Target of Opportunity

Target of Opportunity finally announces the arrival of Dean Cochran as a full fledged leading man. The movie itself is pretty good, it's got a decent story, good action, it's fairly well directed, and has a high production value for a Nu Image film; but, the key here is Cochran. I've followed him through his lead roles in Air Marshal and Shark Zone and seen him in supporting roles in films like Phone Booth but Target really marks his arrival. I read that he was cast opposite Chuck Norris in an upcoming movie and think he has a new series coming out. It's good to see a film company take the time to build stars.

Target follows Jim Jacobs as he defies the CIA to go to the country of Ghorna to rescue his former parter Nick (played very well by actor Todd Jensen). It starts out a lot like SPY GAME in that sense but quickly becomes like The Borne Identity as Jim finds Nick has completely lost his memory other than knowing that he has left himself clues about a mission.

It's all pretty well done - now understand, it's well done considering it's a lower budgeted action film but it does more with a small budget than a lot of 40 million dollar films have done with all that money lately. I can only imagine what these guys could do given time and money.

I recommend this very highly for action fans.

I recently watched the film Target of Opportunity and as far as action films go this one is tops. The 2 guys Dean Cochran and Todd Jensen are terrific. Both stars have great comic timing that really play against the typical boring action type genre. The production value is also very high for a Nu Image film - it looks like these guys actually went out and filmed big action sequences and you can tell it's really the stars doing the stunts. All in all Target was a great movie watching experience and I hope to see more from this team because for once in one of these films you felt like they cared about making a good, fun movie with a decent script and dialogue and weren't just out to make a quick buck with the same rehashed story and actors.

I picked up this film on a lark at Blockbuster last week, and have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. What was probably intended to be a small, cookie-cutter action flick was carried miles further by its leading men, both of whom manage to inject a great deal of humor into roles that may have otherwise been lost in less capable hands.

I had vaguely heard about Dean Cochran before seeing this film, but upon viewing his work, wonder why I haven't seen more roles filled by him. He boasts classic movie star good looks, the ability to create tension in a scene as well as to make you laugh, and he seems to have a strong grasp of martial arts (he appears to do his own stunts). Can he sing, too?

I had never seen Todd Jensen before, but must say I am impressed with his abilities as well. He has an "everyman" feature to him complimented by this cool throaty rasp in his voice. I'd like to see a series of films with these two working together. They kind of come off as the duo from Lethal Weapon only they fight terrorist bad guys as opposed to regular criminals.

Whoever made this film discovered a couple of hidden gems. Keep up the good work.

I feel this film rates about a 7.5 but due to some people rating it low for no good reason I am rating it a 10. I know film, particularly those in this genre. One thing that has to be considered is the amount of money that is generally spent on lower budgeted action features compared directly to the amount of production value that they got out of this motion picture. Had Target of Opportunity been shot anywhere in the United States it would have cost them a minimum of 15 million dollars and that's not paying some "stars" to play the lead roles. Danny Lerner is a good producer and in the 3 films that I have seen of his as a director he has gotten significantly better in his craft with each one. Les Weldon is also a talented writer who knows this genre well and made for a compelling storyline. I have seen Todd Jensen over the years in various action-type films and this is certainly his best work. He brought something to the character and avoided the obvious traps that exist for his role. I am also familiar with the other lead in the film. Ironically, I saw him play Hamlet years ago and have wondered what he had moved on to do. Cochran was a wonderful Hamlet playing the role with gusto and zeal. Again Hamlet is a role with many traps and he deftly avoided them in his performance. In Target of Opportunity he brings a very strong character to the screen but one in which he is not afraid to show some vulnerability in. I was quite impressed with his work as I see some others were as well.

Target is a solid bit of film making for this group and I look forward to seeing what they put together in the future.

This was a good popcorn flick given the amount of money spent on the budget. Things explode, people get chased, and by the end all is resolved with a smile. The only thing I say this movie needs more of Dean Cochran fighting. In the film's finale we only get a small glimpse at work he can do with his martial arts background. We need MORE of it. Let him bash a few skulls. Break a few arms. Swing a few jump roundhouse kicks. The more a-- kicking moments, the better.

I'd also like to say two two leads work well together and should do more films. Maybe even have one of the be the bad guy so they have to take on each other in the end. That would be S-W-E-E-T.