Trappola per il presidente

Michael Madsen apparently sleep walks his way through this undemanding but nonetheless fun entry from the ever reliable guys at (the much sadly missed!) PM Entertainment.

Madsen plays a stunt car driver who is sprung from a prison bus by a shady government organisation who have hatched a dastardly plan to kidnap the president of the United States and are planning to utilise our hero's amazing driving adroitness in a daring bid to abscond with him. Well, if insane car chases are your cup of tea, then you'll love this for sure. Cars flip, spin, screech, explode and perform all manner of hair raising feats in this adrenaline pounding ride. Unfortunately, it has to be said that there is very little substance other than the aforementioned so if you are requisite of character development, a more abstruse plot and good performances then it would probably be wise to look elsewhere.

Whilst certainly not one of my personal favourites from PM's extensive catalogue, this is nonetheless worth a look for fans of automobile chaos and awesome GENUINE (as opposed to lazy CGI crap!) stuntwork.

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.

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

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.

Just the premise of this film sounds horrible. An ex-Hollywood stunt driver, arrested on a minor crime, is broken out of prison and forced to drive the getaway car for a plot to kidnap the President of the United States. Would probably make a fun video game. As a film? Well...

This movie is kind of like a magic show. It's point is to distract you and make you think that something it happening. You sit there thinking "Wow, this movie sucks...Cool, a car blew up!" And they use every car chase cliché in the book. Cars bunny-hopping inexplicably. Driving through boxes of fruit while people jump out of the way. They even have a woman pushing a freaking baby carriage. I yank you not, a freaking baby carriage! There's a line a character mutters after a huge explosion: "Now tell me that doesn't give you a hard on". Somewhere, Jerry Bruckheimer is stroking himself in agreement. I'd bet all that I own that with a little bit of a reworked plot, a bigger budget and a few A-List stars, this would be a total Bruckheimer flick.

As I said before, the story is dull and predictable. The acting is wooden and hard to swallow. Even Madsen, whom I rented this solely on the fact that he's on the cover holding a gun, feels like he's going through the motions and just looks bored with the entire thing. But it does have shut-your-brain-off boom-booms, and they are done fairly well. Even if it does take only a half dozen people, a couple of which are untrained in any sort of combat, to take down an entire evil military base. If it's ever on late at night and the batteries on the remote are dead, I'd probably watch it again. So if you get a chance to see it for free and you honest to God have nothing better to do, it beats the hell out of some films I've seen.