This action/adventure tale is set in an imaginary Latin American republic amid a background of espionage involving the CIA and the United States Congress, in which its hero, Peter Caine (John Coleman), A.K.A. "The Stalker", characterized in the language of his enemies as the most venomous and robotic of agents, is revealed as an oddly restrained operative more concerned with survival than with demonstrating his hunting tactics. Caine is attached to a Senate-supported anti-narcotics mission which is exterminated during a meeting by a group of masked terrorists, with only Peter a survivor, albeit wounded, after which he prepares for a purported task of revenge, but a frequently occurring series of flashbacks demonstrates that the super agent has apparently not freed himself from a large body of personal devils. The promised requital is woefully slow in coming in this predictable production, cumbered as it is by a weakly episodic structure that gives rise to a sense of inadequacy about Caine, not helped by Coleman's unfashioned performance in his first credited role, nor by the strong presence of Martin Kove as his best friend, a seeming casting gaffe since Kove would have been far more believable as the lead. This is nothing more than a highly cliched adventure film offering only a mild feeling of adventure, fundamentally no character development or perceptible point of view, and a remarkably unoriginal score, although the sound crew is top-flight here, with the camerawork and the brightly surreal sets having interest in this generally dull picture filmed in Portugal.
Review of President's Target
