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A man's got to do what a man's got to do, the saying goes, and in the case of Spanish cult filmmaker Jesus Franco, that means making exploitation movies. He's made about two hundred of them since the late 1950s, and a few (particularly Vampyros Lesbos) have actually been worthy of notice. Other times, he's just paying the rent, as is the case with this American-made snoozer starring pretty Rachel Sheppard. The videography isn't bad, and takes advantage of its Caribbean settings and Sheppard's extremely photogenic frame as much as possible despite its limitations. Sometimes, those limitations curtail some of Franco's customary stylistic touches so much as to make the film unrecognizable as his work, at least until Lina Romay straps an electric cord to Maria's head and starts administering unconvincing jolts while cackling sadistically. Romay steals the show, squeezing lemon juice into the nude Maria's wounds and showing her a cut-out eyeball in a wineglass while sneering "The less you say, the more we'll play" with vicious glee. Blind Target was apparently filmed in English, but the dialogue is matched to the video very poorly at times, reminiscent of certain 1970s Asian action films (there are even some dreadful martial arts scenes). Still, it has some nice campy moments, and if one has to sit through yet another bad shot-on-video action movie, at least it's nice to see one made by a director who has some idea of what he's doing. And Sheppard being naked for much of the film doesn't hurt either. ~ Robert Firsching, All Movie Guide |
