capone666
The ExterminatorVigilantes in the 1980s were everyday people who just lost faith in McGruff the Crime Dog.And while the lawful mascot isn't mentioned in this action movie, his presence is felt.POW John (Robert Ginty) tries to assimilate back in NYC when the Ghetto Ghouls break into where he works and kills his co-worker. Enraged he grabs a flamethrower and exacts revenge. Unsatisfied, John moves on to busting up the mafia and a child sex ring. Dubbed the Exterminator by the press, John is dogged by a determined detective (Christopher George). Dubbed a Death Wish doppelganger by critics on its released, this obvious nod to the seminal street vigilante blockbuster also had a second-rate sequel. Decades on and this alleged knockoff still holds its own with some pretty intense interrogation and death scenes that rival modern remakes.Furthermore, scorching thugs is a double win because it also feeds the neighbourhood. Yellow Lightvidiotreviews.blogspot.ca
Xlyfindel
After the opening intro in Vietnam or wherever, the title sequence with the world trade center featured was actually pretty cool. I liked that a lot. The practical effects were pretty extreme looking and not totally lame like a lot of other films from the era which just go for over the top unbelievable ultra-violence. The story itself is pretty weird, but the action scenes flow together well enough to have kept me from getting bored. I have no idea what the real message of the film was but there seemed to be a few different points the creators were trying to make about politics and social issues at the time. I don't think this will become a favorite of mine, but I watched it a couple times and didn't hate it.
glenn-aylett
This is a vigilante film about New York, part of a trend that was started by Death Wish in 1974. Basically the plot concerns a warehouse worker in New York who served in Vietnam named John Eastland whose best friend and fellow Vietnam veteran is paralysed by a gang of thugs when he disturbs them breaking into a warehouse. Swearing revenge, Eastland wipes out the gang members that paralysed his friend, then decides to take on a gangster who is extorting money from the warehouse( he is killed horrifically by being dropped into a meat mincer) and a child abuse gang that involves a senator and then wiping out a group of violent muggers who are part of the same gang that paralysed Eastland's best friend. While a bit cheaply made and unsettling in places, The Exterminator shows what a dirty, dangerous place New York was 35 years ago. Unlike now, where Times Square is a lively and safe pedestrianised square, in 1980 it was full of pimps, prostitutes and drug dealers and one scene shows Eastland in a squalid hotel used by prostitutes asking a prostitute who has been tortured by the child abuse gang for more information. Also Eastland's neighbourhood is full of semi derelict and dangerous tenement blocks that are often rat infested, the rats coming in useful when Eastland ties two members of the Ghetto Ghouls gang up and lets the rats attack them.Unlike now, and something the film alludes to constantly, NYC is adirty and crime ridden city and run by a corrupt and aloof city government which believes The Exterminator, as Eastland now styles himself, is a plot by their political opponents to bring them down. In the final part of a film, the mayor and the CIA decide to try and wipe out The Exterminator, but he manages to escape being shot and swims away to freedom from an abandoned ship where he has arranged a rendezvous with the detective that is investigating him.I quite like The Exterminator, even if many critics savaged it for being too violent, and think it was very much of its time when New York was a frightening place to live and the police and city government were ineffective and corrupt.
bensonmum2
John Eastland (Robert Ginty) sets out to avenge the death of a buddy at the hands of a gang of street thugs.If you can't tell by rating, I'll spell it out - I'm not much of a fan of The Exterminator. Let me start by saying that I don't have anything against low-budget or violent films. If you look through some of the other reviews I've written you'll see plenty of glowing comments for movies with lower budgets than this one. You'll also see that I've got a lot of positive things to say about a number of very violent films. But it doesn't work here. The problems:1. No plot - I gave the movie a one sentence plot summary at the start of this, and that's probably more than The Exterminator deserves. Instead of a coherent plot, it's one of those movies with a series of set-pieces randomly thrown together. There's no flow to the film and definitely no logic. Things happen more for shock value than to move the story along.2. Acting - I realize this is a personal preference, but I'm not a fan of Robert Ginty's style of acting. I know he has fans, but to me, he's just doesn't fit the part he's asked to play here. He doesn't look like a killer - he looks more like a car salesman. One small example is the scene where he's prepping bullets. Look at his hands. Those aren't the hands of a killer. Those hands haven't done the things John Easland has done. He's the wrong guy for the part.3. The love story - I was really annoyed by the love story subplot with Christopher George and Samantha Eggar. I didn't necessarily have a problem with them as actors, but their screen time together was stomach churning. A midnight picnic in Central Park, love- making in a empty hospital room - ridiculous.I really wanted to like this movie. As I said, low-budget violence is okay with me. But I had way too many problems to rate this higher than a 3/10.
AD
