Customer Reviews

Perfect Target

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

As B-movie action flicks go, Perfect Target, is pretty good. Most everyone knows who Robert Englund is. And even if you don't know Brian Thompson's name, you will definitely recognize him. But, the story centers around a dispossessed ex-Green Beret (Bernhardt) living in a small South American country. He is recruited by Englund to join a team of mercernaries hired to protect the country's president. He butts heads with a local Federale (Jim Pirri) and things heat up even more when he begins to fall in love with the Federale's sister. She is the leader of a band of freedom fighting guerrillas. It's a world where power is fleeting, loyalties are constantly changing, and trust is hard to come by.

There are some good action sequences with the actors doing most of their own stunts. (Watch for the soldier falling off the garden wall. That stunt alone cost the movie one star in my rating.) Englund proves he can be frightening even without Freddie make-up. Bernhardt is believable as the cynical, world-weary Benson.

The real treat here is Jim Pirri as Miguel Ramirez. He not only turns in a rock-solid acting performance, but slow motion playback on his fight sequences reveal he is also a skilled stunt performer. That, his athleticism, and his smoky good looks make a winning combination.

So I just watched this movie today, my uncle wrote it (the screen play) and sent it to my brother for Christmas. I didn't expect outstanding from my memories of his other movie: "jocks", but i guess it was better than I thought it would be. The action was good except for one scene were a soldier gets shot and falls off a wall, when the federales sister gets shot she doesn't have any wound we can see and no blood, couldn't they have put some ketchup on her shirt or something? Also Fernando the persidente of santa brava has a more European accent and I can't recall him ever speaking Spanish. Other then these few things the action is good and the story isn't to bad except for the fact that it is so classic of a central american story. Overall I give the film a "C" grade.

Daniel Bernhardt will probably never receive the accolades he deserves : because he happens to be the star of the Bloodsport sequels and look and sound similar to Jean-Claude Van Damme, he's regularly derided as a second-rate "clone" of the Muscles from Brussels despite being a martial arts wizard and well-rounded action hero in his own right. With that being said, "Perfect Target" isn't the best vehicle to back up this claim. A competent independent production, it's nonetheless short on the action necessary to make Bernhardt stand out and differentiate him from the slew of B-movie heroes of the same era.

The story: ex-soldier turned mercenary David Benson (Bernhardt) is recruited by his former superiors, Colonel Shakwell (Robert Englund, A Nightmare on Elm Street series) and Major Oxnard (Brian Thompson, Cobra), to protect the Mexican president, but when an internal double-cross sees him assassinated and Benson saddled with the blame, he and a similarly accused security chief (Jim Pirri, "Valley of the Dolls" series) escape into the jungle, where they meet up with a rebel force looking to dethrone the government usurpers.

This is one of the reasons why I love B-movies: in what other film can you expect to see a karate expert taking on the men who played Freddy Krueger and the Night Slasher?... Oh, alright, I'll admit that while the idea is cool, it doesn't necessarily make for anything special: Englund brings some charm to his otherwise orthodox role and Thompson plays his part with the same tough-guy competence he has the dozens of other villainous roles in his career, but both of them are overshadowed by Julieta Rosen (The Mask of Zorro) as the conniving First Lady, who makes for an atypical baddie but isn't all that interesting. Nobody is, really, as the cookie-cutting begins with Bernhardt's predictably reluctant hero and doesn't relinquish throughout any of the following inductions. Everybody performs just fine but does absolutely nothing out-of-the-ordinary.

But who cares about that, right? What about the action scenes? Well, don't hold your breath, because the film skimps here, too. There are three hand-to-hand fights, only two of which involve martial arts and only one of which is actually worth watching - that being the eventual Bernhardt/Thompson match, in which the latter has a chance to show off his rarely-exploited hapkido skills. A couple big gunfights and a chase scene more or less serve as placeholders, seeing as they too are so painfully run-of-the-mill and flat that I found myself dozing off to the sound of gunfire and explosions; I doubt this is the effect the filmmakers intended. On the bright side, even though director Sheldon Lettich (Lionheart, Only the Strong) failed to serve up the thrills he's known for in this one, he redeems himself a bit by presenting an undeniably clean-looking DTV movie with top-grade production values. The sets in particular look more expensive than their budget, and combined with the strength of the cast, I assume the only reason this one wasn't given a theatrical release was because it was released half-a-decade too late; this could have been right at home in action's heyday.

The real-life cockfight that opens the movie starts it off iffy, and even though something so tasteless isn't featured again, it suggests that this movie is even further removed from Hollywood standards than most B-movies. It's a shame that Bernhardt couldn't keep up the quality of his previous flick, True Vengeance...but when this good of a cast and director go wrong at the same time, it's impossible to blame it all on him. As usual, fans ought to pick it up despite its mediocrity, but casual viewers ought to pick up some of his better work for a more positive first impression.

I bought this movie for [$$$] bran-new so I guess for that price it's worth the money. It's basically a story that's been done a million times before. You know the assassination of a political leader, the cover-up, framing the good guy, the whole sha-bang. Daniel Bernhardt's acting is exactly what I expected. As Good as Jean Claude Van Damme's, which is not excellent. He probably didn't get an academy award for best actor in this move. I think this movie is better than some of his other ones that I've seen, though. The real reason I think to see this movie is for the villians. There's Robert Englund, who everyone knows him...that's right, he was in Urban Legend. Then there's that psychotic-looking Brian Thompson. You may recognize him from movies like Cobra, Hired To Kill, Lionheart, and in his younger days, one of the punks in Terminator. (he's the other punk besides Bill Paxton) If you were to pick on Daniel Bernhardt movie to watch just because there's absolutely nothing else to watch, then I'd recommend this one.