"When John Eastland's best friend, Michael Jefferson, is mugged and left permanently crippled, he decides to do something about it. Jefferson had saved Eastland's life in Vietnam and now it's time for Eastland to get revenge for his friend. Using his old Army gear he sets out on a crusade to clean up the streets of New York using the name - The Exterminator." (IMDb)
Watched this vigilante classic again yesterday. Directed by action movie legend James Glickenhaus (The Soldier, The Protector, Shakedown etc.) and starring Robert Ginty, Steve James, Christopher George and Samantha Eggar.
The films starts with a cool and violent Vietnam scene but the things will not be any easier when the guys get back home few years later.
Ginty having a hard time in ŽNam.
Glickenhaus is one of the best directors showing the nighlife and streets of New York. I love this kind of stuff!
Robert Ginty got the role (and became 80s action icon) at the last moment, after Joseph Bottoms demanded more money and Glickenhaus refused to pay. Then stuntman Steve James was also lucky. He tested for a role of a bartender but the director was so impressed that he gave him a bigger role.
Back in the early 80s, the first VHS edition of this movie was uncut here in Finland but later they edited over 10 minutes. IŽve heard that people paid several thousands to get the first edition tape in the late 80s. Man, it was tough to see a movie you love back then
Brutal kills and super sleazy villains. Welcome to the dark side of the big city.
On october 7th UK company Arrow will release The Exterminator on blu-ray as well, with different bonus material than the US Synapse release. As a collector i feel the strong urge to get them both Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Oh, yeah! Thanks for the info. Very cool old school cover art
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Watched Exterminator 2 yesterday. What an entertaining and crazy movie! Total 80s Cannon Group madness
See Vigilante Ginty and his garbagetruck driving sidekick in action. Ginty uses the flamethrower a lot and goes totally mad after a gang, lead by a guy called X (Mario Van Peebles), hurts his girlfriend.
Too bad that the Finnish VHS tape was heavily cut. I would love to see an uncut dvd release someday.
The film also features a cool theme tune which you can hear many times.
i always loved the exterminator films,the late robert ginty was always great to watch in these plus mario van peebles made a great camp villain as "x" in exterminator 2,the original uk guild home video was also heavily cut,i got to see the r rated u.s version last year which features extra scenes of violence but even this version i've read was originally heavily censored by the mpaa.
in an old video mag of mine they interviewed robert ginty and he had a real dislike of how part 2 had turned out,he stated james glickenhaus pulled out as director at the last moment and that mark buntzman stepped in and that he did not seem to have much of a clue to what he was doing and that post production was plagued by problems.
he also stated that he did not appear in the last third of the movie except for a couple of shots and that it was nearly all done by a stand in and that basically when you see the character wearing the welding mask most of the time it wasn't him ,it was the stunt double .
he also said yoram globus once visited him on set and said to him if cannon had made any money from exterminator 2 then that ginty would be getting offered the movies that chuck norris was making for the cannon group at that time!
your right there atomik that is a cool theme tune in exterminator 2 ,stays in your head for some time after watching it!
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Thanks for the cool inside info, warrior!
Buntzman produced both Exterminator movies and i agree that he was pretty much lost with that directing job.
Posted by Helen_S (Member # 5804) on :
Ooh, the first one is on the horror channel here Friday.
Posted by Lovers with Cassie (Member # 7794) on :
I came upon this two part making of The Exterminator 2 on YouTube and I thought that I would post them here for you all to enjoy.
[ 15. November 2011, 01:36: Message edited by: Lovers with Cassie ]
Posted by aTomiK (Member # 6575) on :
Wow, thanks Cassie! Fantastic stuff!
Posted by the young warrior (Member # 9554) on :
Wished they done a 3rd one of these,or even a couple more in the series while ginty was alive,watched the 2nd part again a couple of months back and it is such a blast!
[ 21. February 2015, 13:40: Message edited by: the young warrior ]
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