The Sniper

"Experts can coexist." The final, summarising line of dialogue in the The Sniper suggests the dead hand of China's Communist Party at work in this story of rivalry, loyalty and correct breathing techniques in an elite police sniper squad. But director Dante Lam continues the maximal, almost baroque style that we expect from a Hong Kong thriller - intricately stylised camerawork, changing filmstock, split screen techniques, an impossibly melodramatic plot barely stitched together by a complex flashback structure, and a soundtrack which doesn't so much hint at, as bludgeon us into, the correct emotional response.

The trick is to ignore the framing story and just enjoy the action. At the heart of the film are a number of well-staged, exciting gun battles which exploit the high-rise backdrop of Hong Kong to great effect. Best of all is a shoot out which starts in a cramped lift before spilling out into the narrow corridors of an authentically down-at-heel apartment block. [Keir Roper-Caldbeck]