Ides of March

Plot synopsis:
Stephen Meyers is the junior campaign manager for Pennsylvania Governor Mike Morris, a Democratic presidential candidate, competing against Arkansas Senator Ted Pullman in the Democratic primary election. Both campaigns are attempting to secure the endorsement of North Carolina Democratic Senator Franklin Thompson, who controls 356 convention delegates, enough to clinch the nomination for either candidate. After a debate at Miami University, Meyers is asked by Pullman's campaign manager, Tom Duffy, to meet in secret. Meyers calls his boss, senior campaign manager Paul Zara, who doesn't answer. Meyers decides to meet with Duffy, who offers Meyers a position in Pullman's campaign, an offer Meyers refuses. Zara calls Meyers back and asks what was important, but Meyers says it was nothing to worry about. Meanwhile, Meyers starts a sexual relationship with Molly Stearns, an attractive intern for Morris' campaign, and daughter of Jack Stearns, the chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
Meyers admits to an angry Zara that he met with Duffy, and that Duffy said his candidate will offer Thompson the position of Secretary of State, guaranteeing Pullman's victory. Zara and Meyers discuss the matter with Morris, saying they must make the same offer to Thompson to secure his endorsement and his delegates' votes. Morris refuses on principle, as he thoroughly disagrees with Thompson and his policies, and wants a "clean" campaign without such deals.
Late one night when Molly is sleeping, Meyers discovers that Morris is trying to call her after he picks up her phone by mistake. Meyers finds out that Molly and Morris had a brief sexual liaison at a campaign stop in Iowa several weeks previously, and Molly is now pregnant by the Governor, which will cause a scandal. Molly needs $900 for an abortion, but cannot tell her father because her family is Catholic. Meyers helps her with the money but warns her not to tell anybody, and fires her from the campaign to make the problem go away. Ida Horowicz, a reporter for the New York Times, reveals to Meyers that an anonymous source leaked his encounter with Duffy to her. She also knows the Morris campaign has talked to Thompson. She says she will publish an article on the Duffy meet unless Meyers gives her all of the details about the Thompson meeting.
Meyers comes to Zara for help, believing the story would damage him, Zara, and the campaign. Zara reveals that he leaked the meeting to Ida with Morris' approval in order to justify firing Meyers. He states that he did this because Meyers was disloyal and traitorous for meeting with Duffy. Zara makes it clear that he holds no personal animosity against Meyers and values him, but cannot trust him any more. An angry and desperate Meyers then offers his services to Duffy, who admits he only met with Meyers to influence his opponent's operation under the likelihood that either Meyers would leave Morris and come to work for him or Meyers would tell Zara, and Zara would fire him. Either way, Duffy would win.
Duffy apologizes for using him, saying that he also wanted to help Meyers, and advises him to quit politics and the campaign before he becomes a cynic like him. Meyers offers to sell out Morris completely but Duffy declines, thinking that Meyers cannot hurt him and he has Thompson wrapped up. Meyers takes Molly to an abortion clinic and then callously abandons her there with an unfulfilled promise to come back when it's over. Alone in a hotel room, and having been equipped with pills from the clinic, she dies from overdose. Meyers comes on the death scene and sneaks Molly's phone from the bed into his pocket.
Unbeknownst to the Morris campaign, Meyers meets with Thompson to arrange for Thompson's delegates in exchange for a spot on the Morris ticket. It is clear that Thompson prefers Morris over Pullman so all Meyers has done is get Thompson to commit if he is offered the post with Morris. Meyers meets Morris in a dark bar, telling him he will expose the affair with Molly if Morris does not accept his demands: fire Zara, place Meyers in charge of the campaign, and offer Thompson the role of Vice President. Morris coldly says that there is no proof of the affair, but Meyers claims to have a suicide note found in Molly's room. Morris relents, clearly giving up what is left of his personal integrity, and meets Meyers' demands. Zara takes his firing philosophically and is still positive with the press about Morris.
Zara chats with Meyers at Molly's funeral and is amicable, letting Meyers know that he is certain Meyers must have had something big on Morris to get him to fire Zara and promote him. Zara has options and states that he is taking a million dollar a year job at a consulting firm, for him basically a retirement from politics. Later, Thompson's endorsement makes Morris the de facto nominee despite losing the Democratic Party's Ohio primary. Duffy, who put Meyers' back against the wall and who rejected Meyers' offer of dirt against Morris, is seen trying to put up a good face in what is now obviously going to be a defeat for his candidate.
Now senior campaign manager, Meyers is on the way to a remote TV interview with John King, when Ida ambushes him and says her next story will be about how Meyers delivered Thompson and his delegates and got his promotion. Meyers reacts by having security bar her from coming any further. Meyers takes his seat for the interview, just as Morris finishes a speech about how 'integrity and dignity' matter, and is asked for insight as to how the events surrounding the primary unfolded.

Tags: suspenseful, violence

Review:
On Video?.
I saw the trailer for this on You Tube, it looks fantastic, Does anyone have a copy on DVD, I"ll even take a copy from another region besides the USA.
Its the only Gary Daniles film I don't have yet.
The acting and the fight scenes seem really good, I also see that it has a been given another title in the USA, COuld this mean they are getting ready to release it somewhere?
Seems to me it has some names in it people will recognize and will want to see, plus Gary Daniles seems to have a pretty good following already here in the USA and in Europe, Does anyone know who owns the rights to this film or how we can get it released?Ron.
"Sometimes a man has to lose everything he's got to get even".
IDES OF MARCH (A.K.A. ULTIMATE TARGET) has yet to see an official release – at least in North America – and it's not difficult to see why.
Since it was produced, other films have taken several of its tactics and executed them much better, to the point that if this were released today, viewers who didn't know better might assume that it's a cheap homage to KILL BILL.
It's an interesting film, though not nearly as much now as it may have been 15 years ago, and is only worth hunting down online for hardcore fans of Gary Daniels.The story: A brotherhood of elite assassins turns against one of its own (Daniels) when an underhanded deal threatens to expose them.Part of what probably stood against the film's release was its rough presentation.
As is, the movie gives the impression of being incompletely edited: there's nothing wrong with the audio or video quality, but the narration, the flashback-laden structure, and the frequent use of paused footage looks like something that would be handed back to post-production with a list of things to change.
Then again, I have seen plenty of vehicles for Daniels that look a lot worse than this but have actually gotten proper releases, so these imperfections should not make a difference to fans.The screenplay and the performances it inspires make for a very mixed bag.
Both offer amusing highs and embarrassing lows on an even scale, making for a thoroughly B-grade presentation.
I'm a fan of the varied cast and the fact that almost all supporting characters enjoy a decent level of exposure, weird as they can be.
Overacting is the name of the game, and some performers handle it better (e.g. Michael Madsen) than others (e.g. George Cheung).
Daniels himself is relatively low-key, which is fine because this goofy, postmodern script needs at least one straight man.Daniels' frequent collaborations with the Alpha Stunts team often disappointed me, and even this movie makes me wish they had done more.
Most of the action is martial arts-related, though the film doesn't reach the brunt of it until its final third.
Though the five fights have a very pleasing pace and nice choreography, they're oftentimes too short for my liking or have unrelated scenes edited into them.
Two good fights – involving John Koyama and a couple of masked ninjas – help keep things bearable, but I was hoping for more than just that.This one may remain simply another casualty of the direct-to-video recession, but no one should feel heartbroken that it never got a release in the Americas..
A great script underneath an over produced movie..
For the genre this is a very good movie.
The story and script are quite strong but somewhere along the way it gets lost.
It is almost as if someone took over the film as it went on.
It is worth watching for the very good acting by Michael Madsen and the strong script with crisp dialogue and character development by Jim Chadwick, (has he done anything else?)  This movie is a notch above the typical film in this genre and my guess would be a director's version would be great, if the original director (Darren Doane?) did it.
Worth the time to watch if you can find a copy..
Not worth the wait or the effort.
I waited for years for this movie, only to discover that after a decade it got uploaded to youtube, where I was eager to watch it.
I am a hardcore fan of Gary Daniels and various of the action actors is in this film.
I waited years for it and finally got to see it, hoping for some amazing action.But I have to be honest, it sucked.
Almost as if it was filmed with a handycam and there was no post production.
Even for the genre, the movie, story, camera work and editing were pretty bad and the whole thing felt as if it wasn't really finished.
It'll be fun if you waste 5 minutes while forwarding to the action scenes, but if you have seen any Gary Daniels movie, than this one is no different.Watch it out of curiosity and because you're a GD/action fan, but nothing more..
Not worth the effort to see this..
Thomas Kane (or is it Cane?) (Daniels) is a hit-man.
He works on sort of a "board of directors" of other hit men and hitwomen.
These hitpeople are overseen by their boss, a guy named Raymond (Cheung).
It's Raymond's job to keep people like Uncle (Madsen) and Johnny (Fralick), among others, in line.
Kane gets out of line when he begins double-dealing: he takes money from his intended victims as payment for sparing their lives.
When the organization finds out about this, they get mad and send all their employees after Kane, thus making him the ULTIMATE TARGET.
The only problem is, his wife Jody (Denier) and his daughter didn't know about his profession and now they're on the run from the baddies.
Holing up in yet another dusty ol' town, Kane prepares to take on the dangerous people he once worked with.
But will he be successful?
We hate to be the bearer of bad news.
I mean, we really, really do.
It pains us to report that, after fifteen years of waiting to see this quasi-unreleased movie, we found that it was a disappointment.
We understand that it was plagued with production problems and was swept under the rug, along with a lot of DTV product of that time (and a decent chunk of Michael Madsen's career), becoming another casualty of the low-budget DTV downturn of the late 90's/early 2000's.
It was around this time that the DTV bubble went bust, and items like Ultimate Target make it easy to see why.
Not only is it a Tarantino Slog (a term we coined), but, at this point in time, it's safe to say that it's also a Guy Ritchie slog.
Let's just say it hasn't withstood the test of time.We were truly excited to see one of our favorite actors, Gary Daniels, team up with Michael Madsen.
Even the (unnecessary?) narration from Daniels's character is helped along by his mellifluous voice.
This is countered by Madsen's gravelly voice, which is ALMOST enough to keep the movie afloat, but the only problem is that we hear way too much of their voices.
In true Tarantino Slog style, this movie is extremely talky.
We needed less talk, more rock.
Characters gratuitously eat/talk about breakfast cereal, reminding you instantly of Eric Stoltz's character in Pulp Fiction.
There's a ton of other yak-yak, and when we finally get to see some fight scenes, they are pulled and stretched in varying combos of slow motion and fast motion.
As we have stated before, we really hate fast motion.
Another thing we hate, bathroom humor, is also, sadly, here.
Maybe the characters talked about everything else there is to talk about and finally reached the bathroom.
Not good.
Another strike.On the bright side, Daniels is good in the movie and tries against all odds to make everything work.
Even when what surrounds him is weak, Daniels always remains watchable.
The pairing with Madsen didn't live up to its full potential, but Daniels was reunited with his old Deadly Target (1994)/Fistof the North Star (1995)/White Tiger (1996) co-star George Cheung.
We have always admired Cheung and his impressive resume.
But this whole outing doesn't FEEL right.
Almost like it wasn't fully completed, which perhaps it wasn't.
It's all very similar to the comparable Double Tap (1997).
In that particular T-Slog, Stephen Rea is the hit-man, and the rest of the cast jabberjaws on about a bunch of needless topics.
Please consult that review for a more in-depth analysis of the aforementioned Tarantino Slog.In the end, Ultimate Target (AKA Ides of March, not to be confused with the Ryan Gosling movie of the same name, though it would have been cool to see Gary Daniels in Gosling's role) proves definitively that characters walking in slow motion either with or without sunglasses is not enough to make a complete film.
2000 was just about he moment when the shorthand replaced the substance.
Much like Hostile Intent's beloved Pastebucket McWoo, the last thing we as viewers see, if you stick it out all the way to the END of the end credits, is this, and we quote: "2001 Giants Entertinment".
Yes, that's right.
They misspelled "Entertainment".