Double Target — Double Target(Blu Ray)

Double Target is cheesy, at times sloppy, but always entertaining slice of Italian-made  Namploitation from the late ’80s. It was jointly directed by prime euro trash creators Bruno Mattei & Claudio Fragasso- featuring a host of exploding jungle huts, chopper chases, a shark vs man fight, more than a few tacky one-liners, oh and a decidedly sweaty ‘n’ terminal up tight Donald Pleasence.  Here from the folks at Severin is a new region A locked Blu-Ray release of the film- featuring a 2k scan of the picture, and a few extras.

Double Target is from the year 1987 and was filmed in both the Philippines and India. If you’re a fan of trashy euro-exploitation, be it horror, sci-fi, sexually focused or action fare- I’m sure you’ll know the names of Mattei & Fragasso. But just in case you are new to the wider genre, here’s a quick rundown of each mans ‘talents’.  Between the late ’60s and early 2000s Rome born Bruno Mattei helmed fifty-six films- these go from sleazed Nazisploitation Private House Of The SS (1977), low grade & at times surreal Dawn Of The Dead rip-off Hell Of The Living Dead (1980), and a few examples of nunsploitation like The True Story of the Nun of Monza(1980),  and The Other Hell (1981).  Rome-born Claudio Fragasso has both directing & writing credits, taking in the likes of Alice Cooper staring Monster Dog( 1984), sleazed and highly illogical murder mystery/semi-giallo Night Killer(1990), and so-bad -it’s great euro horror cheese fest Troll 2(1990).

Double Target opens with several big bangs, as we see a series of shoot-ups and suicide bombings in different east Asia locations- like a nightclub and a government building. Next, we get introduced to our lead hero Bob Ross(?!) played by Mile’s O’Keeffe - a chiselled cheeked, designer stubbled, and gelled back mulleted US Vet nam-vet who is in the Philippines looking for his eight-year-old son.  He’s brought in for a mission to find out who's behind the bombings by senator Blaster( Donald Pleasant)- a twitchy, sweaty, and either asthma-puffing or Vicks-sniffing US government man. And he only has four days to get in & out, before the senator pulls the plug on the operation.

So as things unfold Bob has running 'n' jumping hand-to-hand combat, has a flight with a shark before blowing it in two, blows up seemingly hundreds of jungle huts & buildings with his rock launcher, and has an air-bound chopper fight. Has multiple bad guys chases- be it with a motorbike & sidecar, in a jeep being followed by a chopper, or running through badly set up marketplaces. He tracks down his eight-year-old son in a moody sun going setting, and hooks up with Mary McDougall(Kristine Erlandson) blond-haired daughter of a local bearded smuggler. And tries to put an end to eastern European blond bad-guy Colonel Galckin(Bo Svenson).

To begin with, O’Keeffe seems like an odd choice for a lead action hero, as he is not really muscular like Stallone or Schwarzenegger, or mean ‘n’ moody like Chuck Norris.  He looks more like an 80s AOR singer, but he’s charming enough, has a good selection of cheesy lines, and can seemingly fight well enough. It’s always great to see Donald Pleasance, and he wonderfully overdoes his role as the constantly up-tight, sweaty, coughing ‘n’ splutter, large glassed briefcase-carrying US statesmen. The rest of the supporting cast is pretty much on par for this type of thing, so there is nothing to write home about- but nothing truly terrible either.

There is certainly never a dull moment in Double Target. Yes at times the production values, editing & jarring jumps in stock- sometimes from day to night- are pretty terrible/ham-fisted, but this adds to the so bad-it’s-great charm to the whole thing. So if you're after a switch off your brain, at times unintentionally amusing example of low-budget eighties action fare this will certainly appeal.

 

The new 2k scan looks, bright and crisp- though unfortunately this does highlight even more some of the jumps in film stock, and the sudden switching in time of day/night. On the extras side, we get two interviews, both are which are in Italian with yellow English subtitles. There’s Italian Masters Of War (29.00) which is with Co-Director/Screenwriter Claudio Fragasso.  He starts by talking about the film studios set up in the Philippines by Francis Ford Coppola- so this along with the cheap costs of filming in the country attracted the production. We find out the film's choppers were supplied by the country's national army, and the country had terrible humidity- which played up with the director's kidney stones. He talks about the film's actor- apparently, Pleasance was not a man to be directed, and when he visited the director's bathroom- he left an unflushed present for him. O’Keeffe was scared of everything, and not really an action actor. And Svenson was rather quiet and arrogant.  Next, there’s All About The Sentiment(19.03) with screenwriter Rossella Drudi. She talks about the difference between the two different directors. How they both wanted a Rambo vibe to the script and the other elements she weaved into the script. We have a US trailer, and an original Italian trailer.

 

If you have an appetite for action-bound euro trash, that’s stuffed with explosions, lots of gunplay, chases a-plenty, cheesy one-liners, and general  OTT action madness- then Double Target will more than satisfy your needs.