The Exterminator (1980)

"Jesus, looks like he got hit with napalm.", 26 June 2015

John Eastland (Robert Ginty) sets out to avenge the death of a buddy at the hands of a gang of street thugs.

If you can't tell by rating, I'll spell it out - I'm not much of a fan of The Exterminator. Let me start by saying that I don't have anything against low-budget or violent films. If you look through some of the other reviews I've written you'll see plenty of glowing comments for movies with lower budgets than this one. You'll also see that I've got a lot of positive things to say about a number of very violent films. But it doesn't work here. The problems:

1. No plot - I gave the movie a one sentence plot summary at the start of this, and that's probably more than The Exterminator deserves. Instead of a coherent plot, it's one of those movies with a series of set-pieces randomly thrown together. There's no flow to the film and definitely no logic. Things happen more for shock value than to move the story along.

2. Acting - I realize this is a personal preference, but I'm not a fan of Robert Ginty's style of acting. I know he has fans, but to me, he's just doesn't fit the part he's asked to play here. He doesn't look like a killer - he looks more like a car salesman. One small example is the scene where he's prepping bullets. Look at his hands. Those aren't the hands of a killer. Those hands haven't done the things John Easland has done. He's the wrong guy for the part.

3. The love story - I was really annoyed by the love story subplot with Christopher George and Samantha Eggar. I didn't necessarily have a problem with them as actors, but their screen time together was stomach churning. A midnight picnic in Central Park, love- making in a empty hospital room - ridiculous.

I really wanted to like this movie. As I said, low-budget violence is okay with me. But I had way too many problems to rate this higher than a 3/10.

3/10