Cop Target (obiettivo poliziotto)

Robert "The Exterminator" Ginty! Directed by Umberto Lenzi! This can't go wrong! It was booooring! Slow, poorly paced action film has Ginty as a tough cop escorting a widow of a DEA agent who goes to a small country to see her dead husband who was killed in the line of duty. Ginty, who's films I always liked, is trying to work on very badly written script. Charles Napier is also wasted. Good location, but bad sound doesn't help. Hardly any violence coming from Lenzi who usually make gory films. Not recommended.

This film is actually quite good. Robert Ginty stars as a cop who is hired to escort a rich woman and her kid to an awards ceremony on the tropical island of San Cristobal (this film was actually shot in Miami and Santo Domingo). While there, her daughter is kidnapped by a group of seedy South American thugs, and is held for ransom. Ginty begins to get official "orders" to leave the case to the FBI, but he decides to do his own investigating. He finds that the crime may have had political motivations. This film reminds me of something you'd see on late-night TV. Although it in no way compares to Lenzi's earlier works, it stands up well, and is quite enjoyable to watch.

Umberto Lenzi was perhaps the busiest Italian director of his generation. With more than 65 films on his repertoire, he was a pioneer, trendsetter, master-imitator and overall great entertainer! Just think of all the brilliant Poliziotesschi, Gialli and cannibal exploitation movies he made. By the time of the late 80s/early 90s, however, it looked as if Lenzi's batteries were running low. He was still making lots of movies, but they weren't so virulent, explosive and insane anymore. "Cop Target" is representative of the final Lenzi movies. True fans of his work will still enjoy it, but the vast majority of neutral viewers is likely to label it as dull, uninspired and redundant. Not me, though! It's a fun, albeit insignificant, actioner/thriller starring the great (late) Robert Ginty and Charles Napier in a sleazy supportive role. Plus, the story takes place in the Dominican Republic, in the sunny area of San Cristóbal, so Lenzi and his crew got at least a good vacation out of it!

Farley Wood is a loner Miami cop, assigned to escort a diplomate's widow and her daughter to a ceremony to honor her husband who supposedly got murdered whilst cleansing out the drug cartels of San Cristóbal. Wood and the widow, Deborah Kent, don't get along very well, so he remains in the background. Barely arrived at the island, the 8-year-old daughter is brutally kidnapped by drug lords. Wood quickly discovers that the dead diplomate wasn't the hero everybody claims he was, and that all authority figures on the island are utterly corrupted. There are a handful of great action sequences, like the beach kidnapping and the shootout at the abandoned factory, but admittedly there are slightly too many sequences with Ginty just sitting at a bar drinking Coca-Cola's and bickering with the widow. The most remarkable scene, in fact, is still at the beginning, when Farley prepares for his couple of days of leave and activates his "automatic cat-feeding machine" for his pet Arthur. I surely need to get one of those!

I watched this, and I couldn't escape the bad bad ff key sometimes. Slow introduction, bad motivation, characters changing without any explanation, Ginty looking suspicious, a cat-feeding machine is featured, Napier is wasted, Franco Fantasia - good to see he's well and alive saves a point - what is this about? An action film without action, a suspense movie without a clue. A mess.

In the IMDb reviews for the film, "Cop Target" has been described as a 'slow, boring, poorly paced action film with no action.' I'm pretty sure the reviewers did not watch the film.

From start to finish, "Cop Target" was a fun fast-paced action film directed by Umberto Lenzi and starring Robert Ginty and Charles Napier.

Like all low-budget films (especially Italian ones) there is some cheesy dialogue and over-the-top acting. But "Cop Target" was not riddled with it (though, we could have done without the "automatic cat feeding machine" segment). Majority of the film has great (evenly spaced) action, decent dialogue and acting. Ginty really acts his heart out and does a great job. Next to "The Exterminator", Ginty gives one of his best performances in an action film. He plays a tough cop with humor and heart very well. However, Charles Napier (who is very much welcome in the film) could have had a better role (but, he wasn't TOO wasted). It was great to see him star with Ginty in a film.

If your a fan of low-budget action, Italian crime, and Robert Ginty...don't miss this one! I own a lot of Ginty's films and "Cop Target" is definitely one of his best and is one of my favorite Ginty films. Revok.com has DVD copies in widescreen but contains small Japanese subs (they are easy to ignore). 7/10