The Devastator

My review was written in December after watching the film on MGM/UA video cassette.

"The Devastator" once again brings the Vietnam war back to the homefront as a vet uses military tactics to clean up bad guys in California. Originally titled "Kings Ransom" (after the town where it is set) and alternately "The Destroyer=s", pic is similar to "Final Mission", a 1984 Cirio Santiago opus as well. "Devastator" opened regionally in September 1985.

Wracked by nightmares about his stint in Vietnam, Richard Hill visits the small town of Kings Ransom after Debbie Brooks, the widow of his pal Marty, calls from there telling him her husband has been killed in a car wreck. Befriended by gas jockey Katt Shea, Hill is terrorized by locals for being an outsider. It seems the local growers have taken over the valley for their marijuana business and corrupted the local sheriff (Kaz Garas).

Hill barely escapes when the thugs burn down Brooks' house (where he is staying), but comes back in force with other war vets armed to the teeth. With the sheriff won over to theris side they burn up the pot fields, rescue Shea from the villains and set things straight.

Action scenes are acceptable and both Ill and Shea make for sympathetic protagonists. Crude editing job has the picture ending very abruptly, perhaps acceptable to antsy home video consumers but a definite irritation for a theatrical film. Several credits seem to have been anglicized, e.g. Richrd Reemington for Santiago's regular cinematographer Ricardo Remias.

if you like action/revenge movies and 80's cheese, this one will be fun. It seems that not 5 minutes goes by without some machine gun fire in this movie. there's lots of guys getting beat up, the bad guys (pot warlord & goons) being really tough & bad, explosions, funny dialouge & one liners, and an outrageous amount of machine guns! A total guy flick, real macho and unrealistic, but funny as heck if you're in the mood for it.

Some parts of the soundtrack are real weird too, not in the "Liquid Sky" amazingly well-done weird way, but more like a 5 year old randomly programming a drum machine & keyboard. it just sounds real off. If you like Blastfighter and Commando, check this out for butt-kicking & laughs! it starts a lil' slow, but is all action for the last half of the movie. I got this the same day I got the dubbed version of Zu (Warriors from...), which I would recommend about 200 times more, but for certain occasions, this stuff rocks!

Ok, if you're going to pick a Cirio H. Santiago movie to watch, this should be it. Granted, the acting is weak and the plot needs some work, but you'll guaranteed to laugh at the amazing one liners occasionally spouted off. The movie is quite entertaining and it definately teaches everyone to beware of those hard-core, ruthless, killing marijuana growers. In Devastator, they are a force to be reckoned with.

The recently deceased Cirio H. Santiago was a prolific director who usually worked with low budgets and made some enjoyable B-movies. "The Destroyers" AKA "The Devastator", however, is one of his dullest films. Not that it lacks action - in fact quite the opposite: it is almost non-stop action, with the "talking parts" largely shortened or eliminated (example: a girl, who thought the hero was dead, suddenly sees him in the front door of her house; before they exchange a single word, the next scene shows them in bed together!). The action, though, is totally mindless - not just because four men, even with military experience, go up against about a hundred, but because it is never explained how a drug dealer operating in a small town is able to assemble a hundred men and so much hardware. Rich Hill, of "Deathstalker" fame, doesn't show much personality an a lead; the sweet Katt Shea does, but her part is largely thankless. * out of 4.

A vietnam vet searches for what happened to his old buddy and investigates a town controlled by pot growers. He's attacked and fakes his own death so he can recruit a team of commandoes to take down the bad guys with lots of firepower.

The wooden and lame lead has no charisma but it wouldn't matter who you had in this bland movie with perfunctory everything. Endless streams of bad guys rush the heroes and get shot. Grenades thrown, tiny explosions, rinse repeat. Just about the only bright spot is Ox, who's insane and his introduction is hilariously terrible. Street fighting an old man in his underwear, he gets caught cheating, runs away while his pants fall down and he says "you really saved my a$$ there" with a bare butt sticking out a window. If that's the best part of the movie, you know you're not getting anything great.