Targets

The typeface of Bobby's note changes between shots.

In the close-up of the word "DIE", the "I" is sans-serif; when the entire note is shown, the letters have normal typewriter serifs.

As Bobby drags his mother's body to her bedroom, a camera shadow can be clearly seen moving up the wall and door to the left.

When Bobby comes home he parks his convertible Ford Mustang on the street.

After being in the house all afternoon Bobby goes to retrieve a firearm from the Mustang's trunk and we see the Mustang is now sitting in the driveway.

Bobby goes to the gun shop to stock up on ammo.

While there he's eating a Baby Ruth candy bar.

The candy bar stays its full length between shots even though Bobby is obviously consuming it.

This indicates several takes of the same shot.

Byron Orlok (Boris Karloff) pours Sammy Michaels (Peter Bogdanovich) a drink - straight, no ice.

Moments later, the drink in Sammy's tumbler has ice cubes in it, yet it's clear from the sequence that neither Orlok nor Sammy have changed position or moved at all.

When Bobby is picking up his guns when running from the tower (after shooting the workman) he fumbles and hit with one of his feet his Smith & Wesson Model 29 caliber.

44 Magnum revolver (this is clearly readable by stop-frame and zooming the scene) making it fall from the edge.

The revolver is the at rest, that is, with his hammer down.

In the next shot the weapon appears, when it falls and splashes into a pool of muddy water at the base of the tower, it can be seen it is now cocked (the hammer fully rear, ready to shoot) a mechanical change that is impossible to happen by any chance due to the fall.

Bobby's check to gun shop is dated late July, but when Orlok picks up newspaper story about supermarket massacre several days later, date on paper is in March.

Exterior of Thompson home does not match layout of interior sets.

When Bobby pulls up in front of house, front door is set flush in a wall that runs entire length of building; yet when he enters, there is windowed wall that runs along right side of entry hall that could not possibly coexist with exterior.

The mother's body temporarily disappears from entryway to room where she was shot when Bobby carries his wife's body into another room, but somehow reappears when he returns.

Cost of adult admission to drive-in (posted on admission booth in later scene) is $1.

25 for adults.

But when Bobby buys ticket, the change he receives after handing ticket seller money is consistent with $1.

50 admission charge.

Admission price sign in drive-in ticket office changesIn at least one shot, adult price is $1.

25; in others, $1.

50 - both for same movie on same night.

(at around 46 mins) After Bobby took his dead wife very close in his arms, his hand is full of blood from her back, but his shirt stays clean, even with the large blood stain she has in front.

(at around 1h 06 mins) When the operator starts the movie, he shuts off the 3 spots at the top of the screen.

However, we see those spots being shut down three times in a row.

- PLOTAt the very end of the movie, the Drive-in is empty the next day, except for the killer's car.

This is illogicalthe victim's cars should be there too.

I ended up admiring "Targets", but to me, the screenplay stumbles coming out of the gate.While it's always fun to see Karloff no matter what he's doing, there's just too much self indulgent "Hollywood insider" nattering in the first 15 minutes of the film.

In the DVD introduction to this film, writer/director/actor Peter Bogdanovich explains how it happened. B-movie mogul Roger Corman came to Peter in late 1967 with a proposal: take 40 minutes of footage from Corman's film "The Terror", film 20 minutes of Boris Karloff (who owed Corman 2 days of work), film 40 minutes of other stuff with other actors to tie it all together, and complete a feature film all for a budget of $125,000.

I got a kick out of seeing Boris Karloff in this, still with great screen presence and released a little less than six months before he died at 81 (his career started 50 years earlier in 1918). He plays an aging, disillusioned horror film actor who is tired of making bad films and appearing before fans.

Elderly horror-film star (Boris Karloff) who, while making a personal appearance at a drive-in theater, confronts a psychotic Vietnam veteran (Tim O'Kelly) who has turned into a mass-murdering sniper.This film was written, produced and directed by Peter Bogdanovich under the direction of mentor Roger Corman.

If you are a director, do you wanna know how to make a great film? bang the production designer, that's how.

To see this movie now is to appreciate the genius of both Karloff as an actor and Peter Bogdanovich as a director. (As an actor he's passable, but he could direct and edit with the best of them).

Maybe in 1968 this was good but I doubt it. What it's got going for it, a young man, for no apparent reason, goes on a killing spree, which is in and of itself an unusual topic (this is mentioned on the poster for the movie so not a spoiler)We're never given any idea why.

From debuting director Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, What's Up, Doc?, Paper Moon, Mask), I saw the title for this film in the book 1001 Movies You Must See Before You Die, I rightly assumed it was something do with an assassin, but I had no idea about the plot, and I was very excited by the cast, especially the lead actor and the director himself.

Sort of a forgotten thriller about a serial killer's final day in the world of sanity, and an ancient Holloywood icon's final day as an actor. In one film, Bogdanovich tackles both the fading Hollwood star lost in a modern world and the absurd violence of modern society, hoping to have each hypothesis prove the other via concurrent storytelling.