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.

Viet Nam vet with flashbacks goes around killing bad guys buy gun knife or grenade.

A PG rated low budget---er no budget action film. talky, poorly edited with action more laughable then exciting. The gangs are all the sort you only saw in bad Hollywood movies from the 1980's-over aged adults in colorful clothes inspired by the Warriors.

Its low rent all the way...and true grind house trash. I can only imagine how this must have played on 42nd Street in Times Square where its lurid poster and title promised so much more than it ever delivered. This really is a piece of trash to be thrown out.

Made in 1982 (not be confused with Sonny Chiba's 1974/1975 two part film saga), James Bryant directs this loud, cheezy actioner that features a nutty Vietnam vet (who goes in a trance with a cheap music) who goes after the tattooed man who is pushing drugs and molesting girls in the city. Chris Mitchum plays his vietnam vet friend who is now a police detective who doesn't know that his best nutty friend is the executioner. Famous 21st century pictures stock music (that usually in the movie trailer) is used in the action scenes. Many funny moments like a guy getting stabbed by a samurai sword and getting impaled on a couch, as the executioner keep kicking the couch as the bad guy keeps moving towards him with a couch on his back(!). Also the Executioner shoves handgrenade on bad guys pants, and the same cheap stock footage explosion appears. Aldo Ray only appears in two location so he probably only had a day on this film. Harmon who starred in Bryant other films is terrible with English and has a thick Germany accent. The film looks like it was shot without sound. The producer was trying to cash in on the 1981 film THE EXTERMINATOR (which was about a vietnam vet who takes on bad guys) and release this turkey at New York theatres in 1983. The films video release runs a few minutes short and only a minor scene is missing. Should be a cult classic.

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.

A Vietnam vet turned vigilante, called 'The Executioner' (oh, brother) is taking it upon himself to, well, to execute the scum and the vermin of LA while apparently under some type of hypnosis, or during flashbacks. Okay, well, that is mostly a subplot, as two thirds of the film seems to be taken up by moronic teenagers getting stoned and pressuring a girl to go into prostitution, and more Vietnam flashbacks.

Horrendous acting by a cast of mostly (deservedly) unknown actors, fight scenes seemingly choreographed by junior high school students, and awful dubbing dominate this zero budget Z-movie.

A slightly amusing exploitation flick with hilarious dialogue, but even with a run-time of one hour and twenty minutes, it goes on far too long.

If a sequel had ever been made, it probably would have been titled Executioner, Part I.