"Gonna shoot some pigs."

This film is what happens when Boris Karloff owes Roger Corman two days of work. Targets is basically a profile of a man who goes on a shooting spree in Los Angeles. The film follows the shooter from buying a high powered rifle, to a shooting spree in a drive-in movie theater.

Woven into the story is Karloff, who basically plays himself. This movie star element is kind of strange, but it results in a rather fantastic ending. I'd rather not spoil anything, so just take my word that the ending is great.

Incredibly unconventional for an American picture in the '60s and one of the many great films that sparked the independent craze of the '70s. Near the end it starts becoming very rushed but for the most part this is a masterpiece.

This felt vaguely reminiscent of Network: really on-the-nose with its themes, but being so upfront about it that it doesn't matter that much. Karloff is excellent, taking it all so seriously that the film gets to have its meta-ness without seeming too cute. The scenes of the clean-cut twentysomething guy going about his whitebread suburban existence while quietly going insane are immensely disturbing, almost more so than the actual killings. Obviously, lots of it has dated, but it is pretty dispiriting how much is still relevant.

Good film, but seemed to be building to a confrontation you just don't get.

Old horror meets new horror, and slaps him in the face.

Directorial debut film for Peter Bogdonavich, who unfortunately chose to cast himself in a sizable role. His acting doesn't look that bad compared to the others in the film...until he acts opposite Boris Karloff. It's then that it becomes really apparent that Karloff is a far better actor than Bogdonavich, and so by extension all the others in the film.

The reason to see this is for the story and for Karloff's performance, not for anyone else. A clean cut, square jawed, all American guy is shown aiming guns at people. Meanwhile an aging horror movie veteran has decided to retire. Two things are immediately obvious: 1. the man pointing the guns will eventually pull the trigger; and 2. the two stories will intersect at some point.

51.

Roger Corman has produced a lot of shit in his time but every so often he put a little money in a talented mans hands and helped make a gem.

There is no way Bogdanovich should have been able to produce a film of this quality with such limited resources, two days with Karloff and stock footage from The Terror, a remarkable achievement.

Been wanting to see this for ages and it surpassed my expectations. I was not expecting it to be so tense and gripping, nor for it to be quite so prescient regarding gun control and how the media has created a society desensitized to violence.

Karloff brings an old school style and class which reinforces the shooters emasculation and alienation. One of the greatest directorial debuts I have seen.

Bogdanovich's low-budget thriller sports an inventiveness often lacking from the genre. Also, the last great Karloff movie.

Incredibly unconventional for an American picture in the '60s and one of the many great films that sparked the independent craze of the '70s. Near the end it starts becoming very rushed but for the most part this is a masterpiece.