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Targets

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Targets (1968)

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Reviews Counted:24

Fresh:21

Rotten:3

Average Rating:7.5/10

Consensus: A startling directorial debut by Peter Bogdanovich mixes an homage to Boris Karloff horror films with a timely sniper story to create a thriller with modern baggage and old school shock and awe.

Runtime: 90 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Synopsis: The message of Peter Bogdanovich's suspenseful directorial debut still rings true for post-1970s America, regardless of the decade. Tim O'Kelly plays Bobby Thompson, a seemingly mild-mannered... The message of Peter Bogdanovich's suspenseful directorial debut still rings true for post-1970s America, regardless of the decade. Tim O'Kelly plays Bobby Thompson, a seemingly mild-mannered husband and son. But Bobby has a penchant for collecting firearms and thinking murderous thoughts, which translate into action when he becomes a deadly sniper, picking off drivers on the L.A. freeway from high above an oil tank. Meanwhile, Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff), an aging horror film star, plans his retirement, feeling the atrocities wrought by daily human global existence have numbed the public to the movie monsters he plays. As fate and movies will have it, Thompson and Orlok's worlds collide at the Reseda Drive-In, where Orlok is making his final public appearance. Writer-director Bogdanovich, helming his debut feature, also appears as young Hollywood screenwriter and director Sammy Michaels. A powerful and chilling study of unexplained, unexpected violence, the film relays a message that continues to be contemporary to the American psycho-social landscape. [More]

Starring: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Nancy Hsueh, Peter Bogdanovich

Starring: Boris Karloff, Tim O'Kelly, Nancy Hsueh, Peter Bogdanovich, Randy Quaid, Arthur Peterson, Mary Jackson, Tanya Morgan, Sandy Baron, Stafford Morgan, Timothy C. Burns, Gary Kent, Frank Marshall

Director: Peter Bogdanovich

Director: Peter Bogdanovich
Screenwriter: Peter Bogdanovich, Polly Platt
Producer: Peter Bogdanovich
Composer: Brian Stonestreet, Charles Greene

[See More Credits]

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Release:

Aug 12, 2003

No Details Exist
 
 

Reviews for Targets

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1 - 20 (sorted by date)
Text View | 1 2 >> >|
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The endlessly repetitive fusillades suggest that Writer-Director Peter Bogdanovich, in his first film, was really intent on creating the most prolific murderer in Hollywood's long history of violence. Unfortunately, it is a record made to be broken.

Full Review Source: TIME Magazine | comment Comment
10/19/08
TIME Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Aware of the virtue of implied violence, Bogdanovich conveys moments of shock, terror, suspense and fear.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
09/25/07
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

Impressive directorial debut.

Full Review Source: Ozus' World Movie Reviews | comment Comment
12/15/06
Dennis Schwartz
Dennis Schwartz
Ozus' World Movie Reviews

A fascinatingly complex commentary on American mythology, exploring the relationship between the inner world of the imagination and the outer world of violence and paranoia, both of which were relevant to contemporary American traumas.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
06/24/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out

Brilliant film.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
04/08/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

No review available.

comment Comment
09/08/05
Chuck O'Leary
Chuck O'Leary
Fantastica Daily

No review available.

comment Comment
08/11/05
Craig Phillips
Craig Phillips
GreenCine

No review available.

comment Comment
07/06/05
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

Targets scores an unnerving bullseye.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/09/05
Howard Thompson
Howard Thompson
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
02/25/05
Philip Martin
Philip Martin
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette

Targets isn't a very good film, but it is an interesting one.

Full Review Source: Chicago Sun-Times | comment Comment
10/23/04
Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Chicago Sun-Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

No review available.

comment Comment
05/24/04
Frank Swietek
Frank Swietek
One Guy's Opinion

No review available.

comment Comment
05/14/04
Robin Clifford
Robin Clifford
Reeling Reviews

No review available.

comment Comment
11/28/03
Jonathan R. Perry
Jonathan R. Perry
Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)

No review available.

comment Comment
11/07/03
Carol Cling
Carol Cling
Las Vegas Review-Journal

It's difficult not to wonder how many Bobby Thompsons are out there right now, driving around with an arsenal in their trunks, ready to fire their first shots.

Full Review Source: PopMatters | comment Comment
11/01/03
Stephen Tropiano
Stephen Tropiano
PopMatters

A beautiful, disturbing, masterful fiction-filmmaking debut for Bogdanovich

Full Review Source: Film Freak Central | comment Comment
08/13/03
Bill Chambers
Bill Chambers
Film Freak Central

frightening in a way few horror movies are because it taps so directly into real fears

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
08/05/03
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

An unconventional horror picture that draws a comparison between the real-life horror of the 1966 Charles Whitman murder spree and the fictional horrors of movie legend Boris Karloff.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
07/30/03
TV Guide's Movie Guide
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A frighteningly prescient movie.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/24/03
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
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