Nick McKinless’ “Take Cover” (2024) focuses on the primary outline of a sniper actioner, chucking everything about plot and character development. Those specifics don’t seem to have played into the making of the screenplay, which is largely contrived, frequently conducive to the hammy performances and frantic bouts of all-out action. There is a deception at the center of the thin narrative. It’s designed to be a key turn, a significant revelation but it lands so weak, bogged under the burden of a gimmicky exterior there’s no salvaging it or rendering it remotely plausible.

No thought or logic has gone into the crafting of the screenplay. It seems hurried and unreasonably specious, lacking in the development of the characters, and their motivations. Therefore neither of the extreme realizations nor the delineations of the stunts strike as specifically rooted and grounded in persuasive textures. McKinless inserts a heavy emotional dose...