The Executioner, Part 2 (1984)

This cheap, forgotten actioner is a junk cinema classic just waiting to be enjoyed for all the wrong reasons. Fried logic, confusing mise-en-scène and botched sound dubbing result in a cast of characters who all appear stoned, stupid or brain-damaged. Luckily, there's enough whacked action to entertain viewers with a taste for peculiar films, and this is one for them to track down. The Executioner, Part 2 isn't a sequel to anything, and even if the premise is familiar, it has no relation to any similarly-named release. A masked vigilante is striking back against the crime syndicate that rules the streets, and both the police and the crooks want him stopped. As usual, Viet Nam is to blame for the executioner's bloodthirsty tendencies; he suffers frequent flashbacks during his crime-busting rampages and his favored method of killing is to stuff a military-issue hand grenade into an evil-doer's pants (resulting in the same stock-footage explosion every time). There are also some corrupt cops, sadistic pimps and naive teenage drug addicts on hand, one of whom can't control her persistent, braying laughter and gets the best lines (when a joint is passed she declares, "I wish this were coke, oh, heavenly coke!"). Aldo Ray keeps the wolf from his door with a few brief appearances as the police commissioner, and as the lead detective, Christopher Mitchum tries to make his apparent boredom look like suave composure by keeping a cigar firmly clenched between his teeth while karate-chopping bad guys in poorly choreographed fight scenes. Screenwriter and producer Renee Harmon awards herself a prominent, if undeserved, role as a local TV news personality who helps Mitchum search for clues. It's doubtful that any television station would employ a dowdy, middle-aged lady with a thick Teutonic accent as an anchorwoman, particularly in Los Angeles, but that's a minor suspension of disbelief compared to the plethora of puzzling moments in The Executioner, Part 2. Harmon enjoyed a brief B-picture career that also produced the even weirder Frozen Scream, which was paired with The Executioner, Part 2 as a videotape double feature in the mid-80s and gained both films their widest distribution. She collaborated with Executioner director James Bryan again in the biker-themed Hellriders; Bryan is also responsible for the execrable slasher exercise Don't Go In The Woods. ~ Fred Beldin, All Movie Guide