Executive Target

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.

My Age: 13

Nick, an imprisoned stunt car driver, played by Michael Madsden, is riding on a prison bus when some guys turn up to bust him out. He doesn't know these people and tries to get away from them, but they kidnap his wife to force him to drive the getaway car when they kidnap the President of the United States to sell him for a great deal of money.

This film has quite a few good car chases, but they deserve a better plot and a better movie. The plot of this film is preposterous and ludicrous, most of the action (in the form of the car chases) is quite good, but the ending climax is both unrealistic and below par. Michael Madsden, who I feel is one of the more underrated actors, puts in his normal good performance, but why is Roy Scheider in this film? I think he looks a bit out of place as the President.

Australian Classification: MA 15+: Medium Level Violence, Medium Level Coarse Language

Rating: 42 out of 100

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.

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 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.