Title: Target
MPAA Rating: Not Rated
Director: Thomas G. Waites
Starring: Nick Gregory, Jam Murphy
Runtime: 1 hr 30 mins

What It Is: Nick Gates (Gregory) is a rich and well-known guy with a loyal, knock-out young wife named Laura (Murphy). Looking to spice up their marriage and sex life, Nick constantly discusses his fantasy with Laura to see her have passionate sex with another man. Laura is hesitant as, while she’s willing to give the idea a whack, states she needs to find the right man to have sex and an emotional connection with. Laura and Nick go on the hunt for the right guy, experimenting with whoever Laura happens to set her sights on.

What We Think: Married people and their weird sexual fantasies giving me the ick: The Movie. I could just keep it short and sweet, just like that, but expressing my thoughts about this movie might help me process the bit of trauma I contracted from watching this movie. It’s gonna be a tad difficult not to sound too disgusted, so I’ll try to keep it classy, also much unlike this movie. The viewing experience itself was not the worst–a tad frustrating, absolutely, though it does merit some level of entertainment, especially for anyone who might already be wasted and in that moment, easily amused. Unfortunately, I wasn’t anywhere near a state of inebriation when viewing; I raw-dogged it, stone-cold sober. In that, I can remark that I did feel like I was drunk watching it, as it brings an odd lack of cohesion, logic, setup, structure, and/or (intentional) comedy to the table. Basically we follow this odd couple whose parts included a rich, cringey, sexually deviant middle-aged man, and his loyal airhead blondie trophy wife, on their off-beat odyssey as they explore his sexual fantasy. It’s pretty a simple, cut-and-dry string of scenes of almost pornographic scenarios that end up getting interrupted or cut short due to unforseen quirky obstacles. Otherwise, it feels extremely random. One scene, they’re getting robbed and shenanigans ensue for no reason, another scene an Italian mob uncle goes on a tanget, and then some subplots coloring the couple’s love-triangle with an embarassingly tryhard “cool guy.” Overall, there you get a shakeup of stuff that makes no sense narratively without much merit or comedy, and porn-level acting and scene setups.

Our Grade: D, Not the worst I’ve ever seen and comparitively funnier than some big-name comedies I’ve seen, Target tries to express the strange, quirky world of sexual exploration by throwing ideas at the wall and seeing what sticks. Not much does, and I can already tell this is a bit of a throw-over-my-shoulder kind of watch, as while I commend the filmmakers and actors for trying something new and goofy and silly without being too over-the-top offensive or gross (see: the iconic How to Get Girls, for example), it just wasn’t funny or made enough sense to justify its discomforting tone of sleaze.