My review was written in October 1987 after watching the movie on Sony video cassette.
"Mankillers", originally titled "Twelve Wild Women", is a chintzy version of "The Dirty Dozen" using women in the he-man roles. Pic is a direct-to-video time-killer.
Beautiful blonde Lynda Aldon is tapped by CIA bigwig Williams (Byron Clark) and his assistant Joan Hanson (Gail Fisher) to go after a renegade federal agent in Colombia who is wreaking havoc. Aldon used to work with the creep (William Zipp) and still dreams (or has nightmares) about him.
She insists on working with an all-girl team: "It's got to be women -women are more effective in the field", she declares. She picks up a dozen femmes out of prison and has Sgt. Roberts (Edy Williams) train them in combat. Several desultory reels later Zipp is zapped and the girls are engulfed by an unruly fog machine for an atmospheric (and inept) fadeout.
Pic essentially trades on the nostalgia value of its toplined cast, but Edd (Kookie) Byrnes, Gail "Mannix" Fisher and Edy (Cannes starlet) Williams are relegated to tiny roles. Alson is a forceful heroine but fans will be surprised , given the vast femme cast, that there is no nudity in the entire film. Action scenes are poor, with weak sound effects and mainly static setups. Riverside, California locations lack the necessary atmosphere.
