| Executive Target (1996) Cast:Michael Madsen,Roy Scheider,Angie Everhart,Keith David Michael Madsen stars as a hollywood stunt car driver who is broken out of prison to help a band of terrorists abduct the president, Madsen declines but when the terrorists threaten Madsen's wife, he's forced to come up with a plan to save not only his wife but his country in this tired actioner. Executive Target has lots of the right stuff to make a great action flick, a great cast, good actionscenes and even some clever ideas about how to bring the plot full circle but I for one was left indifferent to what happened. This is one of those movies that has tons of fireballs but so little human development that it feels like a video game. Cartoon-like action movies can work, if they don't take themselves seriously but Executive Target is dead serious about what it wants to do, therefore it's a failure due to this. Executive Target is much like a Michael Bay movie with the benefit of an okay script (Opposed to a typically awful one found in a Bay movie) yet despite a few good ideas Executive Target is never quite as exciting as it should be and therefore I was left disappointed. I think the problem is, the central casting of Michael Madsen. Madsen is a very good actor that works well in character driven thrillers like Reservoir Dogs and Kill Bill Vol. 2, as a cookie cutter Schwarzenegger type superman he just appears lost. Not to mention Everhart who is not convincing for a second as an assassin. As it stands Executive Target is a well made actioner, no doubt about it but anyone looking for a little substance is bound to be left out in the cold. D.Joseph Merhi**1/2 |