SNIPER: GHOST SHOOTER (2016) **

Chad Michael Collins returns for his third installment of the Sniper franchise as the son of Tom Berenger’s character in the first film.  (This is the sixth flick in the series overall.)  This time out, he’s paired with Billy Zane, who it would seem is alternating starring in Sniper sequels with Berenger now.  I’m not sure why the Sniper producers can’t get Tom and Billy in the same room at the same time, but that might be the only real reason to make another one of these things.

Zane and his team of snipers are given an assignment to protect a gas pipeline from being sabotaged by terrorists.  While on patrol, they are picked off one by one by a “ghost shooter”.  They come to suspect a mole is in their midst and have to work together to flush him out.

Directed by Don Michael Paul, a veteran of numerous DTV sequels (including the last Sniper movie, Legacy), Sniper:  Ghost Shooter is about what you’d come to expect from the series.  Paul goes from one skirmish to the other, offering up a hefty sum of sniping along the way.  It’s competently executed, but ultimately unmemorable.  (I can’t even remember who betrayed the team or why.)  

All of this is pretty interchangeable with what’s come before, but at least it’s gorier that expected.  Ghost Shooter provides the viewer with some bloody head shots and exploding bodies, which is appreciated.  I also must commend Paul for his restrained use of CGI blood during the various gunfights and sniper battles.

Zane is good, although there were times where I swore he was trying to do a Berenger impersonation.  Dennis Haysbert lends some weight to the proceedings as Zane’s boss, but he isn’t given a whole lot to do.  Collins unfortunately can’t carry the movie when either Zane or Haysbert are off screen.  Because of that, much of the middle section is sluggish.

Overall, Ghost Shooter is better than your average Sniper sequel, but not by a considerable margin.