|
|
 |
|
Review
by
Brian Lindsey
|
 |
|
6
|
|
 |
|
7 |
|
10
= Highest Rating |
|
|
In
the DVD's audio commentary (see below) director William Lustig
calls his
action/horror thriller Maniac Cop
a "tight little B-movie".
While Lustig isn't exactly in a position to offer an unbiased
assessment, the description couldn't be more apt.
In
New York City a tall, silent man in a police uniform launches
a reign of terror, slaughtering innocent people seemingly at
random. NYPD bigwigs Commissioner Pike (Shaft's
Richard Roundtree) and Captain Ripley (William Smith of Fast
Company) are convinced that the murderer is impersonating
a cop to disparage the force. The lead detective on the case,
Lt. McCrae (Night of the Creeps'
Tom Atkins), isn't so sure —
he has a hunch that the killer could indeed be a police officer
gone psycho. Either way, the higher-ups want the perp caught
or killed ASAP. With the body count rising, citizens begin to
fear the police... Who's going to call a cop when the flatfoot
responding may cut your throat rather than serve and protect?
With pressure mounting
to solve the case, Pike and Ripley finally start listening to
McCrae's theories. A convenient suspect is found in a young
patrolman, Officer Jack Forrest (Bubba
Ho-Tep's Bruce Campbell), when his wife's mutilated body
turns up in a cheap motel room —
a room that he paid for. If he'd mangle his old lady like that,
why couldn't he be the "Maniac Cop" as well? Of course
Jack isn't the killer (he's Bruce Campbell, for pete's
sake!); the motel room was for a rendezvous with Theresa Malloy
(plucky Laurene Landon), a fellow police officer he'd rather
not see dragged into the inquiry. After Jack is arrested and
thrown in jail, Lt. McCrae begins to realize that he's telling
the truth. Jack's mistress, a respected cop, backs up his story.
Obviously, someone with knowledge of their adulterous affair
is trying to set him up.
So it's not Jack, but the killer is
a cop —
or rather, was a cop. He's supposedly dead, having been
murdered in prison after being sent up the river for using excessive
force. Officer Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar) was a legendary supercop
in the Dirty Harry mold, who stepped on too many prominent toes
at city hall. His death in prison at the hands of shiv-wielding
inmates conveniently got him out of the headlines, permanently.
But Cordell isn't dead... He's undead. (Or something to that
effect.) Filled with blind rage, the hulking lunatic has once
again donned police blue to clean up the streets with extreme
prejudice. And to him, everyone is guilty.
Lean and fast-paced, Maniac Cop
doesn't try to be anything more than an entertaining action
pic with horror elements —
there isn't a pretentious bone in its cinematic body. It thankfully
avoids the temptation to bite off more than it can chew. Lustig
(1980's Maniac) makes
maximum use of his small budget, relying on a top-drawer cast
of B-movie veterans to sell writer Larry Cohen's quirky if derivative
script. (Cordell's attack on the police station, which kicks
off the action-packed third act, is an obvious riff on the original
Terminator even though the villain
uses brute force rather than firearms to wreak murder and mayhem.)
He also does a fine job of camouflaging Los Angeles locations
standing in for New York; I was surprised to learn that only
four days of shooting actually took place in the Big Apple.
(I never noticed the palm trees in the background of one scene
until Cohen pointed them out in the commentary.) The stalking/murder
scenes are well-executed and Ludwig demonstrates real flair
as an action director —
it can't be easy to render simple and inexpensive vehicle chases
in an exciting manner (lacking multiple rolls and pipe ramp
aerobatics, lots of explosions, etc.), but he pulls it off.
The films chugs along so well that you don't bother to think
about the gaping plot holes, chiefly those involving the nature
of our titular monster.
Just how did Cordell come back from the dead, immune
to bullets and possessing superhuman strength? The script indicates
that he's not actually the walking dead at all, what with the
prison doctor (Erik Holland) later confessing that Cordell was
still alive when he falsified the death certificate... But the
Maniac Cop is clearly some kind of zombie. Not the slightest
reference is made, not even in passing, as to what could've
reanimated him. Nonetheless, the imposing, granite-jawed Z'Dar
(Samurai Cop) made
enough of an impression in the role to return for two sequels,
1990's Maniac Cop 2 and Maniac
Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993).
|
|
|
Previously
released on DVD by Elite Entertainment, Maniac
Cop returns to the medium in this new and improved edition
from Synapse Films. Aside from a light sheen of grain the 1.85:1
anamorphic transfer is practically pristine, looking exceptionally
good. (Details in the numerous nighttime scenes — often obscured
in VHS editions and cable TV airings — are no longer lost in the
gloom.) The terrific visuals are fully complemented with a choice
of audio options, including newly-engineered 5.1 Surround and
6.1 DTS sound mixes; the original Dolby 2.0 stereo is also on
hand for traditionalists. (Yours truly isn't equipped for DTS
but I can attest to the excellence of the 5.1 track.)
The
disc's main bonus feature,
the aforementioned audio commentary with director William Lustig,
appears to have been ported over from the long out-of-print Elite
DVD. (Because the term "laserdisc" is used by the participants,
the track may have originally been intended for a laserdisc version
that may or may not have been released — I have no idea if this
is indeed the case.) Joining Lustig in the discussion are Cohen,
Campbell and Maniac Cop's score composer
Jay Chattaway. They examine the film from the main angles of production,
with each of the participants weighing in on their respective
contributions in addition to discussing various cast members,
union problems, special effects, stunt work, and the like. Cohen,
Lustig and Campbell make for a lively troika (Chattaway stays
relatively quiet throughout); there's very little dead air here.
This commentary track may be 10 years old but if you're interested
enough to buy or rent the DVD then it's well worth a listen.
Beyond
the commentary the disc offers
three theatrical trailers (one of them French), two U.S. TV spots
and a Spanish-language radio spot. A reel of additional footage
shot for Japanese TV features a character and subplot (the city's
mayor) which add nothing to the story and were thankfully not
incorporated into the film's digital presentation. Finally, a
12-minute featurette sits down with actor Robert Z'Dar for a recently-conducted
interview. He sketches out the beginnings of his career and subsequent
participation in Maniac Cop, with
some interesting anecdotes about the production and fellow cast
members.
12/05/06 |
HOME
| REVIEWS
| TOP
|
