Bullet Points: Executive Target

This edition of Bullet Points is brought to you by the Bulletproof Action Suggestion Box… more specifically a suggestion made by filmmaker and friend of the site, Dominik Starck.

Dom suggested a movie from the PM Entertainment library that I had never crossed paths with before… 1997’s Executive Target.

• Hail to the Chief: Roy Scheider plays President Carlson. The POTUS is about to unveil a plan to cut the military budget and shift those financial resources to things like education and the environment. In President Carlson’s eyes, things like the “Star Wars” program have outlived their usefulness. Carlson points out that the world has moved on from The Cold War and the high paranoia spending that came with it. Like any President, President Carlson has his detractors and not everyone is on board with this decision, but Carlson has no idea how far his detractors will go. Not yet anyway…

• Bustin’ Loose: Michael Madsen plays Nick James, a Hollywood stunt driver who finds himself sentenced to one year in prison after giving a ride to an acquaintance that happened to have a purse full of cocaine. But James is never going to make it to prison… the bus transporting James is going to be ambushed via a well orchestrated plan that involves a semi-truck plowing into the side of the prison bus, knocking the bus on its side and causing chaos on the streets of Los Angeles… so much chaos that Lacey (Angie Everhart, Running Red) and Clay (Gareth Williams, Striking Distance) are able to get on board the bus and drag Nick James off of it… but Nick, having no idea who either of these people are, throws a monkey wrench in their plans when he manages to get behind the wheel of the getaway car and we get the kind of high speed chase one would expect from PM Entertainment including cars jumping through trucks, trucks going through police barricades and the destruction and flipping of cop cars.
• Freedom! ’97: Nick has every intention of turning himself into the authorities BUT first he wants to set the record straight with his wife Nadia, who shut him out after his arrest and refused to speak to him. Unfortunately for Nick, Lacey and Clay figure that Nick will try to make contact with Nadia and they show up at her place before Nick. Which results in both Nick and Nadia being scooped up and taken to the underground lair known as Area 55, home of a clandestine organization headed up by a man named Lamar (Keith David, They Live). Lamar uses Nadia as a pawn in order to get Nick James to use his exceptional driving skills to be the wheel man in a bank robbery. Nick reluctantly agrees, not that he has much of a choice.

• The Bank Job: Nick’s decision to get involved turned out to be a good one for the viewers of Executive Target as the movie’s second high speed chase takes place… this one featuring the destruction of produce and some demolition derby style action with the cops trying to force the getaway van that Nick is driving off the road. The cops don’t stand a chance against a professional stunt driver like Nick James and Nick is able to successfully complete the job… but Lamar has something even bigger in store for Nick James… Nick is going to help Lamar kidnap the POTUS!
• Raise The Roof: Nick is not wild about this kidnapping plan, but believes that he can outsmart Lamar so he goes along with things at first. That means we get a third big action piece that ups the stakes by having a semi-truck rip the roof off President Carlson’s limo! Plus, the bad guys blow two helicopters out of the sky, sending them crashing down to the streets below where they explode upon impact. It should be noted that at this point the destruction of police vehicles was reaching The Blues Brothers level. Nick does manage to nab the president, but instead of passing Carlson off to Lamar’s man at the designated checkpoint… Nick takes Carlson to his buddy’s garage, where he explains what is happening and his plan to take Lamar down and rescue his wife Nadia… a plan that quickly gets the Presidential seal of approval!

At times Executive Target felt like a glorified PM Entertainment sizzle reel… for example, moments after the first high speed chase we get a scene in a strip club. If you are a PM fan, you know that vehicular mayhem and scenes of sexuality are cornerstones of the PM Entertainment empire.

But what helps set Executive Target apart from a lot of other PM offerings, is Keith David. The Lamar character is one of the more memorable villains in PM Entertainment history. Keith David is just one member of what was a strong cast who may not have had the best material to work with, but still put forth the effort.

I’ll put in a little extra effort on this review and provide you with some Bonus Bullet Points…

• AKA: Executive Target is known as The Stuntdriver in Germany.
• If You Ever: …wanted to see Michael Madsen and Keith David play with remote control cars, then Executive Target is the movie for you.
• Familiar Faces: Mike Genovese plays one of the detectives looking for Nick James after the prison bus fiasco. You may remember Genovese from his roles in Showdown and Code of Silence… Robert Miano (Guardian Angel) and Matthias Hues (Fists of Iron) play two of Lamar’s henchmen that are a part of the bank heist… George “Buck” Flower does what he does best and plays a window washing bum. I have lost count on the number of movies both big and small that I have seen Flower (aka C.D. LaFleur) in, but to me his crowning achievement was in 1988’s Sorority Babes in the Slimeball Bowl-O-Rama… Lance LeGault, who I will always remember from his work on The A-Team and Iron Eagle, plays General Moore, the President’s chief military advisor.
• Stripper Burn: “If your wife was as beautiful as me, she wouldn’t have married you.”
• If You Ever: …wanted to see the President of the United States in the same room as a blow up sex doll, then Executive Target is the movie for you.