This thriller sees former spy Gene Hackman running around Paris, meeting various contacts and battling a rather nasty enemy in the form of a man with glasses who doesn't think twice about bumping off those who stand in his way. This has some fairly tense and exciting moments but it's let down by a plodding running time and, towards the end of the film, in the last half an hour, nothing really happens. The plot falls apart and the sense of pacing which filled the first half of the film evaporates, instead boredom sets in.Hackman is as good as he ever was, a real tough guy and charismatic too. Matt Dillon is well cast as his unlikely son who finds himself caught up in all sorts of espionage and intrigue. The rest of the people are minor characters who are quite forgettable, especially the villains who get far too little screen time and aren't really that threatening anyway. There are a couple of good car chases, explosions and some nice action bits but overall this film is a missed opportunity - for a good Paris-based thriller try either THE FRENCH CONNECTION II or RONIN, which do tend to make better use of scenery and help to emphasise Paris' claustrophobic architecture.

The plot of Target is quite reminiscint of Roman Polanski's Frantic which was released three years later. In the latter, Harrison Ford plays a doctor who's wife is kidnapped during their stay in Paris. It had a lot of good action sequences (like Harrison Ford dodging bullets on the roof of an apartment building) and a good, suspenseful story. In Target, Gene Hackman and Matt Dillon play father and son, Walter and Chris Lloyd. Walter's wife has been kidnapped during her visit to Paris and as both father and son will soon find out, it is related to Walter's former work in the C.I.A., something of which his son was never aware.The movie spends more time with the father-son bonding than it does in providing a very energetic story. This is because of the relationship between the characters, who don't have much in common. This leads to a lot of interruption in what could be good action to have those father-son moments.I think that is the downfall to what really could have been a good thriller. There were some good action scenes, especially car chases, but Walter and Chris seem to waste far too much time in this movie even though seem to remark about what an emergency it is to find Mrs. Lloyd and save her from the kidnappers. In 'Frantic,' Harrison Ford's character does a lot of bullet dodging and never seems to quit until he finds out what happened to his wife. In 'Target,' on the other hand, the scenes are often too slow moving despite the ability to be much better, given the motive for kidnapping Walter's wife in the first place. That's really a shame, too, given the great potential you have with an actor like Gene Hackman, who's proven he can do great things with action films (see The French Connection and Enemy of the State). If this is the kind of movie you're looking for, I'd recommend watching 'Frantic.'

My boyfriend is a big Gene Hackman fan so he wanted to rent this movie every time he passed it in the store. This movie is utterly forgettable, slow-moving, boring, and extremely clichéd. It would not have made it to video without Gene Hackman in the lead role. I like Matt Dillon, but he does not act well in this movie. My boyfriend kept imitating Matt's facial expressions (surprise, confusion, happy) which turned it into a comedy for me.Even the ending of the movie is silly with an exploding building. You wish everybody would blow up too. I think they play ring around the rosy or something at the end.

What I like about Target, is its lack of contrivances. I thought it might be a credible portrayal of real characters. Yes, if I were a CIA agent wanting to forget my past life, I'd create one 180 degrees opposite. If I had a dad as boring as that, I'd also find it hard to relate. There aren't a lot of conventional thrill/action situations here, its emotional and psychological, and most of it works very well. I personally like the fact the violence is minimal in this film, but there is enough to keep you chilled. The cocky kid who 'knows' better than dad, resolves his feelings and relationship in the end while growing up, may not be fully developed, but I got the idea.The script was penned with 3 writers, no wonder some of the storyline may stray. But I liked the clear relationships between Hackman and Dillon and found them likeable and believable, never mind the mother gets lost somewhere.To compare this to a film in a similar genre, I'd go with Harrison Ford in Frantic, not the Eiger Sanction?!. I also want to complement Penn (or whoever is responsible) for using native speaking French and Russian actors, I get very irritated when productions in foreign countries use American actors with SO fake accents. Native tongue productions always convey a verite/credible feel.