Boris Karloff gives a brilliant performance as an aging horror-movie actor who want to get out of the business. That performance is the only worthwhile thing in TARGETS.
Karloff just about manages to carry the Byron Orlok portion of the story (and he needs to--the story itself is supremely uninteresting); unfortunately, Bogdanovich only had him available for a limited period of time, so he had to write a second story and graft it onto Karloff's. Bogdanovich based this second story on Charles Whitman, the Texas sniper.
Sadly, Bogdanovich had absolutely nothing to say about Charles Whitman, so we end up watching the descent into madness of a cardboard cutout, about whom we know little and care less. Then we see him shoot a bunch of extras. Karloff gets one final scene which verges on the interesting, and the movie ends with annoying abruptness.
Apparently Bogdanovich was "saying something about violence"; if so, he should have written a pamphlet.
Karloff fans should watch this. No one else needs to.
Karloff just about manages to carry the Byron Orlok portion of the story (and he needs to--the story itself is supremely uninteresting); unfortunately, Bogdanovich only had him available for a limited period of time, so he had to write a second story and graft it onto Karloff's. Bogdanovich based this second story on Charles Whitman, the Texas sniper.
Sadly, Bogdanovich had absolutely nothing to say about Charles Whitman, so we end up watching the descent into madness of a cardboard cutout, about whom we know little and care less. Then we see him shoot a bunch of extras. Karloff gets one final scene which verges on the interesting, and the movie ends with annoying abruptness.
Apparently Bogdanovich was "saying something about violence"; if so, he should have written a pamphlet.
Karloff fans should watch this. No one else needs to.