Target (1985)

Best movie of this year hands down!

Very best movie i ever watch

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

Crappy film

This movie is a family drama and a spy thriller at the same time. It is also a comedy that makes some fun of both genres, although I am not sure if that is intentional.The acting and the direction are quite good, the screenplay and maybe the editing less so. I suppose the main error is the decision to tell the story from the father's and the son's perspective alternatively. I think it would have been much better and thrilling to tell it from the son's entirely (but in that case maybe it would have been impossible to use a big star in the father's role). The viewers become aware of the father's double-identity much earlier than the son in an incident at the airport that is unexpected, weird, outlandish and laughable. I really did not understand what was going on. The effect of surprise was thus given away pretty cheaply. I also think that the whole plot did not really make much sense – including the long dewiring of the human bomb mother at the end. Too much remains unexplained.But on the whole this is nevertheless a quite atmospheric movie with beautiful locations in Paris, France and Germany. The highlight is a chase sequence through the town of Hamburg which involves a small red Fiat car, a Mercedes taxicab and a small, spluttering three-wheel vehicle. Hackman jumps into a canal and Dillon drives the Fiat up some pretty steep flights of stairs. So I do not think I wasted my time entirely.To any viewer interested in Hackman playing a dad, I can highly recommend the movie Class Action in which a brilliant Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio plays his daughter.

Missed seeing this film over the years as I am a big fan of Gene Hackman, (Walter Llyod/Duke Potter),"Absolute Power", who plays the role as the average husband and wife with a son who is not very close to his father at all. Matt Dillon,(Chris Llyod/Derek Potter),"Loverboy", plays the son and Gayle Hunnicutt(Donna Llyod) "Dream Lover", is the wife who tries her very best to get her Walter to become closer to their son Chris. Donna disappears while she is on a tour in a foreign country and then the story gets quite complicated with lots of guns going off and plenty of car chases and great photograph in Germany and France. This film builds you up as you start getting interested and sort of goes down hill real fast. I like Gene Hackman and that is the only reason I decided to finish seeing this film.

OK; it IS a bit trite, but still an edge-of-the-seater nonetheless. Surprises galore to keep your imagination occupied, though thriller buffs will predict most of them. I found that part of the fun: keeping score of how many "surprises" i anticipated. Still, the denouement packs punch and satisfies. Great performances by most of the cast, esp. Hackman, who always has that knack of being 'perfect' for the part, doesn't he? and Damon, very apt in this early role. The art direction is superb, the location shooting very convincing. If you like thrillers/whoodunits you WILL be entertained. I gave it only a 7 because reading Sartre is probably a better use of two hours....

I can't add too much that hasn't already been said. A 1985 film, the plot should be familiar to anyone with or without basic cable by now. Where this film shines is in the relationships between the characters and the quality of the acting. Mind you, the plot and action aren't shabby, either, despite some comments here to the contrary.Perhaps this is merely middle-age fantasy - how many middle aged dads (or moms) haven't had the fantasy of showing their sullen kids how cool they once were and could be again if necessary? I was fortunate not to have any sullen kids (or grandkids), but I've been in this guy's place and I recognized the looks on both faces. (OK, I was never a spy or anything so overtly cool, but I did have my moments.) The point is that there come inevitable times in the relationships between kids and parents when the kids suddenly realize that the old folks may have actually been cool before the kids even knew what cool was all about, and that's the heart of this film.Contrary to some comments, the plot is quite coherent with only a few holes which I won't elaborate. Some of the carping about plot points I've read here must have come from people lacking in either imagination or comprehension. The action is credible both in its pacing and execution. Not Arthur Penn's best film, but this is as much of an actor's film as a director's film.The acting is uniformly good, but Hackman holds the center of the film. If he weren't completely believable, the whole effort would fall apart. Matt Dillon gives a very good performance as Hackman's son/foil, but isn't in the same league. The usually reliable Josef Sommer gives a surprisingly weak performance - OK, but not up to his usual work. The late Herbert Berghof (husband of Uta Hagen and co-founder with her of the eponymously named HB acting studio) gives a master class in his portrayal of a truly sympathetic, tortured soul - not much screen time, but a real gem. Another standout is Viktoriya Fyodorova, who offers some of the films most poignant scenes as Hackman's love-who-might-have-been, who devotes herself to helping him and his son find his kidnapped wife.Highly recommended, but it won't really resonate with the kids...