Exterminator 2

This movie reminds me of a Troma film (e.g. Toxic Avenger) with higher production values. It's not apathetically bad; it embraces its cornball center, staying barely a step ahead of camp, and is thoroughly enjoyable. Early 80's gangs wearing costumes with a disco/Mad Max theme, in a solemn torchlit procession carrying the driver of an armored car into the subways to make him a sacrifice on the train tracks, several of them topless (male) with suspenders, set to an energetic synthesizer soundtrack that sounds like it could have been written for a Nintendo game.. it has to be seen to be believed. Probably inspired by Michael Jackson's video "Beat It".

Exterminator 2 (1984)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

In 1980 the low-budget THE EXTERMINATOR hit theaters and become a rather big hit so four years later this sequel followed. Robert Ginty returns as John Eastland and this time out he's dealing with more bad guys including the leader of the pack who is known as X (Mario Van Peebles). This sequel certainly has production companies Cannon's signature all over it and in fact I think this film owes more to DEATH WISH II than the actual first film. I say that because the exploitation factor is a lot higher here for a number of reasons. I think director-producer Mark Buntzman probably saw that Charles Bronson hit and decided to do like that film and just deliver what people wanted. Part of what people wanted from the first film was the flame-thrower, which was pretty much shown on the poster of the first film but here it becomes a major character. Whereas in the first film it was only used once or twice, here it is the main killing force as we see countless people set on fire and burned to a crisp. This effect is put to great use throughout the picture and one has to tip their hat to the stunt men were were doing these dangerous stunts on a low-budget. The biggest problem with EXTERMINATOR 2 is that the pacing is so incredibly bad that the 90-minute running time feels three times as long. At one point I thought the film was almost over and my boredom turned to shock when I realized we were only thirty-minutes into the picture. There are a few good points along the way including the silly violence, which is certainly over-the-top at times and this is especially true of the garbage truck hunting. I thought Ginty was good in his wooden way. Van Peebles is certainly a lot of fun in his own way and you've got to love the various wild outfits he wears. Is this better than the first film? Considering I wasn't a fan of either, I'd say this one here manages to be a tad bit sillier and contain some campier, wilder moments that somewhat make it more entertaining. It's just too bad that the pacing wasn't better.

"Exterminator 2" brings back the great Robert Ginty as flamethrower wielding vigilante John Eastland, but has nowhere near the impact as the first film. That's not to say that it's not enjoyable, but overall it's silly stuff.

Directed by Mark Buntzman, who produced the first film, it sees Eastland start to date an exotic dancer named Caroline (Deborah Geffner) and make friends with an outgoing garbageman named Be Gee (the excellent veteran character actor Frankie Faison). Eastland agrees to take on a job as a garbageman (!), but finds his happiness threatened by the activities of a street gang led by the fiendish "X" (Mario Van Peebles, in a breakthrough role). Of course, Eastland has already been up to his old tricks by torching various criminal scum, but is he going to be ready for this particularly sadistic gang?

The viewer can have an interesting time checking out the early appearances by actors who would go on to become busy and recognizable if not famous: Irwin Keyes, Arye Gross, Thomas Calabro, and John Turturro, who has a bit. The gang members basically come across as cartoons and there's a certain goofy quality to a lot of the dialogue, performances, and situations. (If nothing else, the audience may find "Exterminator 2" laughable enough to be entertaining.) The music is also particularly amusing, providing the perfect accompaniment for assorted violent goings on. Ginty is reasonably engaging although his character of Eastland was a more compelling individual the first time. Faison is superb and shows off a natural charisma. And Van Peebles makes the most of his demented & depraved role, making for a pretty good antagonist.

Especially entertaining is seeing Ginty turn Faisons' garbage truck into an assault vehicle and watching the final cat-and-mouse chase between hero and villain. There's plenty of characters going up like Roman candles to keep the viewers interested.

All in all, this is decent enough, and it might be worth watching it along with, say, "Death Wish II" and/or "Death Wish 3" for a dose of vigilante vs. gang escapism.

Six out of 10.

The First Exterminator film is a cult classic among fans of Revenge and exploitation flicks, however this film for a long time was not, until just recently, Exterminator 2 (1984) Is an interesting film because it didn't turn out like it should have, According to many fans and sources it was meant to be a follow up in the same gritty style of its predecessor, however the production company wasn't happy with the final product and demanded a entirely new ending involving a larger action scene as well as some other extra scenes to be added to the rest of the film, So apparently there's an entirely different work print version of the film out there, which would be an interesting watch because the version I am reviewing is the version that was Released in theaters and on VHS, we have yet to get a DVD and if we do I hope we get a special edition with both versions of the film and a documentary.

OK the plot of the film is extremely simple, It picks up 3 or 4 years after the original, and "The Exterminator" (Played by Robert Ginty Once again) is back cleaning up the crime ridden streets of new york, however the crime is even more ferocious than ever before, a new gang is on the Streets lead by a psychotic gang leader called "X" (Mario Van Peebles) His plan is basically to take over the entire city of New York by starting to get the public hooked on Drugs and have them join his gang to form an uprising on the entire city.

Now first thing You'll notice is the film's tone is completely different It's no longer dark and gritty and it has more in tone with the MAD MAX movies, THE EXTERMINATOR now wears a welding mask and burns crooks with a flamethrower, the film is still very violent (Depending on which version you get) But its more action oriented, however the problem is the action is not that good, every scene is mashed together and just barely makes sense, The Acting is probably the worst thing about the film, all the actors just seem bored and the punks are just over the top silly, and i don't blame them, the writing in this film is some of the worst ever, and the musical score is just laughable it sounds like it was composed for an old SEGA genesis/mega-drive game, even for its time it was bad, however it could've been good if they had better production values on the film, which is another major problem, the film's budget was extremely low and it dwarfs my mind on why that is, the first film was a financial success so you'd think they would give a bigger budget for the sequel, but this is produced by GOLAN GLOBUS after all so its expected, but even for them it was still low budget being made for only $3 million when they made other films for 5 to 10 million dollars.

Now after Ripping pretty hard on this film, I gotta give it some slack because in some strange and screwy way it was entertaining, Because When Watching it you can't help but think "You Know this could've been a Great Idea for a Comic Book" Indeed this film's tone is not far from the truth it has that comic book feel, even the Cover and poster art makes you think so, Not only that The main villain "X" Is hilariously entertaining to watch, he hams up the role just enough not to annoy you, And the final Action scene is cool, it involves an armored Garbage truck with guns,rockets and a snow plow attached to the front going through gang members, so this film Does have its entertainment value But Its more of an interesting curiosity to film buffs because of its history, so i suggest checking it out for Curiositys sake.

OVERALL: 5/10

BTW: Make sure you get the U.S version of this film, as its censored heavily in most parts of the world.

My review was written in September 1984 after a Times Square screening.

"Exterminator 2" is a silly and tiresome revenge actioner, unlikely to repeat the freak hit status of its 1980 predecessor.

Formula, patterned after a successful line of Charles Bronson films, is to create audience antipathy against young street punks of mixed racial backgrounds, allowing a stalwart avenger to be motivated to wipe them out at intervals, with plenty of action. Mark Buntzman, who produced the original "The Exterminator", here wears (and shares with William Sachs) too many hats, taking over James Glickenhaus's writing and directing assignments from #1 and ending up with a contradictory mishmash.

Reprising his title role as Vietnam vet Johnny Eastland, an uncomfortable Robert Ginty is supposedly spurred into renewed vigilante action when his flashdancing girlfriend Caroline (Deborah Geffner) is at first savagely beaten and crippled, and later murdered by he all-purpose punks, led by a messianic leader ("I am the streets") X (Mario Van Peebles). However, the crudely constructed film has Ginty, in hismyhic steel helmet, army khakis and flamethrower uniform, randomly and unconvincingly incinerating punks rift from the outset, including X's brother.

Crassly violating the "lone avenger" formula, Eastland is teamed with an old mate from Vietnam, Be Gee, your friendly neighborhood black garbage man who eagerly endorses Eastland' murderous cleanup policy. Sole interesting element on view is the weird sight of Be Gee's vast Mack garbage truck, armored and refitted as a sort of tank with remote-control machine-gun turrets by Eastland for confrontations with punks, who meanwhile are trying to take over New York City via armored car robbery and peddling Mafia-supplied drugs.

Ginty has one good scene wherein he manhandles a punk for information, but generally, the sadisic element of the first film (which had him ingeniously feeding bad guys to a meat grinder, et.) has been toned down. Geffner gets to show her nude body and dancing ability, while acting honors go to Van Peebles, creating a solid physical presence with his male version of Grace Jones.

Technically, film adheres to an ugly look in keeping with its theme, though why it took such a huge crew (over 300 people are credited with behind-the-camea contributions) to ma=ke a B-picture is mighty strange. Only real sense of humor in this "serious" comic strip approach comes in the song titles: "Exterminate Me (with Your Flame)", "Shake It to Bake It" and the ever-popular "Return to CInder".