The Exterminator II

THE STORY: For the record I'd like to apologize for the god-awful dances and stuff from the 70's early 80's to those of you didn't live through them. Remember Break-Dancing? Or (shudder) disco? Well, there's some of it in this movie. Its not a musical or anything, but the sight of the dancing and stuff brings back a few memories.

Reprising his role from The Exterminator, Robert Ginty comes back as John Eastland. Now, he did survive in the first movie, but how come the police aren't actively looking for him, let alone the federal agents that wanted his ass? John isn't keeping too low of a profile, since, as the Exterminator, he's going around roasting bad guys crispier than the colonel's chicken! Yes, roasting them. John no longer just shoots them, he uses a flame thrower and downright cooks them alive!

One of the crooks he kills is the brother of the leader of a  nameless gang, (if they have a name I didn't catch it.) called "X". Whether or not this is a jab at Malcolm X, I don't know. Anyway, X wants to take over the streets and incites his gang to follow him with a speech that is sort of hokey. "I am the streets! we will take back what is ours!" and all that. The gang answers with stuff like "alright!" "Say it brother!" "Amen!" and the like. So properly fired up, they knock over an armored car. The gang gets away with the money and they even shoot down a police chopper. (Where they got all this firepower, I don't know. You'd think the cops would definitely be out for the gang's asses after that but there's little to no police involvement in this film.) The robbery is witnessed by Be Gee, a garbage truck driver. Be Gee tries to stop them but they get away. Later on Be Gee runs into John "The Exterminator" Eastland. Seems he and John were buddies in Vietnam.

Be Gee offer's John a job helping him collect garbage. John has a girlfriend, Caroline, who is a dancer. (I told ya those awful 70's-to 80's dances were coming) Unfortunately the gang sees John driving Caroline home in the garbage truck. They recognize the truck and think that John was the guy that tried to foil their robbery. Actually, after the robbery while X and his goons kill one of the armored Car drivers, John finds the gang member on lookout and well, fries him. I don't mean, he just kills him...he uses his mongo flame thrower and fries him. Somehow I think the police would be concerned with a guy using a flame thrower to dispense justice...not to mention the Fire department.

The gang attacks Caroline in a park, crippling her. She's now confined to a wheelchair. John, of course, being the Exterminator, wants revenge. Be Gee helps him, but being the black sidekick, Be Gee might as well have shot himself. He's not going to make it to the credits. John and Be Gee catch a gang member and force him to tell them where the gang is. At that moment they're making a deal with the local Mafia boss to buy some drugs with the stolen money. So much for taking back what's theirs....the gang is really, just a bunch of drug pushers. John and Be Gee drive in to the meeting with the garbage truck and steal the drugs. However, Be gee gets turned into Swiss cheese. Now John is REALLY mad. To make it worse he later finds that X and his cronies have broken into Caroline's apartment and killed her, too.

So he does what any psycho-vigilante would do. He turns the garbage truck into a big ass assault vehicle and lures the gang to his abandoned warehouse HQ. There he pretty much kills them, except for X. We have to have a few minutes for a 'hero-faces-bad-guy-leader scene'!!! Well, John does end up sending X straight to hell, which is a relief since X won't shut up during the whole battle. His work done, the Exterminator walks out, literally the last man standing.

If this movie was made a little later into the age of direct -to-video movies I'm certain there'd be another sequel. This flick didn't suck, except for the music and dancing, which did, by the way, suck. But it could have been a little better. The real stupid thing is John wears a welder's mask while blasting guys with his flame thrower, but he and Be Gee don't think to wear masks while attacking criminals. I don't think its too smart to let a big ass gang and the Mafia KNOW WHO YOU ARE while dispensing vigilante justice. But that's just me. Be Gee was played by Frank Faison. Be Gee? Memories of "Roy Boy"! (from The Annihilators) What a stupid [unwrite]ing name! It just adds into the whole disco crap! Be Gee! For the luvva Pete. X was played by Mario Van Peebles. Badly I might add. I don't know why but Mario kinda grates on my nerves and my wife cannot stand him, though she hasn't given a reason. Who [unwrite]in' cares why, though?

Best Lines: "I am the messiah and YOU are my warriors!"- X's speech to his cronies. Ooh, boy. Cyrus' speech in the movie the Warriors sounded goofy with all 'Can you dig it?!"'s but this speech is pure cheese.

"I done good, huh?."- The sleazy gang member that ratted on the drug deal to John and Be Gee tells X where to find the exterminator. Of course, since he ratted we all know he's a [unwrite]in' dead man as soon as he gives up the info.

1.) HOLEE SHEET! The Exterminator no longer dicks around. In the first movie he just shot criminals. In this one he has a big ass flame thrower and the first crooks he meets in it he turns into barbecued ribs.

2.) Uh-oh---Mario Van Peebles is the chief bad guy? Oh god...methinks this movie is really gonna hurt on a level that only Van Peebles can cause to occur. To make it worse he dresses up like a reject from The Road Warrior. Combine that with the soundtrack and this movie is due to cause some minor damage to your emotional well-being.

3.) Good Grief! When the gangs knocks over the armored car the bags actually have big a big "$" on them! Is this the Underdog show? Do bags of money really have a "$" on them? What's next? Dollar bills with a "$" in the middle?

4.) Being the minority sidekick, I knew Be Gee's life-expectancy was about mid-movie. But then, the plan was so stupid, someone had to die! After all, why attack the gang when they're in the middle of making a drug deal with the mob? Wouldn't common sense dictate that all of the bad guys would be armed to the freakin' teeth in a situation like that? Be Gee and John are both Vietnam vets....hell, John has a 101st airborne patch on his jacket (Huuu-Ahhh! Screaming Eagles! Death from Above!) so they must have some combat sense. Why not do like John did in the first movie? Pick off the criminals one or two at a time when they least expect it? Why attack them when they, by necessity, would be on guard and heavily armed? Well, the real reason is the physical laws of the Movie Universe...The minority sidekick has to kick the bucket so the hero can be really pissed off and have an extra-incentive to open a big ol' can o' whoop-ass on the bad guys!

5.) Shades of B.A. Baracus! After Be Gee's death, John begins to 'modify' the garbage truck. I don't know what it'll do...its mid-movie that I'm typing this...but remember the old A-Team shows when B.A. Baracus would take, say, an old VW beetle or something and fix it up? They'd show B.A. and the A-Team tightening screws, welding stuff, etc and viola! The VW bug has been transformed into a heavy assault vehicle! Somehow, I get the feeling that this Garbage truck is going to be something that Rommel would wet his pants over.

6.) John lures the gang into his trap, and dumps gasoline on some of them. Why these bozos all congregate under the big giant crane carrying the drum of gas is beyond me....they see the crane moving towards them, yet they all bunch up directly under it so they can get doused. Then John shoots his flame thrower at them. Now, there was gasoline all over the floor, as well as the punks, but only the punks ignite! I know gasoline can evaporate kind of fast, but not in 15 seconds...(if that long!) Its a suprisingly wimpy flame for all of that gas.

NUDITY AND SEX: Caroline and John have sex where her goodies are seen. Also we see Caroline's nude dead body.

HUH?: Um--don't ya need a license to drive a garbage truck? Would you lend your garbage truck to a buddy you haven't seen in years? I mean, Be Gee uses the truck as his livelihood. If it was a cab, I'd buy it...well, maybe not...you need a license to drive a cab! If I owned a cab that I used to make my living I wouldn't lend it out to my best friend, let alone a guy I haven't seen in a few years!

Don't Be Gee or Caroline have any families? When Caroline is crippled, John takes care of her. If you had a family member that was crippled by a vicious gang attack wouldn't you try to help them or at least go stay with them for awhile? Not Caroline. Be Gee gets killed, but we never find out what John did with his body. (Besides take his dog-tags) Doesn't he have a family or something that would be interested to know that he's just lost his breathing rights? (Actually, I don't know how John could tell anyone. He'd have to admit that they were exercising some vigilante-justice when Be Gee got shot about five thousand times...and hmmmm...isn't John presumed dead from the last movie? I'm sure he doesn't want to bring any attention to himself...in the first movie the police KNEW he was the Exterminator!)

Speaking of the police how come they aren't catching John. They know he's the Exterminator! In the first movie they tried to catch him in his home, so it wasn't just Detective Dalton that knew who he was. For that matter the government guy sent to deal with the problem killed Dalton, but I'm sure that the government blamed John for it. So the police should really want this guy for killing a cop. But John is able to walk around in public and go around at night flash frying criminals and the police are none the wiser? What gives? You'd think some federal authorities would be concerned too.

How's X know the Exterminator's real name?

THE TALLY: I don't think this was as entertaining as the first movie, but it still is passable for a Saturday evening or so. One thing is certain....everyone John gets close to gets killed. Too bad they didn't make another Exterminator movie...don't laugh...it may have been pretty entertaining. They made a butt load of Death Wish Movies and Charles Bronson is as old as the hills. at least Robert Ginty looks like he might be able to be a psycho crook killer.