TARGET
Starring Stephen Baldwin as Charlie Snow; James Russo as Donovan; Yorgo Constantine as Yevon Bodnar;
During recent weekends, I had spent some leisure time to watch three action movies on cable television.
The three movies shared a common thread: the principal character was more or less a lone wolf operative, with military background; trained in covert operations & skilled in weaponry.
Although they did not have the plot intensity or complexity when compared with any of the recent 'Bourne' or even 'Bond' movies, they were generally entertaining.
For me, entertainment comes first when I watch a movie.
The first one was 'Target' starring Stephen Baldwin as Charlie Snow, an army sniper, previously working for the Agency.
In an earlier scene, Charlie had killed the brother of a Serbian arms dealer, Yevon, during a covert operation in a remote region of Turkey. Upon returning to the United States, he found that Yevon had set out to hunt him down for revenge. The latter had also kidnapped his wife & a deadly cat & mouse game ensued between the hunter & the hunted.
With the courageous help of a computer operator at the Agency & the close collaboration of another operative, Donovan (played by James Russo), Charlie managed, through a series of tactical manoeuvres & almost risky misadventures, to trace & locate the whereabouts of his wife. He finally neutralised the terrorists at an abandoned jail block in Los Angeles.
In between, there were some rather amusing moments when he got entangled with a beautiful busker with a guitar (played by Tammy Krull). In fact, she was the one who provided the final & vital lead to possible whereabouts of Charlie's kidnapped wife.
I had also found it quite intriguing to watch the tapping of the vast resources of the Agency: remote sensing of cell phones & thermal imaging of building locations to pinpoint &/or isolate human targets.
On the other hand, I noted that the movie had inadvertently put the two bungling LAPD cops in rather bad light. I reckon this was quite typical of Hollywood, especially when the role of cops did not fit the primary focus of the movie.
To my disappointment, Stephen Baldwin as Charlie appeared rather 'bored' as an army sniper. When he talked, he was almost like he was reading a script.
I had watched this actor in some earlier action movies, like the 'Beast of War', which I had already reviewed in an earlier post, 'New Eden' as well as 'Biodome'. Somehow, he did not impress me, but that impression did not deter me from watching his other movies.
Nevertheless, I would say 'Target' was still entertaining for me as an action movie.
