When my friends and I began our journey to rent the worst movies available at every video store in town back in the mid-'80s, we never thought to rent this one. The box cover implied that it was a post-apocalyptic survival movie of some sort, and, not being fans of that genre, we avoided it. Luckily, my mother actually brought this doozy home one weekend when the video store ran out of copies of 'Commando' (a pile of dung in its own right, but I was 15 at the time). For whatever reason, she assumed 'The Annihilators' would be an acceptable substitute for the evening. Our original disappointment soon turned into glee, and eventually, uncontrollable laughter as we plodded through this monumentally horrid train-wreck of a movie.
I will not get too much into the plot, as other posters have given a pretty decent overview of the film's premise. As stated, it's your basic revenge action flick : A group of Vietnam vets re-unite to avenge the death of one of their comrades at the hands of some sadistic Atlanta gang members. That's the plot in a nutshell. However, despite this overdone formula, this movie stands out among others of the genre -- it's absolutely freaking hysterical. The movie does contain some violence and foul language -- typical for the genre-- but somehow it almost has the feel of an after-school special or Sunday night movie of the week. Mixed with the violence and drug use is this almost sickening feel-good aura to the movie that actually tries to make the viewer believe ' if good people stick together, we can conquer all the bad in the world...' or some such rubbish...
What really makes this film a steaming pile of hilarity are the acting and the dialogue. Over-ridden with clichéd 'feel-good' speeches and over-the-top bad guy badness, 'The Annihilators can't seem to decide if it wants to be a hard-ass action flick or a nice family film about people bonding together to overcome a common obstacle.. It fails quite miserably at both, but makes for a unique, laughably rotten film in the process.
Even though several actors in the movie are recognizable from appearances in other films and television shows, the real 'star' of this stinker would have to be Paul Koslo as head bad guy RoyBoy Jagger. His hammy performance alone is worth sitting through the 87 minutes. From his spikey, madcap lions-mane hairdo, his over-expressive face (I swear his nostrils flare in a few scenes) to the obnoxious way he spews the horrendous dialogue he was given, Koslo is definitely the film's largest source of entertainment. He even manages to be funny during the final rooftop fight scene -- after getting kicked in the chest, he stumbles backward, puts his hand to his chest and wails like an alley cat..... and I laughed till it hurt.
Although 'The Annihilators' is cruddy in almost every way imaginable, it is certainly funnier than half of the so-called comedies put out by the American movie factories, and I definitely recommend it to fans of un-intentional humor.
2 out of 10 for fans of actual movies
7 out of 10 for afficionados of garbage
I will not get too much into the plot, as other posters have given a pretty decent overview of the film's premise. As stated, it's your basic revenge action flick : A group of Vietnam vets re-unite to avenge the death of one of their comrades at the hands of some sadistic Atlanta gang members. That's the plot in a nutshell. However, despite this overdone formula, this movie stands out among others of the genre -- it's absolutely freaking hysterical. The movie does contain some violence and foul language -- typical for the genre-- but somehow it almost has the feel of an after-school special or Sunday night movie of the week. Mixed with the violence and drug use is this almost sickening feel-good aura to the movie that actually tries to make the viewer believe ' if good people stick together, we can conquer all the bad in the world...' or some such rubbish...
What really makes this film a steaming pile of hilarity are the acting and the dialogue. Over-ridden with clichéd 'feel-good' speeches and over-the-top bad guy badness, 'The Annihilators can't seem to decide if it wants to be a hard-ass action flick or a nice family film about people bonding together to overcome a common obstacle.. It fails quite miserably at both, but makes for a unique, laughably rotten film in the process.
Even though several actors in the movie are recognizable from appearances in other films and television shows, the real 'star' of this stinker would have to be Paul Koslo as head bad guy RoyBoy Jagger. His hammy performance alone is worth sitting through the 87 minutes. From his spikey, madcap lions-mane hairdo, his over-expressive face (I swear his nostrils flare in a few scenes) to the obnoxious way he spews the horrendous dialogue he was given, Koslo is definitely the film's largest source of entertainment. He even manages to be funny during the final rooftop fight scene -- after getting kicked in the chest, he stumbles backward, puts his hand to his chest and wails like an alley cat..... and I laughed till it hurt.
Although 'The Annihilators' is cruddy in almost every way imaginable, it is certainly funnier than half of the so-called comedies put out by the American movie factories, and I definitely recommend it to fans of un-intentional humor.
2 out of 10 for fans of actual movies
7 out of 10 for afficionados of garbage