The Executioner, Part II

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

"The Executioner Part II" is an incompetent, cheaply made action picture, dating from 1982. Its title seems intentionally designed to cause confusion, since the film has no relationship to several earlier pics called "The Executioner" ()including a 1970 Columbia British-made spy effort), but is imitative of the 1980 Rober Ginty vehicle "The Exterminator". Soon to add further confusion are two more Ginty vehicles yet to be released: "Exterminator II" and "The Executioner: The Mission".

Chris Mitchum toplines as L. A. Homicide Lt. Roger O'Malley, tracking down a vigilante killer who is blowing up street criminals with hand grenades (each explosion is an insert of grainy old stock footage). Sans suspense, the killer turns out to be Mike (Antoine John Mottet), O'Malley's old army buddy who saved O'Malley's life in Vietnam, as shown in prolog footage. Boh men are a war with a local gangster kingpin Antonio Casals, known as the Tattoo Man, who kidnaps O'Malley's daughter Laura and tortures her until a last minute rescue. Asinine ending has O'Malley letting his guilty buddy go, leaving town to set up a (shudder!) sequel.

Filmed silently on L. A. locations with a wobbly,k ofen out-of-focus handheld camera technique and seemingly 1:1 shooting ratio, "Part II" is way below current technical standards of wathaility. Dubbins is awful, with a maddening failure to put back footfalls or other appropriate background sound. Acting is generally below the level of a hardcore porn film. Mitchum fils is miscast, and his daughter looks old enough to be his elder sister. Aldo Ray is on screen for under a minute as Mitchum's blowhard boss, and producer Renee Harmon has herself written into the script as a most unlikely, matronly L. A. tv newscaster boasting a thick French accent. Her closeups ae lensed though a horse blanket.

In Vietnam 1970, there were a bunch of American guys who were fighting and trying to survive. Now, back in America, there is a killer on the loose who calls himself The Executioner. He is no ordinary killer, though, but a vigilante: a man who kills criminals with guns, broken glass shards and live grenades.

This film was directed by James Bryan. Not sure who that is, actually. And why is it "part 2"? No idea.

The exploitation nature of this film shows up in the first ten minutes, when a group of guys brutally rapes a woman on a rooftop while the neighbors just sort of watch and consider whether or not they should help the woman. Luckily, they are stopped by the Executioner! There is a scene that is a bad advertisement for Miller High Life, with two guys fixing a car and talking about how fast time goes by. Then, in the middle of guy time, some thugs show up to steal their tires and a fight breaks out, complete with sound effects and a song ripped off from "Shaft".

There's a visible poster for "Hot Teenage Assets" and another film... but if you know why, you are a better detective than I am.

Thoroughly entertaining film with bad dialogue, cheesy explosions and the inevitable Vietnam flashback. A must see? No. But pretty decent for what it is.

Is it a sequel? Is it a rip-off? Is it the biggest pile of crap you've ever seen or the most entertaining Z-grade exploitation movie ever made? Well actually, the answer to all of these questions (except maybe the first one) is a straight and simple YES! This is clearly a part two to *something*, only nobody knows exactly what the original film was. It's also a shameless cash-in on the contemporary very popular vigilante action movies, like for example "Death Wish" or more particularly "The Exterminator". The film is also irredeemably bad, with a totally unoriginal screenplay, an incoherent structure and awful … AWFUL acting performances. But, and for the exact same reasons, "The Executioner Part II" is simultaneously one of the most hilariously entertaining movies of its type I've ever seen! The movie opens with vague and random footage of the war in Vietnam, trying to dramatically introduce buddy soldiers Mike and Roger nearly getting killed by friendly fire. Back at home in the big city, Mike works as a mechanic in his own garage and Roger suddenly became a prominent police inspector. The rotten, depressing and crime-infested city is ruled by a perverted gangster known as 'The Tattooed Man", who rapes under aged drug-addicted girls and bribes the local politicians. There's also a bloodthirsty avenging angel prowling the streets, and it takes Roger an awful long time before realizing his buddy Mike is the one executing all the criminals like they're Charlies. The film isn't too gory (they probably didn't have the budget for fake blood) but the overall atmosphere is raw and very aggressive. I mentioned it before, but I simply have to mention the acting performances again! They should have handed out Oscars to everyone involved in this laugh riot production, particularly to the woman who plays the journalist and to the dope-smoking teenage girls. The journalist can hardly pronounce a word correctly and the girls act like Beavis & Butt-Head. "The Executioner Part II" is deliciously rancid 80's cheese, impossible to reward with a rating higher than five because it truly really honestly is terrible, but nonetheless highly recommended.

Not one of those grind-house flicks that are so cheesy that they are enjoyable; this one is so bad that it is painful to watch.

A take-off on Charles Bronson's Death Wish, but without the class. The "executioner" has flashbacks to Vietnam and runs around grunting and saying "I'm the Judge and Jury" before he puts a grenade in someones pants after some pitiful chop socky.

There is no blood even though he cuts the throats of some of his criminals and there is only one brief flash of nudity - someone must have screwed up there.

The crime lord just spends his time blowing on lit cigarettes and telling his lackey to bring him more young girls - not for sex mind you, but to use as an ashtray.

The teens remind me of Reefer Madness the way they carry on when they are smoking, and they are always asking for coke.

Of course, the Executioner is sent out of town instead of being arrested, maybe to do Executioner I, which doesn't exist.

I wasted my time so you don't have too.

You really owe it to yourself to watch this garbage. Hilarious, inept and so unprofessional, you'll wonder how they even got the film loaded into the camera. Hoping you'll get this confused with the classic EXTERMINATOR, EXECUTIONER part 2, lifts the exact plot, then somebody filmed a bunch of images,edited them together, repeated them over and over, and then released this onto a gullible public. Aldo Ray looks confused most of the time and Chris Mitchum looks like he's going to cry. His teenage daughter and her drugged out friend have the movie's best looped in lines: "Oh heavenly coke!". Vital moviewatching. Demand your local store stock it.