A vigilante the press have dubbed "The Executioner" is running around L.A. dealing with punks in his own inimitable way. When Police Commissioner (Ray) (that's all he's billed as) demands answers, Lt. Roger O'Malley (Mitchum) is on the case. Meanwhile, O'Malley's daughter Laura becomes addicted to drugs, and, needing money, turns to her loud-voiced, giggly friend for help. She naturally suggests she go into prostitution, but to watch out for a sadist named "The Tattoo Man", who may abuse her in the process. Some sort of gangsters are involved and putting pressure on the local pimp, and only a delusional Vietnam vet (is there any other kind, according to low-budget actioners?) holds the key to it all. Will O'Malley stop the O'madness? Or will he let it continue as long as The Executioner is cleaning up the streets? Find out today! The Executioner, Part II is a gem. Essentially a 78-minute, incoherent, incomprehensible mess, it's easy to love a movie that's this disjointed and sloppy. In the grand tradition of Surf II (1984) and Leonard Part 6 (1987),there is no Executioner, Part I (just the fact that there's a comma, a space, and a "part" after the title is a major clue to the insanity/inanity going on). Clearly the structure (?) of the movie was modeled after The Exterminator (1980),complete with a Vietnam-set battle intro, which segues into a modern urban environment. It seems so obvious that 21st Century Film Corporation was trying to trick distracted theater patrons/video renters, but, hey, it was the golden age of exploitation, and if this is the end result, it can't be all bad.

Try to imagine a cross between Rescue Force (1990)and Death Promise (1977)- complete with straitlaced, unnecessary narration, poor lighting, non-editing, and the star of the show - the dubbing. The dubbing this time around is laugh out loud funny. TE, PII (as all the cool people call it) is one of those "another planet" movies - the filmmakers seem so out of touch with the way human beings actually talk and behave, it seems like it was made in some far-away world. This was director James Bryan's first in a trilogy of films he did with the great Renee Harmon - the follow-ups being Hell Riders (1984) and Lady Street Fighter (1985). Brilliantly, the movie was released on a big-box double feature VHS with Harmon's Frozen Scream (1975). Apparently Continental Video was really gunning for that rich mine of Renee Harmon fans. Well, we still remember it fondly. Only in the 80's, we tell you. Only in the 80's.

Fan favorite Chris Mitchum is in full effect here as well. Sporting dark hair and a dark mustache, he fights Middle-Aged Punks (MAP's) with the best of 'em, featuring some of the best (?) fight choreography in recent memory. He even has what has to be the first beeper of all time. But while the Executioner has an ace up his sleeve in the way he deals with the epidemic of punks, the punks have their own means of intimidation - pouring milk on people's heads. No wonder Aldo Ray wants answers.

Featuring one of those classic, funky soundtracks (much like the aforementioned Death Promise),The Executioner, Part II certainly marches to the beat of its own whacked-out drummer. There comes a point when cinematic ineptness becomes a treasure. This is that point.

Obviously made to cash-on on the popularity of such vigilante action pictures as "Death Wish" and "The Exterminator," this uproariously awful crud looks like it was shot on a paltry budget of roughly fifty bucks. After beginning with some badly staged Vietnam war combat footage, the story proper kicks in: Crazed traumatized 'Nam vet automobile mechanic Mike (a simply terrible performance by Antoine John Mottet) can't stand all the rampant crime in his strife-ridden urban neighborhood, so he starts violently rubbing out assorted low-life scum like rapists, drug pushers, pimps, street gang members, and mobsters. Mike's fellow 'Nam vet best buddy Lt. Roger O'Malley (a sleepwalking Christopher Mitchum, who sports a bushy mustache) naturally turns out to be the cop determined to nab Mike. Boy, does this gloriously ghastly garbage possess all the right wrong stuff to qualify as a real four-star stinkeroonie; we've got slapdash (mis)direction by James Bryan (who also blessed us with the similarly shabby splatter slasher schlockfest "Don't Go in the Woods"),uneven stop'n'go pacing, ragged editing, laughable tin-eared dialogue ("I'm the king," a nasty would-be rapist sneers to a whimpering female victim),ratty cinematography, lots of clunky Vietnam flashbacks, pathetic acting (Aldo Ray hams it up to a dreadful extreme as a corrupt police commissioner while Renee Harmon as a pesky journalist renders all her dialogue borderline incomprehensible with her heavy foreign accent),a cheesy generic synthesizer score, ineptly handled action scenes, and an annoyingly abrupt ending. Moreover, this marvelously maladroit mess offers several sidesplitting moments of inspired camp: Mike likes to stuff live grenades down people's pants and two teenage junkie babes get a serious case of the pot giggles while smoking grass together. A total gut-busting riot.

THE EXECUTIONER, PART II is famous for being a B-movie that purports to be a sequel to a non-existent film. I think perhaps the film they were directly referencing was THE EXTERMINATOR, which has a similar vigilante theme and involves low-down criminals and hoods being taken down by those tired of crime and the lax police response to it.

Vinegar Syndrome have done a fine film of releasing this movie in high definition format; it's never looked better. A shame, then, that it's only just tolerable as a movie; it's completely cheesy and ridiculous, full of low rent action and acting and only enjoyable in a so-bad-it's-good kind of way. The story sees Christopher Mitchum playing the most boring cop imaginable searching for the titular vigilante and finding himself involved with various characters.

The mystery aspect of the story never really works very well as it's all rather obvious. Better are the low rent action scenes based in and around a garage in which the cheesy action plays out. Aldo Ray has one of those bit part roles as another cop while Renee Harmon, who also wrote the screenplay, co-stars. It's pretty lame as a film but as an unintentional comedy it works.