The Annihilators (1985)

"Terrific Trash Entertainment"

DEATH WISH 3 meets THE A TEAM in this movie that any bad film club would be proud to show, and which Arrow has just now gathered the nerve to release on Blu-ray.

A metaphor for how THE ANNIHILATORS was directed?

We start off in the Vietnam war, where our crack team of five soon-to-be vets have to defeat a couple of enemy soldiers in surroundings that look less like the forbidding jungles of APOCALYPSE NOW and more like a nice field that might easily be accessed by a main road out of Los Angeles.

A villain!

We flash forward to the present and a caption tells us we are in the town of Atlanta Now. One of the team, in saving his buddies back in 'nam, has ended up in a wheelchair and now lives in a rundown part of town where gang violence is rife. One gang in particular is threatening his neighbourhood through a combination of bad acting and ludicrous appearances. One has a silly voice, one looks like Charles Dance on steroids, and their leader appears to be the son of Worzel Gummidge.

Worzel and his gang

Worzel Jr kills our hapless legless veteran with a meat tenderiser and soon the old team are getting back together to take on organised crime in downtown Atlanta, roping in all the locals to give them a hand. 

A tense moment

None of the above really does justice to what a marvellously entertaining bit of daft old rubbish THE ANNIHILATORS is. It's not just that the direction is stilted, that a lot of the acting is delivered with all the passion of a frozen leg of lamb or that the music sounds like someone who doesn't know very much trying out the keyboards in his local music shop.

A tiny vest

Thrill to all that weird graffiti! The bizarre product placement! The frequent obvious spelling mistakes on signs! Can you spot the camera crew in the reflection of our heroes' van? We could! 

Product placement!

The extras on Arrow's disc are a couple of ten minute featurettes. one where star Lawrence Hilton-Jacobs is interviewed, the other is a piece on director Charles E Sellier Jr by film-maker Davil O'Malley. You also get a rather absurdly drawn out 'censorship comparison' showing the two seconds of a stab wound that was cut by the BBFC some time back but which has since been restored.

Action!

There's the usual reversible sleeve with artwork by the always excellent Graham Humphreys but no booklet, presumably because anyone asked to do it sat as open-mouthed as you will by the time THE ANNIHILATORS is over. 

The riotously enjoyable daft-fest that is THE ANNIHILATORS is out on Blu-ray from Arrow on Monday 13 May 2019