Target Practice is a movie about a group of buddies who go out into the woods and get themselves into some trouble with a hodgepodge of armed men who may be either members of a homegrown terrorist training camp or C.I.A. operatives, depending on who you trust. The movie seems to be about a group of friends going out into the woods for recreation out of necessity, because the film shoot also seems to be a case of a bunch of buddies going out into the woods for recreation; it’s clear that this wasn’t made with much money or very many resources. And while ultra low budget films like this have their inherent foibles (awkward line delivery from amateur actors, army men fully equipped with jeans and camouflage t-shirts), they can also have their charms.
Watching Target Practice feels like stumbling across something made in the 70s on late night cable. It looks more like this was shot on video than film stock, the camera work is pretty exclusively loose and handheld, and the image is prone to things like sun flares and grit on the lens. Other than the occasional headache from too much motion too quick, the aesthetics of the film lend it a homemade charm that allows you to forgive a lot of the low budget hiccups. And the violence is so wonderfully DIY that it couldn’t help but bring a smile to my face. There is no high priced, computer generated nonsense here. Instead we get squibs spraying bright red blood out of bullet wounds, tiny pyrotechnic displays simulating showers of gun fire, and makeup effect amputations. It’s an easy reminder that practical effects work out much better than digital ones for things like action and horror. The computer stuff should be saved for big budget sci-fi affairs.
Appreciation for the throwback action and down home aesthetic is about where my good will for this movie ended though. For a fairly simple film about a bunch of regular guys stumbling into a shootout situation beyond their capabilities, there sure were a lot of plot twists and character building monologues. That all adds up to too much expositional dialogue delivered by actors not seasoned enough to make things sound natural. And even at a runtime of under two hours, this film can drag a bit in the second act. Some of the dialogue scenes where racial issues are inexplicably explored could have definitely been cut to make this thing race along faster to the climax; a fairly large scale shootout where even the violence suffers from the amateur nature of the production.
We get a fun series of shootings, but we’re given no real understanding of how the scene is staged. Spatial continuity is unclear and what we’re left with is a random collection of effects shots that don’t naturally flow from one to the other to tell a sequential story. These are problems that could probably have been solved had writer/director Richard Riedel and his crew had more time at their disposal to figure out things like staging and blocking, but when you’re dealing with a production this small just getting everyone in the same place at the same time while the sun is still up is probably a feat. As a finished product Target Practice looks like it was fun to make, but it just isn’t polished enough for most audiences to appreciate. Still, I’d be interested to see those involved in the production someday get to put their passion for action into a project that can afford things like sets, costuming, camera rigs, script re-writes and seasoned actors. The sensibilities for old school movie making are there, and that would be the true test of their skill.
