Comeuppance Reviews
When Major General Howard Stern is assassinated in Hong Kong (apparently someone's not a fan), and further suicide attacks occur in Kuala Lumpur and the Philippines, the U.S. government calls in American commando/American hero/American badass Robert "Bob" Ross (O'Keeffe). This guy isn't painting fluffy little clouds anymore. All Ross wants to do is get legal custody of the son he had in Vietnam with his now-deceased wife, and bring him back to the good old U.S. of A. But the questionable Senator Blaster (Pleasance) (shouldn't that have been O'Keeffe's name in the movie?) forces him to go on a dangerous mission in order to find his son - track down the evil russkies Col. Galckin (Svenson) and his henchman Talbukin (Anderson) and their never-ending army of goons, and eliminate them. In order to do this, Ross teams up with an in-country contact, Toro (Dell'Acqua), as well as those sympathetic to his cause, McDouglas (Pigozzi) and his daughter Mary (Erlandson, who has an impressive resume of these types of movies). Ross even offers to take Mary back to America along with him and his son...but under such heavy fire, will they all make it? Blow-ups, shooting, O'Keeffe punching people, exploding huts, exploding guard towers, guard tower falls, exploding helicopters. It truly never gets old, unless it's done wrong. And as we always say, the Italians made the best jungle-set exploding hutters, and here is no exception. Bruno Mattei is at the helm for this particular leafy-green violence fest, and he doesn't disappoint. His work can be hit or miss, to say the least, but this is a minor hit. Minor because fellow O'Keeffe-starred Italian jungle epic The Hard Way is better, but Double Target hits the mark, if I may keep the shooting theme going. The only real flaw is that it's about eleven minutes too long. Yes, eleven.Probably because they tried to develop certain dramatic themes, and that takes time. We're always crying out for more character development, so it would be hypocritical of us to criticize the filmmakers for that, and we won't. But there's only so much of Donald Pleasance sitting at a desk coughing into his inhaler that any audience can reasonably stand. To be fair, though, his scenes with Mike Monty are perfectly fine, and when Pleasance, Monty, and O'Keeffe are all together, it's a B-Movie action fan's dream come true.O'Keeffe has never been cooler, and that's saying something because he's usually pretty darn cool. It's a joy to watch him mow down evil Russians, charge through fruit cart chases, and ignite entire villages with his rocket launcher. He even takes on a shark in an amazing bit of man-to-shark combat. That was definitely a movie highlight. It's all set to an ace Stefano Mainetti score, which helps a lot. Mainetti also did the music for the closing song, "Losing You", sung by Rosanna Napoli. It's always funny when, after a viewer is subjected to 102 minutes of violence and bloodshed, a tender, romantic ballad plays over the credits. It's all part of the anti-mainstream, illogical fun that comes with these pre-CGI-era blow-up movies.In misspelled credits news, we are informed of the many people that worked hard on the Philippine Crow. They must have meant "crew". When English isn't your first language, unpredictable things can happen when you try to print it on screen. Once again, it's part of the unique experience. Either that or they employed a Philippine crow to relay messages back and forth amongst the crewmembers on the set. Seems economical.Never released in the U.S., Double Target represents the exploding hut era well, with some really nice explosions and some other fine attributes. Really only because of its slightly overlong running time does it not reach the heights achieved by some of its competitors, but it is a more than worthy addition to the 'cannon', if you will.
HaemovoreRex
The ever dependable Miles O'Keeffe stars in this enjoyable action yarn as a highly decorated soldier who is persuaded to undertake a dangerous reconnaissance mission in Vietnam whilst simultaneously searching for his son there.There are some commendable action scenes throughout and of course, this being a Bruno Mattei action film, you can count on plenty of BIG and beautiful explosions.A good assemble of B-movie regulars including Donald Pleasance, Bo Svenson, Ottaviano Dell'Acqua, Luciano Pigozzi, Mike Monty and Massimo Vanni make up the rest of the cast and they all put in fine performances in their respective roles (although Svenson's Russian accent is, shall we say, severely wanting in a number of scenes) On the down side however, I must say that the promised spectacular climax proves to be anything but with Svenson as the arch villain meeting a most unimpressive end.Another notably stupid point concerns O'Keefe's son who undergoes such a dramatic change of heart and personality overnight at the end of the film that one would be perfectly justified in assuming he was suffering from some form of schizophrenia! Still, in such a film, any such criticisms are trivial and in the end one has to judge the movie on its merits i.e. on entertainment value.In this respect, whilst not a classic by any means, Double Target comes across well and certainly delivers the goods for its running time, being a fun flick and one that should certainly appease less discriminating action junkies and B-Movie aficionados in general.
Mazzarini
I am not a big fan of Bruno Mattei, in fact I think his films are terrible, but for some reason I still watch them when I find them. This one, like STRIKE COMMANDO followed the plot of RAMBO FIRST BLOOD PART II to the letter. If only it was as well made as the Stallone film then it might be worth watching but alas it is not. The acting is awful, not even genre vets Pleasence, Pigozzi, Monty or Vanni can lift this film. The script doesn't help, in that it is littered with pathetic humour that wouldn't fit in a CARRY ON movie, a good example being when hero O'Keefe races through the Russian / Vietnamese camp on a motorcycle and runs over one of the enemy, one gets stuck on the front of the bike and the heroes throw him off with the cheesy line "no hitchhikers" or something banal like that. Just avoid it at all costs
