Critic Reviews
Targets (1968) Rank 5 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (19) reviews
Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating
Fair
1
(0)
Poor
0
(0)
Reviews by Score:
Film Freak Central (Bill Chambers)
A beautiful, disturbing, masterful fiction-filmmaking debut for Bogdanovich ...read the complete Targets movie review at Film Freak Central (Bill Chambers)
Ozus' World Movie Reviews (Dennis Schwartz)
It's based on a story by Polly Platt (at the time Bogdanovich's wife). ...read the complete Targets movie review at Ozus' World Movie Reviews (Dennis Schwartz)
TV Guide's Movie Guide (--)
The Onion A.V. Club (Noel Murray)
Which is the real Peter Bogdanovich: the neckerchief-festooned raconteur who spills anecdotes about Orson Welles, the scandal-plagued burnout with a history of broken relationships and box-office failures, or the under-appreciated cinema wunderkind who on ...read the complete Targets movie review at The Onion A.V. Club (Noel Murray)
Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
frightening in a way few horror movies are because it taps so directly into real fears ...read the complete Targets movie review at Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
Cut to the other story: Tim O'Kelly plays a clean-cut, seemingly normal kid who likes guns. In the most subtle way, Bogdanovich suggests that the youth's obsession hides deep feelings of insecurity; beneath the all-American image are few human resources. ...read the complete Targets movie review at Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times
DVD Savant review
I saw Targets on a double bill with The Manchurian Candidate in 1973, at what was touted as a once-only screening: both films were at the time officially withdrawn from distribution. ...read the complete Targets movie review at DVD Savant review
PopMatters
The first is the director's self-reflexive valentine to Karloff, who plays Byron Orlock, a veteran horror film actor whose name, like Karloff's, is synonymous in Hollywood with the horror genre. ...read the complete Targets movie review at PopMatters
DVD Verdict
Targets works beautifully as a horror film. No, this isn't the type of horror that is popular with audiences. It is the horror of reality-the kind that develops from humanity. ...read the complete Targets movie review at DVD Verdict
The Terror Trap
Producer Marshall Smith (Monty Landis) is furious and tells Byron, "if it weren't for me, the only place you'd be playing is the wax museum!" Byron simply walks quietly out of the room to his car. ...read the complete Targets movie review at The Terror Trap
eFilmCritic Reviews
During Michaels attempt to persuade Orlock, we suddenly cut, in very shocking manner, to a telescopic sight whose crosshairs converge on the back of Orlock's head. ...read the complete Targets movie review at eFilmCritic Reviews
DVDBeaver.com - Review (Gary W. Tooze)
"An interesting film in that was a thrown together concept which helped established a new adept director on the film scene. ...read the complete Targets movie review at DVDBeaver.com - Review (Gary W. Tooze)
Eccentric Cinema
The film is presented in its original widescreen aspect ratio of 1.85:1. The print looks superb, with very little grain. The picture is a little dark but overall the video is excellent. ...read the complete Targets movie review at Eccentric Cinema
DVD Outsider
It is often stated that guns don't kill people, people do. But when they use guns to do it, this particular tool can't help be seen as at least partly culpable. ...read the complete Targets movie review at DVD Outsider
The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review
In rewriting the Whitman story, Bogdanovich lays his finger on the pulse of the discontent with middle-class life that American youth was getting angry about at the time. ...read the complete Targets movie review at The SF, Horror and Fantasy Film Review
Jigsaw Lounge (Neil Young)
Working with a Fassbinderish speed and intensity, he wrote and shot the whole thing in less than three weeks for a reported $125,000. ...read the complete Targets movie review at Jigsaw Lounge (Neil Young)
Classic-Horror.com
One of Hollywood's most endearing strengths is its ability to survive its own cannibalistic impulses. ...read the complete Targets movie review at Classic-Horror.com
Reverse Shot (Michael Joshua Rowin)
Cinema and guns share a long, strange history. ...read the complete Targets movie review at Reverse Shot (Michael Joshua Rowin)
Cinepassion.org
It opens with Boris Karloff skulking through one of Corman's paste-walled castles, before the lights come up and the aged, tanned horror star (as "Orlok") winces in the screening room. ...read the complete Targets movie review at Cinepassion.org
User Reviews
by John Farr "The Be... on June 28, 2007
Financed by Roger Corman, who lent real-life aging horror star Karloff to newcomer Bogdanovich for two ...
by n0s4a2 on May 02, 2007
Made in 1967, Targets is Peter Bogdonovich's first and best film, and one of Boris Karloff's most memorable. It concerns an ordinary, clean-cut young guy who one day decides to take his gun collection atop a tower and shoot people on the freeway-- no ...
by Raegan Butcher on July 27, 2006
I have been reading about this movie for thirty years and after renting it from the incomparable MOVIE MADNESS I can only say I wish I had seen it sooner. It really stands out as an exceptional example of low-budget exploitation cinema.The DVD is worth ...
by joseph Corey "par... on November 04, 2005
This Karloff's last great appearance in a movie. It does an amazing job of summing up his life and giving a human face to the monster. Even though it's a Corman produced flick, it doesn't feel cheap or rushed. Karloff plays an actor who is ready to ...
by Jeffrey Leach on August 20, 2005
What does the name Peter Bogdanovich mean to you? Until I read about him on a certain well-known movie Internet site, I associated him with three ...
by gobirds2 on November 28, 2003
Peter Bogdanovich produced, directed, edited and wrote the screenplay to TARGETS. The film has a curious and dichotomous quality to it. On one hand Bogdanovich handled the ...
by Orion "orionca" on November 28, 2003
Boris Karloff gave one of his finest performances in this film and proved that he didn't have to be the movie's monster to be the star. The transfer quality is excellent, the special features aren't much but they provide great value. It was a kick for ...
by Michael R Gates on November 19, 2003
In the early 1960s, celebrated director Peter ...
by tvtv3 "tvtv3" on November 11, 2003
TARGETS was the directorial debut of Peter Bogdanovich and was one of the last films that Boris Karloff ever made. The movie ties two seemingly separate stories together and unites them in a climax at a drive-in movie theatre. Karloff plays an aged actor ...
User Comments
del.icio.us
Digg
StumbleUpon
Yahoo! My Web
Facebook
Google Bookmarks
ma.gnolia
Newsvine
reddit
Windows Live
