I have a confession to make. I love Jennifer Coolidge. No other actress can play as goofy and balls to the wall crazy as she can (See "Yo Stink" below.) That being said, even she--and the beautiful backdrop of the City of Austin--could not save ExTerminators.
Marking the feature film directing debut of Scrubs veteran John Inwood, ExTerminators is about three women who meet in anger management and accidentally kill a pal's abusive asshole husband. When word spreads that they will bump off shitty husbands, boyfriends, and exes, a pest control business turns to bigger and harder to kill animals. It sounds like an episode of that A&E TV show, don't it? Too bad there aren't any crazy mullets, though.
Starring Heather Graham in the final nail on the coffin of her once promising film career, ExTerminators is a film that could have been good instead of lukewarm (or as Greg put it "a streaming pile of feces spraying in my face.") It could have played up the dark humor a la Heathers and actually show the audience how these ladies plot their murders, but the flick makes The First Wives Club feel downright dark and heavy, and that film is as light and fluffy as they come. Maybe angry women would love this film, but honestly I'm tired of seeing women portrayed as either victims or angry crazy ladies plotting revenge. C'mon, folks, not all women are defined by men--shitty or no.
Graham doesn't do much besides wear glasses that make George Burns roll over in his grave, and even Coolidge is restrained, which is a damn shame. Local actress Amber Heard (Pineapple Express) reads like a film student as the angry pyro of the bunch. She became so distracting with her bad black wig, fading fake tattoo, and non-believable smoking. This sounds incredibly trivial, I know, but it becomes difficult to even focus on anything else when I can't even believe your character is actually smoking.
Sam Lloyd (sad, sad, Ted on Scrubs) doesn't add anything to the film either. All in all, Austin upstaged the three leading ladies, and it's perhaps for the best. Coolidge, better luck next time.
--Darcie Duttweiler
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