Targets was a box office bomb upon first release, but critics liked it and it has since become recognized as a quality film that has something to say about American conformity, violence, and the film business.

| Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 15, 2025

It wasn’t Karloff’s last film, but it’s the farewell performance he should be remembered by: he’s gentle, funny, sad, and dignified throughout...

| Sep 22, 2024

I know the film was made in hard circumstances, on a small budget, and it is only fair to say that the visual elements -- as opposed to the performances -- are skillfully commanded. But it seems to me a fantastically foolish picture.

| Jan 23, 2024

Targets still feels experimental and fresh today, the strictures in place on Bogdanovich with the lean budget and limited shooting days with Boris Karloff resulted in a film that if it were released today would feel exciting and new

| Original Score: 78/100 | Nov 19, 2023

As an observation of old Hollywood and American society, Targets is even more on-point today than it was in 1968. This masterpiece should be in the collection of any fan of cinema.

| Original Score: 5/5 | Sep 25, 2023

Bogdanovich’s sophisticated, meta cinematic feature debut brings into confrontation Karloff’s era of castle gothic... and a more contemporary, ripped-from-the-headlines realism that is finding its way into the genre, and into films like this one.

| Sep 15, 2023

The fast-paced “Targets” is a chilling experience. It captures superbly screen horror with real-life horror. The main character's descent into madness is one of calm determination, but the film’s editing keeps the thriller pulsating.

| Jul 19, 2023

The movie’s focus on gun control (or lack thereof) makes it as timely today as it was 55 years ago.

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 31, 2023

Far from a period piece, Targets’s contrasting tales capture a still-relevant portrait of America’s uniquely schizophrenic relationship with gun violence.

| May 18, 2023

Hell yeah, Boris Karloff. A horrifyingly accurate prediction for where society was going, told with so much intelligence and cynicism, for the evils that await us and about the evils that await us. Fantastic flick.

| Aug 11, 2022

The ingenious twist is the inclusion of Boris Karloff as an incarnation of himself

| Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 21, 2020

It was one of the most powerful films of 1968 and one of the greatest directorial debuts of all time. And I believe the best film ever produced by Roger Corman.

| Jun 22, 2020

...a low-key character study of two very different men...

| Original Score: 3/4 | May 24, 2020

...we don't, we can't, know why a Charles Whitman, a Bobby Thompson, a Michael Clark or a James Holmes does what he does. So we say they are mad.

| Original Score: 89/100 | Sep 10, 2012

The endlessly repetitive fusillades suggest that Writer-Director Peter Bogdanovich, in his first film, was really intent on creating the most prolific murderer in Hollywood's long history of violence. Unfortunately, it is a record made to be broken.

| Oct 19, 2008

Aware of the virtue of implied violence, Bogdanovich conveys moments of shock, terror, suspense and fear.

| Sep 25, 2007

Impressive directorial debut.

| Original Score: B+ | Dec 15, 2006

A fascinatingly complex commentary on American mythology, exploring the relationship between the inner world of the imagination and the outer world of violence and paranoia, both of which were relevant to contemporary American traumas.

| Jun 24, 2006

Brilliant film.

| Original Score: 4/4 | Apr 8, 2006

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Sep 8, 2005