Exterminator 2 (1984)

The greatest movie ever made..!

A film with more than the usual spoiler issues. Talking about it in any detail feels akin to handing you a gift-wrapped present and saying, "I hope you like it -- It's a thriller about a diabolical secret experiment."

The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.

This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows

As a big fan of the first film, this poorly put together piece of crap was a huge let down. The writer/director James Glickenhaus who put together the first film had nothing to do with this(which was a huge mistake). Enter Mark Buntzman(who produced the1st film) is to blame for this horrendous and really stupid sequel. Thankfully, for the movie watching world he was never allowed to direct a movie ever again. While the 1st film had its flaws(and a very low budget), the movie seems to have been taken seriously by the people that made it and has a story a that makes sense with a greater sense of realism and interesting characters. This film has an incoherent plot line, a silly tone and one of the most annoying(and cheesy film scores of all time). Robert Ginty returns as The Exterminator and barely resembles the dark anti hero from the original film. Mario Van Peebles is a really lame and stereotypical villan that stole Mad Max's wardrobe and has a hairdo like Grace Jones. The action scenes are pretty lame, there is no memorable dialouge and the film is poorly acted, directed and put together over all. Granted this was the 80's, but the film is painfully cheesy,and does not resemble the bleak and bad ass first film.

The late Robert Ginty could really show humanity and compassion in his performances, an actor I really would of like to have met, yet he's continually in this and other stuff. Our vigilante John Eastman has returned, so it's time to bring out that flamethrower again. He falls in love with a beautiful dancer, while tagging with vet buddy (Faison) in his disposal truck where the human vermin deserve to be in the back. Peebles, playing it bad really well, a side we don't see from this versatile actor, plays gang leader X, responsible for crippling Ginty's girlfriend, destroying her dreams, and later killing her, leaving his signature boldly branded on her back, so a much wanted and hungry revenge for the viewer in these cliché near endings, ensues. Some sequels like this are excuses, to keep the series running for a little while longer, dragging them out. Some "really suck" sequels have shown such desperation for their existence. Exterminator 2 is just a forgettable one, as if almost non existent. It's just a little part of story added on to the last, both shows set a couple of years apart, the original one, too sick for words. Ginty at the time, represented the film, that actually won an award for stunts or something. We know one award it won't win, or be nominated for. Horrible music score that sounds like it jammed in the tape recorder.

"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.

i've read some bad comments about this film on this site, mainly from people who i think took even the first film rather too seriously. this is a brilliant piece of absurd 80's action, dutifully modelled on the superb death wish series. the "street punks" are one of the best features and resemble the b*****d offspring of the warriors and mad max 2. the exterminator himself spends most of the film going berserk with a flamethrower and at one point he operates a rubbish truck armed with remote control machine guns. the action is interspersed with ridiculous love scenes involving a stripper. although i think this film does lack some of the quality of the original i found it just as enjoyable and anyone who can appreciate the death wish series should certainly enjoy this