No Alvo de um Assassino

I got this in a dollar store. $1 for a DVD with two movies on it (the second being The Snows of Kilmanjaro). I like picking up these low budget movies. Most are awful but every now and then I find a gem.

Fatal Assassin would not be called a gem, but it isn't a lump of coal, either. Quinn, who has a fatal illness, kidnaps a visiting dignitary in South Africa in order to provide for his daughter. Meanwhile, an assassin has been hired to kill the dignitary. The story focuses more on the growing relationship between Quinn and the President.

I did not think this was a bad movie at all. It held my interest to the end.

Yup, a nice coming out of the shower scene with our favourite misfortunately bad "straight to video" actor .. well let's be fair, there are no bad actors of John Phillip Law's calibre, just bad scripts and this is one of them ... man is this ever one of them

Too bad he wasted his time on this lemon, but I purchased it solely because he's in it .. thank God for ebay and the $3.99 movie deals

This confusing muddled mess, I think, after having watched it more than once, revolves around Quinn working in South Africa as a male nurse who, as luck has it, is able to kidnap an African dignitary visiting his hospital for tests, following a failed assassination attempt by Law's character, Shannon .. from a top of a high building ..

What conspires is a jumbled attempt to retrieve the President and the climax of the movie taking place on some remote mountain ledge .. about 15 years before Ruby Ridge and just as forgettable .. and the twist being that the President's own Chief of Staff has hired Law to kill his boss .. a scene we get to see unfold with Law making his best attempt to fit in with the 70's "hey you're too groovy baby" street speak ..

The score, the sound, the audio tracking, the plot, the character development, everything in this film was bad .. it was like being stuck in some really bad Saturday afternoon Kung Fu nightmare .. only worse, cause John Phillip Law was in it and I wanted to watch him, I guess being a fan of this, nice to stand there and just breahte, actor has its drawbacks, this movie, in a long string of bad flicks for our handsome hunky blue eyed ingenue, is one of them ..

Stay away from this movie unless you are a die hard John Phillip Law fan or can fully understand muddled Anthony Quinn dialogue .. or late night infomercials have you ready to jump off a building

The president of the fictional country of Gamba has just arrived in South Africa for medical treatment. Someone wants him dead, as an assassin takes a shot at the motorcade (a ridiculously impossible shot at that). But the man was not injured and soon he's in the hospital. His nurse is Slade (Anthony Quinn) and folks don't realize that Slade is dying...so he has little to lose when he decides to kidnap the President. What's next ? See the film.

This film has some very interesting ideas and the plot MIGHT have worked. But there are several parts that are utterly silly and hard to believe...such as when Slade takes the president to a nearby shop in order to phone in the ransom demand! Huh?! The President could have just told the folks in the shop who he was and had them call the police! But he didn't...and it gets even harder to believe as the film progresses. Also, later the Presient seems to LIKE being a prisoner and helps Slade...the most ridiculous Stockholm Syndrome case I've ever seen in a film! Overall, a genuinely odd movie...one that is hard to describe and is watchable...but also not all that good as well as so much of it makes little sense.

With a bit of a re-write, this film could have worked very well....but as is, it's just an odd little film with a big-time American actor and nothing more.

Peter Collinson, the guy who directed "The Italian Job" (1969), didn't do an extraordinary job here. I do not know who is more to blame, him or the script, probably the script. The movie is boring, hard to digest. There are passages when the music is really annoying. Anthony Quinn tried his best, but unfortunately, this role was not for him. Sometimes he is even embarrassing. John Phillip Law repeated the same scene endlessly, trying to shoot the black president. I only saw the movie because I really like Anthony Quinn, he is one of my favorite actors ever. But not here. I also liked John Philip Law in "Danger: Diabolik" (1968) and "Strogoff" (1970). Not here. One star for Quinn, one for Law.

It's hard to imagine Anthony Quinn as an average Joe when he's so often a larger-than-life character, but in Target of an Assassin, he's just your ordinary male nurse. And believe it or not, it works.

Or is he just an ordinary nurse? In the story, John Phillip Law tries to assassinate an African president, Simon Sabela, but when he's unsuccessful, Simon is sent to a hospital to recuperate. Tony is his nurse, but he throws the audience for a loop when he gives Simon a sedative and kidnaps him! Who's the bad guy in this movie? You'll have to watch it to find out.

If you do decide to watch it, it's not very exciting. It's kind of like a bad 1970s action flick, which, let's face it, it is. Tony has a side plot of trying to protect his daughter and take care of his own illness, but it's clearly just a bone they threw him so he can show off his acting chops that are clearly wasted in an action movie. Needless to say, this one wasn't my favorite.