Mankillers

Director - David A. Prior (Killer Workout, Deadly Prey)
Starring - Edd Byrnes (Grease, Troop Beverly Hills), Gail Fisher (Knight Rider, My Three Sons), and Edy Williams (Dr. Alien, Hellhole)
Release Date - 1987
Genre - Action/Adventure
Tagline - "They're beautiful...they're deadly...they're on a rampage"
Format - Bluray (Personal Collection) (Screener)

Rating (out of 5):

     I have seen so many great movies this month along with several duds.  After watching the French thriller Fever I decided to mix it up a bit and moved into my bluray section of my collection and went with the female action adventure film Mankillers from director David A. Prior.  Prior is no stranger to my reviews.  He is the man behind the slasher Killer Workout and the Rambo rip offs Deadly Prey and Deadliest Prey.  Mankillers, along with the other three Prior films, were released on DVD and bluray from Slasher//Video and Olive Films.  Killer Workout was a decent slasher but easily forgettable while Deadly Prey was a very entertaining action film.  The follow up, Deadliest Prey, was not that enjoyable and was just a rehashing of the first film set decades later.  I was curious to see how Mankillers played out.  Thanks Olive Films for sending this one my way!

     The film follows a former CIA agent who is brought back into the organization to train an all female squad of prison inmates to bring down her former partner who left her for dead.  He has went AWOL and is now building a sizable drug cartel under his name with his CIA know how and ruthless slaughter of those that get in his way.  She must stop him before he can murder more innocent people and get a little payback along the way with her female hit squad.

 
     I absolutely loved Deadly Prey and how it almost felt like a parody of Rambo.  I didn't think Prior would be able to top the carnage and ass kickery of that film.  Mankillers was close but fell just a little short.  The film had the same style and imagery, with a better looking cast, but lacks the fun that Deadly Prey offered.  The acting is standard 80s b-movie acting.  The cast is clearly there for a paycheck and not to win awards.  No one is really convincing but they do look and act like almost every other 80s action film.  It's bad but I enjoyed it in that aspect.  The story for this one is nothing new.  In fact, it borrows from several movies of the time.  By the late 80s most of the action films were centered around drugs in one way or another so there is nothing new in that aspect.  An all female military squad is, once again, not that original.  The two combining does make it feel different but you have seen a movie like this one before especially by 1987.  Finally, the film has several on screen kills but they are the type of kills that you would expect from an action film.  Most of the kills are from people jumping around pretending to be shot or injured by grenades.  If you look closely you will not find any blood or gore until later shots.  Overall, Mankillers is a campy all female action film that looks good but is very flawed.  If you like 80s action then this one should be a staple in your collection.  Check it out.