Purely Joyful Movie!

I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Dynamically superb British crime thriller from the early seventies that bleeds a thrilling and marvellously evocative atmosphere with a high degree of ruthless style and punch.The all-out action and brutality literally pulsates from the screen in a number of suspense-filled set pieces - from the nail-biting prison break to the almost surreal shoot out with motorcycle cops amidst urban washing lines and flapping white bedsheets to the climactic chase and explosive finale.Oliver Reed gives a masterclass performance of seething rage and psychotic obsession as Harry Lomart. Harry is a hardened career criminal on a long prison stretch. When his wife Pat pays him a visit and confesses that she is pregnant by another man and leaving him, Harry's measured, reasoned and quietly philosophical response is to smash through the security glass and try to strangle her to death.Breaking out of prison with his partner and friend Birdy (Ian McShane) he has two aims in life - to retrieve the plunder he stashed from his last job and to kill his unfaithful wife.It becomes almost a bleak and twisted urban road trip - using waterways and trains and transit vans - for the two cons who leave a trail death and destruction in their wake in and around London.SITTING TARGET represents one of a random new wave of British thriller in the early to late seventies that includes GET CARTER, VILLAIN, CALLAN and latterly THE LONG GOOD Friday. Taking cues from American counterparts, it transplants mob/gangland action to the less than glamorous setting of a United Kingdom that is polluted by mass industrialisation, dominated by slums and monolithic concrete high rises and scabbed by wide open spaces of rubble-strewn wastelands. SITTING TARGET absolutely rocks.Reed is stunning, giving a no-holds barred and utterly naked portrayal that reminds what a powerhouse talent he was back then. McShane, Jill St. John and Edward Woodward lend solid support. The screenplay is practically Shakespearean in essence complete with drama, violence, action, betrayal and dark inevitable tragedy. You just know it isn't going to end well - and it doesn't. For anyone. And that's great.This is another of those films that simply screams out for an uncut DVD/BluRay release/remaster. To date this has inexplicably failed to materialise. It pops up now and again on TCM, the only venue I'm aware of for anyone seeking a viewing. As a key British crime thriller and a resonant document of a time and place, it deserves much better. It's a crime...really.

This is one rather odd but also yet somewhat enjoyable '70's flick.Main problem I had with this movie was it's incredibly simplistic story about an escaped convict (Oliver Reed) getting revenge on his wife (Jill St. John) after she cheated on him with another man and got herself pregnant while he was in jail. It's an unlikely as well as an uninteresting main story-line that just never really gets of the ground, also since the movie at times suffer from some pacing problems. Some sequences in the movie just last too long, for instance such as the escape sequences that could had been wrapped up in 5-10 minutes but instead they really take their time for it and it last about twice as long.The movie gets filled with some unlikely elements and silly plot twists in the end. It doesn't really help to make this movie a better watch and even makes this a totally bad and embarrassing movie to watch at times.But it's a typical '70's flick, with typical '70's elements in it, which means that it has some redeeming qualities. '70's movies are always just something more special to watch. This movie does feature some good experimental camera-work at times and has a gritty straight-forward kind of approach and atmosphere, which is also real typical for a British '70's gangster-flick. The movie is at its best when it features some action in it. Not that it's anything too big and spectacular but it gets simply brought well to the screen.Somethings it feels like watching the movie as if like halve of the scripted sequences didn't got filmed, which is also probably true, due to most likely budgeting reasons. This is an obviously cheaply made movie and it also shouldn't had cost too much money to make it. Some scenes don't always flow well because you have the sense that there simply was not enough editing material to work with. This also causes the movie to make some sudden jumps at times.But oh well, at least it still has Oliver Reed in it, which also somewhat uplifts the movie. Not that he plays the best role out of his career or anything but it's enough to still keep this a still somewhat enjoyable watch. The movie also features Jill St. John right after her Bond girl role in the movie "Diamonds Are Forever". She never really has been my favorite Bond girl though...Odd little '70's flick that is still somewhat watchable, thanks to its redeeming, typical '70's, qualities.5/10http://bobafett1138.blogspot.com/

Two hardened cons try and break out of the can to get revenge on an unfaithful wife.I always say that when you have solid pros at work you almost don't need a script. Whoever wrote this (two people actually) had to have employed a pencil and the back of a cigarette packet, because it was unworthy of A4 paper and a typewriter. Talk about clichés and stock situations. For example, are gun sellers so stupid in real life?I digress. Reed has a set of shoulders and deep set set staring eyes that frighten people. Even at his peak Sean Connery looked like if he did, really, hit a villain they would hardly notice, but Oliver Reed is a different kettle of fish. Maybe he was acting mad-and-bad rather than being mad-and-bad, but can you tell the difference? Ian McShane has never acted in his life. Always plays himself. People like him in a wouldn't-have-in-my-house kind of way. Streetwise, but totally unschooled. Given he is pointing the gun in the poster I suppose he is supposed to be the star! No idea why he would go on someone else's crusade though.The problem with contemplation of this piece is that any thought makes the film seem worse than it is. It is - at the end of the day - watchable. Hiding from people in movies is like trying to walk on water in real life - you are bound to fail so why bother even trying? This movie wouldn't get made today unless it featured comedy actors going over the top and wisecracking over other people's grave.At least in the 1970's cold blooded murder wasn't seen as a joke.

Oliver Reed breaks out of prison intending to top his wife, Susan St. James, whom he suspects of cheating. A good cast can't redeem this trudge through the London underworld. Stanley Myer's outstanding score is the film's only redeeming value.