Trappola per il presidente

Nick James is a professional stunt driver on his way to prison. However, bad guys with evil plans decide to use him as a getaway driver for a very important job, kidnapping the President of the United States, so they ambush the prison bus and coerce him to go along with them. Naturally, Nick James is a good guy at heart and starts to work things his way.

The good thing about this movie is that the opening scene lets you know right away what you're in for - a nice, though very overdone epic score, plays during the beginning scenes. It seems to be music from bigger and more expensive action pictures like "The Rock" or "Batman Begins." Though the score oddly complements the outrageous chase scenes which are pretty well done, but thoroughly silly. Thankfully, the rest of the plot is equally silly so overall it works out as an enjoyable no-brainer action movie.

The film's tagline of this being the greatest chase movie ever, however is really the one unnecessarily overdone thing. It's not and in watching you can see that it doesn't really try to be so for a truly intriguing and involving thriller, look elsewhere. This is just lots of fun for boys who like fast toys. --- 6/10

Rated R for violence and profanity

The film is basically one extended car chase scene after another with a silly plot which I don't have any objections to. It's just that the film director Joseph Merhi appears to have taken his film's plot too seriously which is to kidnap the United States President played by Roy Scheider and utilizing Nick's stunt driving talents to drive the getaway car. Michael Madsen plays Nick James a stunt car driver by trade and a current California state prisoner who is busted out of prison so that a more evil criminal named Lamar played by Keith David can make use of his talents from his underground cave headquarters classified as Area 55.

Now Nick James would have preferred to complete his one year sentence in prison but when Lamar holds Nick's estranged wife Nadia played by Kathy Christopherson as his prisoner in his underground headquarters named Area 55 to ensure Nick does as he is told then Nick is left with few alternatives but to drive the getaway cars through the city of California with a couple of dozen police cars in hot pursuit, one crime at a time.

Lamar has two henchmen who keep Nick company and under control who are named Ray played by Joe Hart and Lacey played by the red headed model Angie Everhart. I appreciate that an actor can only perform as well as the lines provided to them so don't expect any quality acting from Ray or Lacey. Madsen's performance was done well for the material he was provided to work with.

Nick (Michael Madsen) ends up being the hero and the good news for the audience is that the movie ends at the 92 minute mark. Now lets see ...travelling at a rate of speed (on average) of 150 miles per hour that equates to approximately 228 miles of distance this films car chase scenes have travelled across the state of California. During the 92 minutes that the film elapsed I travelled to the fridge three times and enjoyed my snacks and drinks more than Executive Target. If you enjoy endless car chases and cars, trucks and buses that go boom then this film is for you. As for me this film went bust, as did my belly after my third trip to the fridge since this movie was not as captivating as I had hoped. I rate it a 3 out of 10.

This movie had promise. Unfortunately, it's let down by a lame plot, bad acting and a very cheap, made for TV look.

The movie centres on stunt car driver Nick (Michael Madsen) who is sprung from jail (after being wrongly convicted.... surprise!) to drive the getaway car for a bunch of crooks who intend to kidnap the president and sell him to the highest bidder.

Unfortunately, this somewhat original idea, and the talents of Madsen and Roy Scheider (as the president) are ruined by poor execution and plotting. The story fails to explain adequately what the military has to do with everything, the constant presidential speeches have no real point in the plot and Madsen's character is sometimes made to look like a sincere guy and at other times just like the money hungry thieves he supposedly detests.

The car chase sequences, which could have been exciting, simply come across as silly because of ultra slow motion shots and cars that begin to explode before they've even collided ! The villains hideout also looks like some cheap leftover from the original Star Trek series.

And finally, the acting itself is generally quite poor, particularly the bad guys (Angie Everhart is NOT an actress). Even Madsen, who I thought was great in "Donnie Brasco" and "Reservoir Dogs" seems to be coasting along for the ride, although this could be partly attributed to the lame dialogue his character has been given.

All in all, "Executive Target" is about what you'd expect from a cheap made for TV movie, which is a pity really because there is definite potential here.

4/10.

This film's primary objective seems to be to test the viewer on how good they are at suspending their disbelief. Surprisingly, money WAS spent on this film, and there are enough car chase sequences to make even William Friedkin happy, but every time a car hits another car, it explodes immediately. Every time. Also, I got a hoot out of the closing sequence, where two helicopters are shot down, and then two different (read: cheaper) helicopters are shown on fire, hitting the ground. Different colors and everything.

The movie as a whole is hardly average, but I like Everhart's ice-womanish play, and Michael Madsen is always a good actor to see