Bullet Points: Perfect Target
1997’s Perfect Target is a movie I was aware of, but not one that I had ever seen. After picking up a physical copy of the movie for cheap, I knew it would be the perfect opportunity to review the movie and shine some light on the star of the movie, the underrated Daniel Bernhardt…
- Opportunity Knocks: David Benson (Daniel Bernhardt, Bloodsport II) formerly of the CIA, now finds himself languishing somewhere in Latin America. After an afternoon of day drinking and watching the cock fights turns into a bar fight with one of the locals. The end result, David is thrown in jail… only to be bailed out by an unexpected by familiar face, Major Oxnard (Brian Thompson, Cobra).
- Soldier of Fortune: Oxnard takes David to meet with David’s former CIA boss, Colonel Shackwell (Robert Englund, Never Too Young to Die)… Shackwell offers David an opportunity to work on the security detail for President Fernando Casillas of Santa Brava. But Shackwell is offering David much more than a paying gig… David isn’t in Central America for the fun of it, he’s basically a man without a country after he was made the scapegoat in an operation that went sideways in Iran five years earlier forcing David out of the CIA and the United States. Shackwell dangles the carrot that if David agrees to do this security job, he will then receive a Congressional pardon. That’s an offer that David can’t refuse.
- The Fall Guys: David meets the rest of the team, but there’s one late arriving member of the security detail that David has no interest in working with… a local police captain Miguel Ramirez (Jim Pirri). It seems David’s arrest at the start of the film was not his first and he’s had his share of run ins with the cops in the time he’s been in Central America, so working with one is not on the top of his list of things he’d like to do. Even though David and Miguel do not get off on the right foot, they will soon find themselves in the same boat when both are the victims of a double cross at President Casillas’ speech commemorating his first year in office. During the speech, President Casillas is assassinated and Shackwell and Oxnard make it appear that David and Miguel were the assassins. But the double cross didn’t go as perfectly as planned, because David and Miguel manage to flee the scene.
- Power Hungry: An argument can easily be made that the biggest villain in the film is Isabella Santiago Casillas (Julieta Rosen), the widow of President Casillas, who was all in on the assassination plot against her husband. Professional soldiers like Shackwell and Oxnard would do whatever dastardly deed needed to be done if the price was right… but for Isabella it was all about a power grab and feeding her ego. And an argument can easily be made that Isabella was also one of the worst villains in action movie history because of her ego… by the end she was being played like a fiddle by “friends” and foes alike.
- Welcome to the Jungle: After escaping certain death at the hands of Oxnard and Shackwell, David and Miguel end up somewhere in the Santa Brava jungle. It is in the jungle (the mighty jungle) where they meet up with Miguel’s sister Teresa (Dara Tomanovich), the leader of the guerilla forces looking to over throw the Santa Brava government. At first David just wants safe passage to the border so he can leave this Santa Brava business behind him… but what kind of action hero would that make him? And before you know it, David is in the the thick of it with Teresa, Miguel and the rebel forces against Isabella, her crooked Federales and the dastardly duo of Shackwell and Oxnard.
As is often the case prior to watching a movie for the first time, I take a quick gander at IMDb… while I was there I couldn’t help but notice Perfect Target‘s 5.0 rating. IMDb ratings can often be taken with a grain of salt, especially if the user count is low… but after watching Perfect Target, I would say a 5.0 is the perfect rating for the movie.
To me Perfect Target didn’t really have anything major to complain about, but it also didn’t wow me. It certainly wasn’t Daniel Bernhardt’s best movie, but it certainly wasn’t Daniel Bernhardt’s worst movie either. Perfect Target couldn’t get anymore down the middle if its name was Malcolm and it deserves every bit of the 5.0 rating.
If you feel like you deserve some Bonus Bullet Points, you are in luck…
- Directed By: Sheldon Lettich, who directed action classics like Lionheart, Only the Strong and Double Impact, was the director of Perfect Target.
- If You Ever: …wanted a movie make multiple references to Daniel Bernhardt having his balls cut off, then Perfect Target is the movie for you. Also, what the hell did Daniel Bernhardt ever do to you to want to hear about such a horrific act befalling the man?
- Montage Alert: There’s a training montage featuring David Benson training Teresa and her rebels in military tactics, marksmanship and hand to hand combat.
- Quality Insult: “Last time I saw a face like yours it had a fucking hook in it!”
- Same Time, Same Place: Perfect Target was shot in Puerto Vallarta, Mexico and it wasn’t the only production going on in Puerto Vallarta at the time… the TV series Acapulco H.E.A.T. was there shooting its second season.
