TARGETS

If I'm gonna hold true to my Mission Statement and review both movies you have and haven't heard of then I guess they're is no better place to start then with the work of Boris Karloff. This guy (as if you didn't know) has done a lot more in his career then just Frankenstein and The Mummy. In fact, he kept working right up until the 1960s. Targets is, in fact, the last movie he ever made. And, unlike the last movie Bela Lagosi ever made, he was actually lived to see this one hit the theater.

In this movie Karloff. plays not a monster or an Egyptian, just a normal old actor who has just made his last movie and is about to retire. Humm. . .kind of ironic, don't you think? Despite the urgings of his secretary, Jenny (Nancy Hsueh), her boy friend Sammy (Peter Bogdanovich, who also directed this movie), even the director of the last movie, Byron Orlok (it even sounds evil) is quitting the business. He thinks he's to old for this sort of thing, and not even after a drunken discussion with Sammy will bring him back. But, as kind of a fare well tour, Byron will make one last personal appearance at the drive-in (ah, the drive-in, how I miss those, they showed some good freaken crap back in my day!) premiere of his last movie.

This movie also fallows the life of Bobby Thompson (Tim O'Kelly), an insurance salesman with about 10 guns in the trunk of his car. Over the course of the movie Bobby becomes steadily unhinged. When we meat his totalitarian father (James Brown, and before you ask no, not that James Brown) and impish mother. From what I can gather he and his wife also live with his parents. About halfway through the movie Bobby totally loses it and kills both his mother, his wife, and the grocery boy (great, now I'm afraid of become a grocery boy, a wacky scientists, and a commando. Movies are completely wrecking my career choices). He then calmly types out a note that there will be others!

Since this movie has to make sense you just know that Bobby will end up at the drive-in, sniper rifle in hand, at the premiere of Byron's new flick. But most of the movie deals with how Bobby gets there. First he climes on top of an oil rig that overlooks a highway. He just calmly sits up there and picks off people, while they're driving. Now that's original. I've never seen anything like it before or sense. That's one of the reasons I like this movie, its just so dang original. Have you ever heard anything like the above plot? I think not. You should rent this movie on originality alone. But this movie goes the extra mile by putting originality in the hands of talented people.

On to acting. In almost every role he has been in (every role where he actually speaks that is) Boris Karloff. has turned out great stuff. For his final movie he hasn't weakened one iota in acting skill. Its good to see that he ended his career on such a high note.

Tim O'Kelly has got to be playing the most bizarre psycho on the face of the planet. Unfortunately here is where we find the chink in this movies armor. Why did Bobby Thompson suddenly dissuade that now was the time and place to flip out? And what the hell caused him to flip out? The movie doesn't offer much explanation, but it hardly matters. Even sketched in as he is Bobby is still a strange and creepy psycho man. He's not frightening in a Michael Myers kind of way, but its better then the wise cracking stupidity of most movie psychos these days.

Even the supporting cast is good. I can't find a signal back actor in the bunch. Event he director himself turns in a believable performance. How often does that happen?

So, what keeps this movie from being more the it is? Simple: you can get ahead of the movie. About 10 minuets into the movie I could tell what was going to happen right up to the end. When you can pretty much guess the plot to a T it becomes kind of hard to justify watching the whole movie. Thankfully this movie manages to be entertaining, even if it is easy to see through.

It might not be the type of role for which Karloff. is best known (and we'll discuss some of those roles in future reviews) but it might be one of his best. This is not just for Karloff. fans, but for all those seeking a good darn thriller. Even you splatter punks of today might be interested, since they're is a pretty decent body count. It all ads up to a mighty fine movie going experience.

RATING(OUT OF A POSSIBLE FIVE)   

A DARN GOOD MOVIE

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