The Exterminator (1980)

The Exterminator (1980)-* * * *

Directed by: James Glickenhaus

Starring: Robert Ginty, Steve James, Dennis Boutsikaris, Christopher George,  Ned Eisenberg, David Lipman and Samantha Eggar












 Best friends John Eastland (Ginty) and Michael Jefferson (James) survived the horrors of the Vietnam war together. Michael even saved John’s life. After the war, both men work at a packing plant in New York City’s South Bronx. One day, Michael is assaulted and put in the hospital by a gang called The Ghetto Ghouls. Eastland then begins his quest for revenge in the seediest parts of the city - and in his attempt to clean up the streets he becomes vigilante hero The Exterminator. 

Everyone from street punks to child molesters to upper-class mobsters become the target of The Exterminator’s retribution. He becomes so effective, he attracts the attention of Detective James Dalton (George), a man who wants to find and stop him. Even the CIA is interested in stopping Eastland. Will they catch him - or will Eastland live to flamethrow another day?

Yes! We here at Comeuppance Reviews HQ LOVE The Exterminator. As you can tell from the name of our site, we have a special fondness for revenge movies, and they don’t come much better than this. Movies of this type, from this place and time have a special fascination, and The Exterminator does not disappoint one iota. Everything from its killer opening set in Vietnam all the way through to the end, this movie delivers the goods in spades.

James Glickenhaus is a quality filmmaker, and we’re fans of his work. We also recommend The Soldier (1982) and Shakedown (1988), but this is the money movie. There’s more sensitivity and intelligence behind The Exterminator than most people give it credit for. There are subtle comments about Vietnam vets and their treatment once they came home, and the shoddy Jimmy Carter presidency if you care to look for them. Plotwise there is plenty of subtext and parallels - all of which add to the texture and interest of this fine film. 

It’s rare that a movie can entertain and please an audience on an intellectual and a visceral level. But The Exterminator achieves this rare feat. While the movie does have elements from Taxi Driver (1976) and Death Wish (1974), Glickenhaus brings this style into the gritty 80’s, with fantastic results. 

According to the DVD commentary, he shuts down critics that wrote off this movie as a Death Wish knockoff by saying he didn’t see Death Wish before filming. Glickenhaus has plenty of other interesting comments, such as when he says that Joseph Bottoms, brother of Timothy, almost played Eastland, or when he says he imagines First Blood (1982) as the ideal continuation of the Eastland story, not so much Exterminator 2 (1984).

Speaking of the DVD, Synapse knocks it out of the park with its excellent DVD/Blu-Ray combo pack. While I’d seen the film before on VHS, it was like I was watching it for the first time here. It looks amazing and you have to go on Amazon and buy this right now.

Being fans of stunts and stuntmen, we appreciated how in the end credits, it showed specifically which stuntman did what stunt. You don’t see that very often. As for the more recognizable stars, it’s great to see two fan favorites, Robert Ginty and Steve James together. 

They have great chemistry and really seem like friends. The Christopher George-Samantha Eggar plot is interesting because it slyly implies that Dalton is not exactly rushing to stop Eastland, he’s doing it rather leisurely because he secretly approves of  what he’s doing, but he has to keep up appearances. There’s actually a lot of sly moments, such as the use of the song “Disco Inferno” by the Trammps, among others. Anyone who watches Law & Order will recognize Dennis Boutsikaris and Ned Eisenberg who often play lawyers, as well as David Lipman, who often plays a judge on the show.

In the 42nd street scenes you can see the famous Lyric theater, where Glickenhaus says The Exterminator played to sold-out houses for 24 hours at a stretch. The Lyric is also featured in Shakedown, where the movie marquee is showing The Soldier, and The Exterminator. 

So Glickenhaus has some history there. We love seeing 42nd street and the movie marquees of the time, and you can see theaters playing Beyond The Door (1974), Cauldron Of Death (1973), and the O.J. Simpson vehicle Firepower (1979). It truly was a time when O.J. Simpson was simply an athlete/actor, and the World Trade Center was still standing in all its glory. There’s a gigantic nostalgia factor at work here, and it just shows we need The Exterminator now more than ever.

The Exterminator simply rocks and is a must-see. Go Eastland!

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Also check out reviews by our buddies, Tars Tarkas and The Video Vacuum!

Ragin' Cajun (1991)

Ragin' Cajun (1991)-* *1\2

Directed by: William Byron Hillman

Starring: David Heavener, Charlene Tilton, Allan Rich, Sam Bottoms, Samantha Eggar, Jesse Borja, and Benny "The Jet" Urquidez













Cage Damante (Heavener) is a Vietnam vet who became a kickboxer. He signed a contract with the evil gangster Regetti (Rich), but fled from New York City to California to escape him and start a new life. His dream is to be a singer/songwriter on the country music circuit. With the help of girlfriend Ali Webster (Tilton), the troubled Cage may have a future. He also has a strong bond with Legs (Bottoms), a fellow vet and agoraphobic who refuses to leave the VA hospital. Both Cage and Legs are seeing psychiatrist Dr. May (Eggar) for further psychological help. Cage suffers from debilitating flashbacks. Just when things are looking better, Regetti insists that Cage “fulfill his contract” and engage in a “fight to the death” with none other than a dude named Dr. Death (Borja). Regetti even sends his goons after both Cage and Ali in order to force him to fight. Will Cage succumb to Regetti’s demands? Or does he have some tricks up his sleeve?

Even though this movie wasn’t written or directed by David Heavener, as many of his later projects were, it seems he’s in the driver’s seat here as the main star and singer of the many songs this movie has to offer. Heavener seems to have plenty of heart here, and Ragin’ Cajun, despite the tagline of “More Blood Than Bloodsport! More Kick Than Kickboxer!” is primarily a drama. Yes, there is some fighting and a smidgen of action, but this could firmly fit in the “Drama” section of your local video store, as opposed to the “Action” section. But Van Damme was huge at the time, so, even though Heavener couldn’t be more different, the marketing people saw an opening during the action boom of the day.

Benny “The Jet” Urquidez is on board in a small role as a fighter that takes on “The Cajun”, but interestingly he is billed as “Introducing” Benny The Jet, even though he had been in a bunch of movies before this. Charlene Tilton seems to be giving her all as the devoted girlfriend/singer/guitar player that refuses to give up on Cage. Didn’t she play a similar role in Deadly Bet (1992)? Samantha Eggar is a quality actress and it’s surely a coup that she agreed to be in this. But it truly is a cavalcade of music stars - Tommy Roe, Cristy Lane, Rex Allen Jr., Billy Vera and a few others perform songs, as do Tilton and Heavener, making this almost a quasi-musical. Of course, it’s always funny when Heavener is sitting on a park bench with an acoustic guitar, and begins singin’ and playin’, and mic’d vocals and guitar with effects come strumming out.

But truly the star of the musical show is one Atanas Ilitch, using the stage name “Atanas”. His “Let’s Live Together” destroys the competition. Why an 80’s-disco synthpop song is even in the same universe as all the country pickin’ has yet to be determined. But like fellow Heavener vehicle Outlaw Force (1988), before the movie begins, there is an advertisement for the soundtrack. This commercial is a movie highlight. (yes, we know that doesn’t make logical sense, but you know what we mean). Not available in stores! 12 original songs from the original artists! ONLY available on stereo cassette! Call now! I wonder if operators are still standing by...

Seeing as how visions of exploding huts dance in his head, there are plenty of chances for odd editing. But the choppiness in the editing room comes out in other, more unexpected places as well. We see what Heavener and writer/director Hillman were trying to do, but this drama/love story/almost-Punchfighter/action/gangster/musical comes out as you might expect - something like a not entirely digested meal. Not that this movie is BAD, but it’s a bit on the haphazard side, and some of the fat could have been trimmed from it as well.

Once again, AIP delivers to video stores what others only can dream of. And once again, we applaud them for it. But this Heavener outing is a mixed bag at best.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty

Battle Force (1978)

Battle Force (1978)-* *

AKA: The Biggest Battle

Directed by: Umberto Lenzi

Starring: Helmut Berger, Samantha Eggar, Edwige Fenech, Ray Lovelock, Stacy Keach, Henry Fonda, and Orson Welles as The Narrator










Set during 1942-43 during the prime years of World War II, Battle Force tells many separate tales, but the main two concern Maj. Mannfred Roland (Keach), a Nazi who has fallen in love with a Jewish actress, Annelise Ackermann (Eggar). The fate of their relationship is in limbo as Roland fights in North Africa and can’t be at home in Germany to protect her from the evil Nazis (by comparison, he’s a “good” Nazi). The other story tells the tale of Gen. Foster of the U.S. Army (Fonda). His son John (Lovelock) is something of a screw-up who can’t please his demanding father. So he follows in his footsteps and enlists in the Army. The whole film is narrated by Orson Welles and features a lot of stock footage of the war. Will this truly be “The Biggest Battle” of them all?

When we originally came across the Continental big-box VHS of this movie, how could we resist it: it’s called Battle Force, and the tagline screams “THE MOST AWESOME BATTLE EVER SEEN!” Plus look at the cast. It’s insane. And we didn’t even have room to mention Orson Welles as the Narrator . How could it lose, right? Well...it’s not that this movie is bad, really, but it’s extremely stodgy and old-fashioned. It seems like the type of Sunday afternoon programmer your grandparents might watch to while away a rainy day. Yes, there is some war action, including some shooting and explosions (giving credit where credit is due, they’re some quality blow-ups), but somehow it’s not really enough. There are way too many cooks in this broth. There’s a ridiculous amount of characters, plus the stock footage and narration, and the result is pretty much a jumble. Which, unfortunately, is not terribly engaging to the audience.

We generally love Umberto Lenzi. We think he’s great, but his war movie output (that we’ve seen, anyway) doesn’t seem to rival his poliziotteschi work like Violent Protection (1976) or his classic exploitation horror stuff like Cannibal Ferox (1981), Eaten Alive (1980) or Nightmare City (1980) - not to mention his excellent giallo period of the 1970’s. I wonder what Henry Fonda would think if he knew he was working under the demented genius who created the above titles? Regardless, a direct parallel can be made here: just as the equally-staid WWII drama The Second Victory (1987) is put out by AIP, who is normally known for much wilder and more entertaining fare, so is the case here with the rest of Umberto Lenzi’s work. Why both AIP and Lenzi decided to “go boring” for their WWII jaunts is an interesting coincidence indeed.

The movie is well-directed by Lenzi, and it is ambitious and expansive, but there’s no humor whatsoever, and it all comes off as flat and uninvolving. It’s all well and good to play “spot the star” but that’s not really a coherent way to make a movie. Perhaps sensing this, we must quote the writer of the back of the VHS box. At the very end of a multi-paragraph description, the final pitch to rent or buy this movie to a potential buyer or renter is this: “Fans of tank warfare will appreciate the large numbers of tanks and other armored vehicles employed in the well-choreographed battle sequences. The military hardware in the film is quite elaborate, including a “Big Bertha” railroad gun.” And that’s it. That’s the capper. It seems this movie would be the perfect Christmas gift to that member of your family who inevitably is a “fan of tank warfare”. And just the words “Big Bertha” are enough to pique our interest.

In the end, it seems only die-hard fans of any of the personalities involved with this project would get much out of Battle Force.

Comeuppance Review by: Brett and Ty