Maniac Cop (1988) · 3:16am Jul 25th, 2016
Do you think that Rainbow Dash has a lot of fines for going to fast or entering no fly zones? I don't mean the hole in the front of your pants. Ponies don't really wear a lot of clothing anyway.
But this brings up a point, how do ponies handle such matters? I know speeding tickets are a viable source of revenue for cities, counties and heck states. You can always tell when one of them is worried about not making their quota when the speed traps pop up in areas you wouldn't expect
Like yesterday I was minding my own business and there's a knock on my window. I look up and see a police officer. I of course greet him as courteously as I could given the situation. He then asks me the standard line, "Sir do you know how fast you were going?"
Then I'm like, "Well, I ate two week old bean burritos from Taco Bell. So, pretty fast. By the way would you mind stepping away from my bathroom window? I kind of like privacy here."
I'm telling you, if this keeps up I'm going to have to stop rummaging through dumpsters looking for the best slightly used fast food in town. People are getting weird these days.
Speaking of run-ins with the law it looks like an all star B movie cast got together in 1988 and said, "You know the type of slasher film I haven't seen yet? One with law enforcement!" Enter Maniac Cop, a film from director William Lustig of Maniac fame and writer Larry Cohen who will always be remembered for It's Alive. In this one you have the right to remain silent... forever.
In this one we have a crazy guy in a cop uniform killing random people on the streets of New York. Frank McCrae (Tom Atkins) heads up the investigation hoping to stop the killer before he does it again. This killer though is a little smarter than your typical hulking brute with a large blade and instead tries to frame patrolman Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell) for the murders. Meanwhile the mayor is looking to work a cover up angle.
Things go awry though and we end up with a car chase and a slew of cameos and bit parts from people like Sam Rami, Richard Roundtree, William Smith and Lou Banacki. All in all not the worst way to kill 88 minutes.
The stats: 20 dead bodies, 0 breasts, 1 soon to be "undead" butt, neck snapping, throat slicing, suffocation by cement, gun fu, car chase fu, parade fu, gratuitous lightning.
Shout outs:
Tom Atkins as Frank McCrae who wants to solve the crime and early on laments over one of the victims, "You must have been so afraid Cassie."
Bruce Campbell as Jack Forrest the cheating patrolman who during a talk with his wife says, "Why couldn't you tell the doctor, 'I'm affraid.'
William Smith as Captain Ripley who is the the hard ass who upon arresting Forrest asks, "You wanna see the pretty pictures," of the most recent victim.
Richard Roundtree as Commissioner Pike for still being one bad mother ....
Laruene Landon as Theresa Mallory for rocking 80's hooker hair and screaming pretty well.
Rober Z'dar as Matt Cordell for being a big dude and whose butt I never need to see again thank you very much.
4111385 Well, the good thing about getting older is that you get to watch whatever it is you want now. I suppose it does take away the nervous part of doing something you're told not to do though.
4113063 This is true.
But Maniac cop 2 is much much much better.
Best scene
:
Nr3 however was disaster, which William Lustig left shortly after filming started. Manny people wanted 4th one, but with state of things nr3 left us only logical choice was remake. Well, there was some talks about posible preqel, but not anymore.
Remake is on its way, William Lustig is producent, directed by John Hyams, filming (and probably also movie will take place) in Los Angeles. Here is evidence, if you sceptical:
4315353 It almost feels like they reset their priorities with the second one. It had a better film stock that worked with shadows and such a bit better. I think one of the big differences is that the first feels more like it's trying to straddle the line between slasher flick and police procedural while the second one is a bit more in the straight up slasher/thriller category.