Maniac Cop
Special Edition
You have the right to remain silent... forever!
Restored and re-mastered from original vault materials, Maniac Cop will blow you away with an all-new high-definition transfer and DTS surround sound! Bruce (The Evil Dead Trilogy) Campbell and Tom (Lethal Weapon) Atkins star in this action-packed cult classic!
Innocent people are brutally killed on the streets of New York by a uniformed police officer. A young cop, Jack Forrest (played by Bruce Campbell), finds himself marked as the chief suspect after his wife is murdered. As Lieutenant Frank McCrae (Tom Atkins) investigates these mysterious killings, the death toll rises and he suspects a mysterious police cover-up. This "maniac" cop must be stopped, but it might not be so easy! He isn’t an ordinary man. He’s inhuman... driven by supernatural forces... and ready to take on the entire police force, hell-bent on revenge!
Member Reviews
Not really horror, not much of a mystery, just plain bad. - Superdave
The plot is familiar one: normal dude becomes a murder suspect while the 'real killer' is still out there. He has to solve the crime and clear his name. It was an effective story device in the hands of a master like Hitchcock, but here it's just hackneyed and obvious. The real killer turns out to be one of those 80's style near-invincible slashers and a cop, a fact that other in his department are covering up. This is all made clear to the audience early on, leaving little further mystery to be solved, while most of the movie's running time gets taken up by bad 80s chase action and bad cop 80s dialogue.
This was the sort of movie sold as 'horror' back during the heyday of 'slasher' movies, but really it isn't. It has the plot of a mystery thriller, but with a little extra splatter to make up for its weaknesses as either a mystery or thriller. This is poor compensation. There is no strong atmosphere of threat here, an absolute requirement of any thriller, and little in the way of originality or cleverness in the narrative. If you can see events coming twenty minutes ahead, how effective a mystery are you seeing? Exactly. The main baddie, hulking Robert Zdar of Tango and Cash, makes a strong visual impact in the title role, but beyond him there is really very little here that we have not already seen way too many times.Average slasher movie from the late '80s - Coconut_Willy
If you like the genre, this is fairly entertaining. The movie gets into the action from the start and although the pace does somewhat slow down in the middle, it remains interesting until the end. The storyline is good enough and is developed in a very classic slasher way. Mind you, there are a few unbelievable aspects to this story but overall, it is well written. The cast is comprised of fairly familiar faces doing the required acting job with an average dialogue. The sets and locations are appropriate as well as the soundtrack and the camera work. Most of the stunts and action scenes are very well made which makes this film fairly enjoyable.
The transfer to DVD is of good quality and the extras featuring Robert Z'dar talking about the film are pretty good. Nothing particularily interesting here but if you like the style, you will most likely enjoy this one.Bad version, stay away - LouPaloma
I rented this becuase I had heard about an amusing Bruce Campbell audio commentary, but no such thing was present, leaving only the original, subpar slasher. The disc is so sparse that the menus appear to be a factory default with no maniac Cop tailoring that were left in to save time and money. Without the commentary track the movie really isn't worth watching
Member Reviews
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Not really horror, not much of a mystery, just plain bad. - Superdave
The plot is familiar one: normal dude becomes a murder suspect while the 'real killer' is still out there. He has to solve the crime and clear his name. It was an effective story device in the hands of a master like Hitchcock, but here it's just hackneyed ...Average slasher movie from the late '80s - Coconut_Willy
If you like the genre, this is fairly entertaining. The movie gets into the action from the start and although the pace does somewhat slow down in the middle, it remains interesting until the end. The storyline is good enough and is developed in a very classic ...Bad version, stay away - LouPaloma
I rented this becuase I had heard about an amusing Bruce Campbell audio commentary, but no such thing was present, leaving only the original, subpar slasher. The disc is so sparse that the menus appear to be a factory default with no maniac Cop tailoring ...