me to sit up and take notice was when the young Beckett (Collins) takes up a "sniper rifle" and starts shooting bad guys. The rifle? A sporterized Lee Enfield No 1 Mk III. Another fellow that he was with at that moment, a hunter, was shooting a nice looking Mauser 98, by the looks of it. Zane was shooting what was most likely the Remington M24 early on, then later was shooting a .50 BMG bolt gun, couldn't tell who made it. But anyway, I just had to let out a hoot when I saw Collins using an SMLE for target practice on the bad guys. And an old No1 Mk III no less.

It was funny. Before the movie gives you a clear shot of Beckett's rifle, there's this one artsy-fartsy shot of spent cartridges falling and bouncing off the ground as a gunfire exchange is going on. One of the cartridges I noticed was rimmed, and I was thinking, geez, that looks like a .303. What the hell's a .303 doing in this flick? I chalked it up to a bunch of Hollywood yahoos not knowing the difference between rimmed and rimless brass and the guns that shoot them and maybe they got a Mosin Nagant's round mixed in accidentally or something, but the joke was on me, turns out.

If you subscribe to Netflix, check it out. If not, well, Blockbuster or Hollywood probably has DVDs in stock. It's a decent flick, and worth the rental.

Long live the SMLE and the .303!

Information

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[Son]

Haven't seen an SMLE in a movie for ages. Thanks for the heads- up!

[PrinzEugen]

Here's some more information from that site for the discerning film watcher who also has an unhealthy obsession with guns:

Sniper: Reloaded - Internet Movie Firearms Database - Guns in Movies, TV and Video Games

Sporterised SMLEs - the weapon of choice for the discerning sniper.