The Devastator (1986) User Reviews

No-frills action fun!

[tarbosh22000 · 5/10 · 19 July 2010]

One of the best things about The Devastator is that it is no-nonsense, no-frills action fun that packs a good punch at 79 minutes.

Deacon "Deke" Porter (Hill) is a Vietnam Vet, who heads into the sleepy little town of King's Ransom, California. He's there to investigate the death of his 'Nam buddy Marcus Dearing. Unfortunately, the town is run by a coterie of redneck pot growers, the ringleader being the nefarious John Carey (Hardesterm). They even have Sheriff Clay Marsh (Kaz Garas) in their pocket. They don't cotton to outsiders, so when Deke comes sniffing around their turf, a war ensues. Luckily, Deke has an ace in the hole: his old army buddies Spence (the electronics expert) and Ox (The goofy, loud punchfighter) (Daniels) to help him out.

Who will be victorious? The smarmy bastard John Carey or will the mighty hero Ox reign supreme? Hill as Deke is bit bland to be an action hero and he has an unflattering overbite. This doesn't stop him from being a slickster with the ladies and wearing his Member's Only jacket while sitting on a chair backwards so he can "rap" with people. Thankfully Jack S. Daniels (great name) is an American treasure to be discovered again and again! We need more men like him in the movies and in real life.

While most films of this era were concentrating on evil cocaine-related baddies, The Devastator goes the opposite direction and shows evil pot growers. John Carey is a hilarious name for the main villain. When they say his name in the film, you think of the failed presidential candidate windsurfing, and throwing HIS Vietnam medals over a fence. Where are the Swift Boat Veterans For Truth when you need them? Directed by prolific fan-favorite Cirio (we are on a first name basis), this bears a similarity to the classic Final Mission (1984), it even has the same gratuitous fan-favorite death, decapitation. One of the strongest aspects of the movie is that it has a double-revenge plot. Deke has to get revenge for his fallen buddy and for himself.

In the U.S., The Devastator was released on VHS in one of those great MGM\UA big boxes. You gotta love 'em. If you don't like VHS big boxes, you are a traitor to our great country.

Ox it up tonight with this classic! For more insanity, please visit comeuppancereviews.com

This is 80's "Warsploitation" at its cheesiest

[kclipper · 6/10 · 2 May 2011]

If you are reading this review, then that means you either found "The Devastator" in someone's old VHS collection still in the giant plastic collectible rental box (faded sticker that still says: "Be Kind, Rewind"), or you remember seeing it back in the 80's when action-adventure cheese was in it's prime and you want to reminisce. Either way, this lost action misfire never saw the light of day for all the same reasons that many other low-grade rip-offs of Missing In Action, Rambo First Blood II, and Southern Comfort never did. But there was something peculiarly fun about the stereotypical macho war-buddy mentality that found its way into thousands of video rental shelves in the 1980s.. This one ended up in the grocery store VHS rental section or even the local seven/eleven, and it fits prominently into a category I like to refer to as "Warsploitation". This has every characteristic of the typical 80s cheesy warsploitation flick; The bad acting, forced profanity, macho lame one-liners, guns, explosives, crazed Vietnam vets, drugs, nudity, and starring names like Richard Hill.

The story isn't much to get into. War buddies get together to avenge the death of a fallen comrade, and along the way stop a greedy tyrant that is controlling a small Northern California town by the marijuana farming industry. The bullets and bodies fly (as well as the bad voice overdubs), so fans of mindless violence will be pleased. Don't expect much on the special effects side, since a budget is almost non-existent here, except that which went towards destruction.. Highlights include: The antics of a poorly portrayed maniac named Ox, who burns down the pot field all the while screaming and inhaling the smoke, the hero of the films dramatic climax and all of its ridiculous glory (and toy helicopter explosions). This will be remembered by the few and the proud.

This kills 78 minutes in an agreeable manner.

[Hey_Sweden · 5/10 · 28 November 2020]

1980s B movie stud Rick Hill ("Deathstalker") plays Deacon Porter, a Vietnam veteran suffering from nightmares. He goes to the small town of Kings' Ransom to investigate the death of his former C.O., and finds that he will be up against an army of evil marijuana growers. To combat them, he will assemble the members of his old squad: Spencer (Terrence O'Hara, "Naked Vengeance"), Bartlett (Bill McLaughlin, "Silk"), and Ox (Jack S. Daniels, "Wheels of Fire"). The main bad guy is a cocky creep named Carey, played by Crofton Hardester ("Android"), and the leading lady, Audrey (Katt Shea, "Psycho III"), works at the local service station.

"The Devastator" is the kind of undemanding cheesy B you watch if you just want to relax and give your brain a rest. Awash in cliches, it has a very silly script (by Joseph Zucchero) complete with the kind of lines the viewer will doubtless have heard before. (For one thing, the morally compromised Sheriff (Kaz Garas, "Ben") has little patience for anybody he deems to be an outsider.) Director Cirio Santiago here takes a bit of a break from the slew of post-nuke flicks he also made during the 1980s, crafting some very fast-moving nonsense. Its frequent action scenes are not exactly that slick, but they're certain to amuse the audience regardless. In any event, it's hard to completely knock a movie that often exists mainly for the purpose of blowing stuff up. The music is so awful it's downright hilarious; it doesn't sound composed so much as improvised on the spot. The acting is suitable for this genre: Hill is a decent enough hero, and Hardester is a hoot as the kind of unflappable bad guy who sticks a flower in a gun barrel when Shea tries to intimidate him. She's very sexy and enticing, and went on to a solid filmmaking career of her own, directing things like "Dance of the Damned", "Streets", "Poison Ivy", and "The Rage: Carrie 2". Tough guy Daniels' goofy performance is so utterly cheese-ball that it's priceless.

Good fun, provided one is partial to this sort of thing in the first place.

Five out of 10.

A devastating blast of fun

[sirnas · 9 March 2001]

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.

Action-packed but mindless and dull

[gridoon2024 · 3/10 · 21 May 2009]

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.

Pretty bland

[jellopuke · 3/10 · 28 September 2023]

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.

pretty rockin funny stuff

[BWozniak · 7/10 · 7 May 2003]

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!

Forget the DEA......Deathstalker's on the case!!!

[HaemovoreRex · 6/10 · 1 November 2007]

Yes, Deathstalker himself, Rick Hill headlines in this mildly enjoyable OTT action affair brought to us by the ever dependable Cirio H. Santiago.

The 'plot' concerns a bunch of particularly hostile and overly protective weed growers who don't take kindly when our hero turns up in town and starts to interfere with their horticultural plans. Yep, somewhat predictably from here on it's gun fire and explosions galore as our boy gets together some of his old Nam buddies and starts up a miniature war against the miscreants.

Whilst far from Santiago's best effort in the genre this nonetheless serves as a fairly enjoyable affair throughout with some pretty cool action scenes including one where Hill does a spot of truck hopping and the finale wherein our man leaps bravely onto a helicopter, hurls in a grenade and finally drops about 80 feet into the lake below(!) What a man!

Typical revenge pic

[lor_ · 16 March 2023]

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.