Lack of good storyline.

Highly Overrated But Still Good

Did you people see the same film I saw?

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

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.

Vietnam veteran John Eastwood takes to vigilante action against assorted bad people following his buddie being hospitalised.This film gives us nothing which we haven't been given elsewhere (most notably in Death Wish, but change "daughter" to "buddie" and nobody needs to mention the word "plagiarism, do we?). What can I say? It is very violent, often very sadistically so, and it may well satisfy some viewers on that level. Personally, I found it unpleasant and not very well done, and it was not helped by the fact that Robert Ginty, playing protagonist Eastwood, is so chubby-cheeked and baby-faced that I simply couldn't take him seriously as the vicious cold-blooded vigilante he was playing.

This filmed caused a stir when released in the cinemas back in 1980. A raw vigilante film, a more hard edged Death Wish.It starts out in Vietnam with high production values with explosions and a bizarre decapitation scene. Then we go to late 70s/early 80s New York City, where gangsters and muggers are in every corner, it was a surprise The Warriors did not make a guest appearance.Robery Ginty playing the mild mannered Eastland who turns to vengeance when his black army buddy gets attacked by a gang is a world away from John Rambo and Charles Bronson looking more like an ordinary Joe with his heart in the right place.We have scenes where he injures, kills and maim the bad guy in all sort of nasty ways including a gangster getting a giant meat grinder treatment.In the middle of all this is a cop on his trail if only he was not too busy romancing a local doctor. For some strange reason the CIA also turn up.NYC is a mean, seedy place. As well as cut throat gangs we have nasty politicians sodomising and torturing kids, prostitutes, it was a wonder that tourists were turning up in droves.Its a low budget exploitation picture but although it might have had a reputation of being a video nasty three decades ago, its rather tame and comic book. It has rather decent product values and good acting from the main leads. I wonder if the cop and doctor get married!

Writer / director James Glickenhaus's "The Exterminator" is fine exploitation entertainment, albeit on a purely visceral level. It doesn't exactly have the most coherent story, but the "Death Wish" style premise is easy enough to understand. Where it truly succeeds is in creating some memorably vicious and amazingly trashy moments. As a snapshot of the very seedy side of NYC at the time, it's aces. Some viewers will appreciate the combination of action, stunts, and sleaze; there's always another nasty surprise around the corner.Robert Ginty has the title role (otherwise known as John Eastland), a Vietnam veteran whose life is saved more than once by good friend Michael Jefferson (the charismatic Steve James, in a part you wish was bigger). Michael, unfortunately, is targeted by degenerate street punks back in NYC; he is mugged and paralyzed. John, knowing he owes his friend, tracks the punks down and gives them what they deserve. But he doesn't stop there. Incensed at the various kinds of crime in The City, he becomes a flamethrower wielding vigilante, soon pursued by amiable detective James Dalton (Christopher George).The entertainment value here, of course, lies in that vicarious pleasure we so often experience watching somebody, whether fictional or real, fight back against the criminal scum that try to make our lives miserable. Whether we're dealing with the punks, a loathsome "chicken pimp" (a creep who specializes in procuring boys for perverts, played by Tony Di Benedetto), or big shot mobsters such as Gino Pontivini (Dick Boccelli), the bad guys are so bad you wait eagerly to see them punished. The wildest scene has a guy fed into a meat grinder, although people also get set on fire and shot in the crotch with poisoned bullets. These moments are what make this such a trashy fun experience, although it does waste some time giving the detective character a love interest, a doctor played by Samantha Eggar. One good thing is that the movie literally begins with a bang, giving us a nightmarish Vietnam sequence that features what is one of the best cinematic decapitations of all time, thanks to Tom Burman and Stan Winston.George as always has an engaging presence, and Eggar is endearing as his new lady friend. Ginty does what he has to do well enough; buffs will note the presence of a number of character faces - David Lipman, Dennis Boutsikaris, George Cheung, Ned Eisenberg, Irwin Keyes, Lou David, Tom Everett - among the cast. Apparently Samuel L. Jackson was also an extra somewhere in here!Amazing aerial shots of NYC, excellent music by Joe Renzetti, and some poignant songs over the opening and ending credits also help.If you love other urban B pictures from this period (William Lustigs' "Vigilante" is another good one), then this one is pretty much mandatory viewing.Seven out of 10.