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Target (2023)
New work from Thomas Waites awaits you!
With "Target", director Thomas G. Waites gives us the sometimes funny, sometimes sordid tale of Nick and Laura, a married couple living in a scenic waterside community in New Jersey (the name of which is a humorous jab at the name of the real-life filming location). Nick, an architect by profession, is consumed by his fetishistic desire to witness his wife having sex with another man. Nick even later suggests a suitable target that he believes she may have innocently flirted with on occasion. Laura is far less keen on the idea but eager to please her husband.
Enter Chip, a potential lover for Laura who is closer to Laura's age than Nick and, as it will turn out, a more physically satisfying lover than Nick. Nick is intrigued and perhaps threatened by this revelation. Despite some insecurity surfacing now and again, Chip inserts himself into their lives and preys upon the both of them in various ways, down to the point of making controlling demands regarding his participation in Nick's fantasies for his wife. Nick willingly obliges. A Heironymus Bosch painting on the wall of their house catches Chip's eye. The piece is titled "Hell", and suggests to the film's viewers that there may be something unsettling about this unconventional arrangement.
Offering more detail at this point would spoil the fun. As further events unfold we are treated to doses of sex, unexpected violence, betrayal, a rather humorous mishap concerning a misfired gun, and some extra characters appearing in the latter half of the film, at least one of whom might tug at the already precarious tightrope walk between control and chaos, between the familiar and the taboo, and along the often broken glass-laden path of revealed weaknesses. It doesn't help architect Nick that he can be seen as the "architect" of his own disruptive change. I'll leave it to you, dear reader, to discern for yourself who and how many "targets" get hit.
In the end the "Hell" painting is gone, perhaps a metaphor for how certain characters' heightened self-inflicted misery has now given way to more honest self-realization, in spite of a new and different kind of pain it might bring.
There are certainly layers to this triangle of love mixed with lust and emotional volatility. Screenwriter Waites, himself a veteran theater actor, has structured this tale much as would be expected if it were a stage play. It is dialogue-heavy, places emphasis on characterization as much as plot, and lends itself to post-viewing discussion. So dive in.
Worth a look, folks!
Terminator Salvation (2009)
Lots of noise and destruction. That's about it.
Good action film, great special effects. The problem? It's not a very good "Terminator" movie. It plays out like any one of a hundred post-apocalyptic shoot-em-ups. Stock characters, minimal character development, action sequences revved up beyond belief really just for the sake of the eye-candy of the special effects, and lapses in logic (both geographic and common sense) that undermine the integrity of the story.
I wanted to like this film. I was VERY impressed with the CGI. But in the earlier "Terminator" films the effects served the story. In this film, the story exists simply to provide framework for the action set pieces and effects. Lots of frosting, very little cake.
And by the way, Moon Bloodgood is as smoking hot as any actress with a ridiculous professional name will probably ever be.
There are a few characters that exist for NO REASON AT ALL except to probably please focus groups (as in the case of the small child) or to perhaps lure in an older viewer or two who assumes that the presence of a "serious actress" (Jane Alexander) will lend some gravitas to the proceedings. As badly as the Skynet machines wanted to kill Connor, I wanted to erase that little kid from the movie. The kid looks like she could be another child of a certain Hollywood acting couple. This kid is given almost nothing to do, says nothing, and really just slows the film (and the characters watching out for her) down. Jane Alexander is on screen for about two minutes and is of no real consequence.
Plenty of "yeah, right" moments in this film.
If you can find a local theater with a huge screen and killer sound system, you will be impressed by the visuals and the deafening sound. If you are looking for a good, compelling story that doesn't take frequent liberties with logic or narrative tightness (not to mention originality -- see paragraph one) then you've come to the wrong movie.