Target Eagle (1982) (aka Fire Mission, orig. Jugando con la muerte) – 6/10 (good)
I am not much of an actioner aficionado, though I must confess I have taken to this somewhat obtuse, but nonetheless charming piece of Eurotrash nonsense. Firstly, its primary strength seems to lie in its excellent variety in that it distills all the right ingredients and serves everything ranging from aerial acrobatics to ski chases, furnishing action in spades without getting sidetracked by any gratuitous loquaciousness intended to whitewash film’s conspicuously derivative nature. Secondly, the movie sports some serious acting luminaries, with Max Von Sydow and George Peppard in particular putting on great performances and making the flick appear a lot more classy than it is supposed to. The presence of Maud Adams and the aforesaid panoply of stunts make the motion picture feel like a low-rent James Bond rip-off in a certain sense, a quality which may very well repulse some people, but which I found quite captivating and endearing. Loma’s direction is predictably grubby in that the narrative is rather out-of-focus and the framing usually turns out a bit rough around the edges, nevertheless, the said imperfections as well as the synthy score by Daniele Patucchi only add to the overall flavor and aesthetic, whereas the swift pacing and the unpretentious handling of the material ensure that the film stays fairly entertaining and taut throughout.
