Thomas Kane (or is it Cane?) (Daniels) is a hit-man. He works on sort of a "board of directors" of other hit men and hitwomen. These hitpeople are overseen by their boss, a guy named Raymond (Cheung). It's Raymond's job to keep people like Uncle (Madsen) and Johnny (Fralick), among others, in line. Kane gets out of line when he begins double-dealing: he takes money from his intended victims as payment for sparing their lives. When the organization finds out about this, they get mad and send all their employees after Kane, thus making him the ULTIMATE TARGET. The only problem is, his wife Jody (Denier) and his daughter didn't know about his profession and now they're on the run from the baddies. Holing up in yet another dusty ol' town, Kane prepares to take on the dangerous people he once worked with. But will he be successful? We hate to be the bearer of bad news. I mean, we really, really do. It pains us to report that, after fifteen years of waiting to see this quasi-unreleased movie, we found that it was a disappointment. We understand that it was plagued with production problems and was swept under the rug, along with a lot of DTV product of that time (and a decent chunk of Michael Madsen's career), becoming another casualty of the low-budget DTV downturn of the late 90's/early 2000's. It was around this time that the DTV bubble went bust, and items like Ultimate Target make it easy to see why. Not only is it a Tarantino Slog (a term we coined), but, at this point in time, it's safe to say that it's also a Guy Ritchie slog. Let's just say it hasn't withstood the test of time.
We were truly excited to see one of our favorite actors, Gary Daniels, team up with Michael Madsen. Even the (unnecessary?) narration from Daniels's character is helped along by his mellifluous voice. This is countered by Madsen's gravelly voice, which is ALMOST enough to keep the movie afloat, but the only problem is that we hear way too much of their voices. In true Tarantino Slog style, this movie is extremely talky. We needed less talk, more rock. Characters gratuitously eat/talk about breakfast cereal, reminding you instantly of Eric Stoltz's character in Pulp Fiction. There's a ton of other yak-yak, and when we finally get to see some fight scenes, they are pulled and stretched in varying combos of slow motion and fast motion. As we have stated before, we really hate fast motion. Another thing we hate, bathroom humor, is also, sadly, here. Maybe the characters talked about everything else there is to talk about and finally reached the bathroom. Not good. Another strike.
On the bright side, Daniels is good in the movie and tries against all odds to make everything work. Even when what surrounds him is weak, Daniels always remains watchable. The pairing with Madsen didn't live up to its full potential, but Daniels was reunited with his old Deadly Target (1994)/Fistof the North Star (1995)/White Tiger (1996) co-star George Cheung. We have always admired Cheung and his impressive resume. But this whole outing doesn't FEEL right. Almost like it wasn't fully completed, which perhaps it wasn't. It's all very similar to the comparable Double Tap (1997). In that particular T-Slog, Stephen Rea is the hit-man, and the rest of the cast jabberjaws on about a bunch of needless topics. Please consult that review for a more in-depth analysis of the aforementioned Tarantino Slog.
In the end, Ultimate Target (AKA Ides of March, not to be confused with the Ryan Gosling movie of the same name, though it would have been cool to see Gary Daniels in Gosling's role) proves definitively that characters walking in slow motion either with or without sunglasses is not enough to make a complete film. 2000 was just about he moment when the shorthand replaced the substance. Much like Hostile Intent's beloved Pastebucket McWoo, the last thing we as viewers see, if you stick it out all the way to the END of the end credits, is this, and we quote: "2001 Giants Entertinment". Yes, that's right. They misspelled "Entertainment". And doesn't that say it all, really?
We were truly excited to see one of our favorite actors, Gary Daniels, team up with Michael Madsen. Even the (unnecessary?) narration from Daniels's character is helped along by his mellifluous voice. This is countered by Madsen's gravelly voice, which is ALMOST enough to keep the movie afloat, but the only problem is that we hear way too much of their voices. In true Tarantino Slog style, this movie is extremely talky. We needed less talk, more rock. Characters gratuitously eat/talk about breakfast cereal, reminding you instantly of Eric Stoltz's character in Pulp Fiction. There's a ton of other yak-yak, and when we finally get to see some fight scenes, they are pulled and stretched in varying combos of slow motion and fast motion. As we have stated before, we really hate fast motion. Another thing we hate, bathroom humor, is also, sadly, here. Maybe the characters talked about everything else there is to talk about and finally reached the bathroom. Not good. Another strike.
On the bright side, Daniels is good in the movie and tries against all odds to make everything work. Even when what surrounds him is weak, Daniels always remains watchable. The pairing with Madsen didn't live up to its full potential, but Daniels was reunited with his old Deadly Target (1994)/Fistof the North Star (1995)/White Tiger (1996) co-star George Cheung. We have always admired Cheung and his impressive resume. But this whole outing doesn't FEEL right. Almost like it wasn't fully completed, which perhaps it wasn't. It's all very similar to the comparable Double Tap (1997). In that particular T-Slog, Stephen Rea is the hit-man, and the rest of the cast jabberjaws on about a bunch of needless topics. Please consult that review for a more in-depth analysis of the aforementioned Tarantino Slog.
In the end, Ultimate Target (AKA Ides of March, not to be confused with the Ryan Gosling movie of the same name, though it would have been cool to see Gary Daniels in Gosling's role) proves definitively that characters walking in slow motion either with or without sunglasses is not enough to make a complete film. 2000 was just about he moment when the shorthand replaced the substance. Much like Hostile Intent's beloved Pastebucket McWoo, the last thing we as viewers see, if you stick it out all the way to the END of the end credits, is this, and we quote: "2001 Giants Entertinment". Yes, that's right. They misspelled "Entertainment". And doesn't that say it all, really?