The Annihilators (1985)
Upon his return from Vietnam, an ex-soldier finds his neighborhood has deteriorated badly, and is being terrorized by a vicious street gang. He calls some of his GI buddies, and together they hatch a plan to get rid of the gang.
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Very Cool!!!
Just perfect...
It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional
Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.
After a former brother-in-arms from Vietnam is killed by a gang of thugs his former platoon leader is recruited to clean up the streets. He summons the rest of the squad and the game is on.The story is simple and has been done several times before. There is a relatively short first part that takes place in Vietnam to establish the relationship between the soldiers. I really wish they had spent another ten minutes building on this to give the rest of the film a deeper emotional impact. Sure this is a 80s vigilante film, but that doesn't mean we can't have characters we really care about. Does it? The vigilante force also teaches the neighborhood how they can defend themselves in a montage. And who doesn't enjoy a good montage? This montage is mediocre, but that's okay. The Annihilators could easily have been mistaken for the A-Team. They aren't that professional and they are slightly more violent. Other than that they are just the same. In fact there is at least on A-Team episode exactly like this film. One of the highlights in this film is the gang leader. He looks like a shabby Kurt Russell and when he wears that wonderful pink t-shirt you won't exactly tremble with fear. The guy has balls though. At one point he walks around in the middle of the street with a flamethrower yelling that he wants his drugs back. NOW! It's hilarious stuff! How he became a gang leader is anyone's guess. He isn't a very good leader and his minions are even less capable of anything. They are crappy stereotypes, which I suppose is only what one can expect from a movie like this. On the positive side, this only adds to the overall cheese factor.Now the thing that really annoyed me about The Annihilators is the title. It's called THE ANNIHILATORS! The definition of annihilate in the Oxford dictionary is; to destroy completely. Our vigilante squad frequently just hurt the gang members. Only towards the end do we see a somewhat steady rise in bodies. However, they are still merely shot. At least director Charles E. Sellier Jr. could have had the decency to give us some Peckinpah or Woo style shootings. And even then I doubt they could have called themselves The Annihilators with pride. Now had they taken out the scumbags with rocket launchers, claymore mines or such, the whole affair would have looked a lot different! I could go on about all the things The Annihilators isn't, but that would be unfair to it. For all its faults The Annihilators provide some entertainment, mostly in the cheese department. Grab some recreational drugs, a pizza and watch with friends.
Becky Harris plays the female shopper whose misfortune it is to be in the store at the wrong time and obviously ONLY purpose to be in this film is to supply a reason to wear out remote controls! Miss Harris seems to me to be in her fifties or older when she first comes on the scene. Once the red haired thug is done with her it becomes apparent that this is no AARP queen. If these are not some of the finest assets ever displayed on celluloid, I want someone to clue me in. Absolutely breathtaking in my opinion and I literally wore out my VHS copy capturing her charms. I would like to know if this movie is available on DVD.The rest of this movie really is not worthy of mention. I was hoping to see something fairly convincing and intelligent, however I was disappointed on both counts. God Bless Becky Harris!
The Annihilators has got to be one of the most inept films I have ever seen. Filled to the brim with everything a bad action flick could ask for, this "film" seems to have the worst of everything going for it. From the dull, mindless plot surrounding a couple of Vietnam vets who decide to take up arms against a street gang (really original) to the "film's" ending, which comprises something like ten minutes of shooting where nobody gets shot, this flick will have you laughing out loud. Of all the films in my collection, this one shall never leave. Pricelessly stupid!
This is one of those movies that has the big apocalyptic background with 3 or 4 dudes sitting in the fore front with there machine guns at bay posing with arms the size of tree trunks. But of course this is only the cover art for the box and it just happens to be a painting. What you really get when you open up the box and stick it in the VCR is a cheesey unintended comedy! A friend and myself have even set up a web site for this movie due to its humurous content we felt we had to. One of my favorite lines from this movie: "These punks are finally doing something that you police should have been doing a long time ago... killing each other off!". WOOHOO! wasn't that a funny. You gotta hand it to Bob Summers (the composer) for making one of the most sterile/period scores that ever graced an optical strip or video for that matter. A timeless movie for the ill in the head. BUY IT & LAUGH!