"ExTerminators" is about a woman named Alex (Heather Graham) who loves to help out people. This could be the reason why she married a man that she supports and doesn't work. One day, Alex comes home from work to find her husband cheating on her. Without any explanation needed, this ends the marriage leaving Alex feeling bitter and upset. A few weeks later, Alex is at the grocery store and while shopping a random male approaches her and takes the pie that Alex was planning to purchase. Alex informs the man that she was going to buy that pie. The guy responds by stating, "I don't see your name on it." Upset by the response, Alex punches the guy and is of course, arrested. Alex now has to attend an anger management class. This is where she meets Stella (Jennifer Coolidge) and Nikki (Amber Heard), who have their history of anger issues pertaining to men. What happens next has to be seen to be believed but the three women go into business to become the ExTerminators.
"ExTerminators" is terrible title for a film. I get the fact that it's suppose to be funny because its a play on words. If you read the title and get the little gag in the title than you will figure out exactly what the film is about. Its a film about a group of women who go around and terminate the exes of various women who pay them to do so. I guess if the film had the right director and writer on board it could have been a pretty funny film but instead it turned into something that I feel I would see on Lifetime.
The first problem I had with the film was that it made every male in this movie out to either be a jerk or completely clueless. That element alone made this film feel like a Lifetime movie. Alex's husband is a user and a cheater, another guy is a woman beater, and all the other men in this film are all the typical college guy stereotypes who just grab female asses. Even the good guy in this film was portrayed as stupid. I understand this is a film about strong women but seriously not every guy is an ass or an idiot. Don't insult my intelligence like that. I would pose to even question what kind of guy would cheat on Heather Graham? The woman is freaking beautiful with an amazing body. I don't really get that. If your going to make a film about someone cheating why not make Jennifer Coolidge the main character, because than it would be a bit more believable but that's just my take.
The next issue I had was the whole subplot of the film, which involved an IRS agent by the name of Hutt (Sam Lloyd). You see Hutt was investigating Stella's business, which ironically is a exterminator business. She kills bugs for a living. As it turns out, Hutt now begins to investigate Stella and and the rest of the girls. One would argue that this is all part of the story and adds something to it. I personally found it to be rather silly and the twist in the end seemed almost too simple for its own good. It wasn't as crafty as writer, Suzanne Weinert intended it to be. As the story develops everything just seems to simple and unexplained. Why doesn't anyone look into why all of a sudden this anger management class keeps getting a ton of new members each and every week. Why are the cops so stupid? It's three women who are killing men left and right but yet no one can figure this out? I am sorry but that's a bit of a stretch. The cops didn't even really investigate through the film.
I actually liked Heather Graham in this role. I think she did a decent job even though the script was weak and the characters weren't well written. I personally thought it was really silly to try to make her look ugly by giving her huge glasses from the 50's though. What the heck was the director thinking? Who makes fun of people who wear glasses anymore? Seriously, what is this... the 70s? I don't get it. Anyway, Graham did all she could to survive the role. As for Coolidge, she was alright as well. I think she plays a good drunk and bitter ex-wife. Amber Heard was unrecognizable in the film and was good in the role even if she was a bit too over the top at times. I don't know why they made her into such a psycho but would guess she was the perfect opposite of the character Graham played. The acting by the leads was decent however all the smaller supporting roles were horrible including the guy who played Hutt. Just bad supporting roles all around...
At the end of the day, "ExTerminators" is a direct to video film that truly deserves the title. While the film's premise could be funny, it fails to produce any real laughs. The direction is sloppy and the writing is poor. Graham, Coolidge, and Heard do all they can to help make the film watchable but sadly due to the poor character development they couldn't do much. It's no shock to me why this film went right to video because it would have failed in theaters as a feature film. Its sad to see movies like this sometimes because you can see where if it were in the hands of another writer or director it could have been 100 times better. I will give it some points for the premise and for the decent acting job by the three leads but other than that I would have to tell you to skip this one because it's definitely a stinker.
MovieManMenzel's final rating for "the ExTerminators" is a 4 out of 10.
