Target Practice (2010)

Waste of time

The Worst Film Ever

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Let me be very fair here, this is not the best movie in my opinion. But, this movie is fun, it has purpose and is very enjoyable to watch.

*** May contain spoilers ****Definitely contains criticism****I won't go into the specifics of the movie, as several other reviewers have done a good job of that already. The film work was OK, but the dialogue and plot needed some serious work on it, because a lot of it doesn't make sense. For a start, there was no tactical reason for the terrorists to target the group. None of them were near the camp, and a simple Road Closed sign, along with a couple of trees across the road would have sufficed to deter casual travelers. Killing 5 men has a very high risk of discovery - yet they engaged them nonetheless. Not very tactical. And are we to believe that 'secret' training camps have well established gravel roads leading to them ?Although they're being hunted, all the characters gob off like they are in a busy Starbucks, instead of being in a valley where sound will carry for miles.One of the survivors, showing complete unfamiliarity around firearms (and common sense), is still able to kill several trained terrorists. Despite telling the CIA agent he doesn't trust him, he continues to keep him around, instead of taking the gun, and then leaving him behind. Why ? It just doesn't make sense.I'm not sure what point the director was trying to make, but two of the three survivors are so obnoxious in the first 5 minutes (and continued to be), I was disappointed they weren't killed in the initial ambush. In fact, the lack of empathy for the characters and their plight gave me little reason to finish watching this movie. I really could not care less if any of them survived or not. In the end, I turned it off because I could not suspend disbelief long enough to persevere. I appreciate I may not be the target audience (excuse the pun) but if you have a love for indie films, and can tolerate poor dialogue, leading characters who are whiny morons, and can see gems where others see flaws, you may enjoy this because the film work is decent, even if the script needs some vigorous polishing.

This indy film directed by Richmond Riedel holds your attention pretty much from the get go. A car load of blue-collar buds are off to a weekend of fun-filled fishing until they pass an unattended car in the woods. The good Samaritan attempt is immediately interrupted by gunfire. A couple of the guys are shot dead and Paul(Joey Lanai), Mark(Eric Dean) with another survive to scurry to the woods to hide. They discover they are targets of a dangerous cell of terrorists trying to protect the location of their training camp. The injured and frightened city boys think they have been befriended by an undercover CIA agent that infiltrated the terrorists ...but they have been double crossed. Tension builds, adrenaline pumps and relentless violence keeps you flinching rifle fire. Good guys match intelligence with the bad guys making for an action-thriller. Also in the cast: Eltony Williams, Aaron Hawk, Solomon Hoilett, Sean Christopher, Richard DeGullio, Bryan Hanna and Myles McLane.

I feel sorry for the makers of this movie for what I am about to write. Better luck next time.I watch a lot of indie movies, and I don't think a big budget necessarily makes a good movie. However, the action genre is probably not the place you'd want to start out in with a super-low budget, and I must say that it was sub-par to most other indie flicks I've seen. The only thing that stands out in a good way is the gory parts with effects/makeup.I have trouble deciding if the poor acting was due to bad directing, scripting, bad actors but probably a combination of all. Only the Al-Qaeda leader character was somewhat realistic. All other roles felt like a group of ten-year-old boys in grown-up bodies arguing with each other. Already in the first scenes I am asking myself "How are these people even friends?", because they behave like a dysfunctional family where nobody has any respect for each other whatsoever and will start shouting like crazy over nothing. This repeats throughout the movie. Not even the CIA agent can keep his cool (this is a person who is supposed to have had years of background checks and psyche evaluations?).The unlikely group of people traveling together behave like if they want to get in trouble (kind of like in horror movies where half naked girls walk out in the forest alone shouting "is there anybody there?"). Very irrational. See a car at the side of the road with bullet holes? - don't walk into the woods.Also not likely: * The homegrown terrorists are using Kalashnikovs(?) I don't think they are very easy to come by in northern America, and they have horrible accuracy. According to experts they are only an advantage when the enemy does not have a gun at all, or for shooting into crowds. Not something you would use for target practice, or be able to make those long range head shots. If you are making a movie about terrorists - at least know this much about them. * After the first shoot-out the terrorists simply give the unarmed civilians a 5 minute head start to run away and hide. * Nobody would in real life go back and fight 17 trained killers, when they have the option to flee and get help. Especially if you have no training yourself. This guy does not even know how to hold a rifle. Still he manages somehow to outs-shoot all of the terrorists.(Footnote: I took interest in this movie after reading the existing reviews on IMDb (12/21 2010) (all positive), but after watching the movie I must say they were in my opinion most probably strongly biased (written in promotional fashion and 9/10 score). Everyone have the right to their own opinion in a review, but at least be genuine. IMDb admins - feel free to remove this foot note if you disagree.)

all you Indies out there i would recommend seeing this one. tight editing and good cam work produces a nice action flick. saw it at Burbank and then again last month at a screening. goes to show what can be done with a smaller budget and some talent! if you dig Indies, like action, or you are becoming a filmmaker i would highly recommend seeing this film. for fun or education... good flick. i am glad to see that they are getting a good festival push. latest i heard the film is screening in two festivals Georgia and Honolulu... so good luck to them on those. keep an eye out for one of the stars, good guy and future action star Joey Lanai who has a good performance... director has got a good future in front of him.. hope to see him do some more action films.