Post by ronnierocketago on Jul 28, 2009 3:17:02 GMT
MANIAC COP 2 (1990) - ***
On the same day I watched MANIAC COP on Netflix Instant, I was prowling late night cable television and son of a bitch, MANIAC COP 2 was on. Has something similar ever happened to you? I'm sure a few of you have gone through such a weird evening. Some dismiss this as mere coincidence, but I know better. God put me on Earth, and MANIAC COP 2 on TV at that precise moment, so I could watch it and then review this for all of mankind. I'm on a mission from God, BLUE BROTHERS freestyle. It will bring about peace in the Middle East, cure cancer, help the Pittsburgh Pirates become contenders again, and we finally get a good movie adapted from a video game. Just wait, you'll see. If MANIAC COP 3 had also been on too, I would have delivered the Rapture as well. That is Michael Bay's gig.
MANIAC COP 2 opens by replaying MANIAC COP's climax and ending, and I hate when movies do this. It's a cheap gimmick, done by producers to save some bucks, and that to my knowledge never works. Maybe BACK TO THE FUTURE PART III or HALLOWEEN II, but come on really they're not exactly your strongest vouchers for that narrative device. Anyway, just know that jailed-murdered-crazy murdering supercop William Cordell survived being run through by a steel beam and plunging his car into a river. And numerous bullet shots, severe untreated years-old shiv wounds, gangrene, Bruce Campbell...
Like the first picture, MANIAC COP 2 is directed by William Lustig, and produced/scripted by his buddy, B-filmmaking legend Larry Cohen. The sequel doesn't contain all the inspired smart scenes or nuanced themes like the original, but more a typical monster/slasher picture. Which was what most of the first COP was anyway, and I only write that because I kinda enjoyed this too. Sorry. Also first COP survivors Campbell and Laurene Landon return briefly to fulfill the genre tradition. Campbell's exit is funny, where he buys a newspaper from a stand, headline is his exoneration for the Maniac Cop murders. He is finally relieved, relexed, and then...look, I won't spoil.
The plotting is run of the mill (shit it maybe even owns the mill), but you should watch MANIAC COP 2 for the small charming slick moments, which as I've whined over in my COP review, are slightly more than most slasher filmmakers ever bother. Take the convenient store robbery, where the poor hood finds out there is no money in the register. So instead, at gunpoint he forces the clerk to scratch lottery tickets for him. This is the first and only instance I know of such a unique twist to such a cliche scene. Or the talented Clarence Williams III appearing as a convict who is so estatic to escape the precinct jail with help from Mr. Cop and not be sent to Sing Sing, and that hilarious look on his face when he finds out that is where the Maniac Cop wants to go.
Also one sequence, a guy is shot out the window. For a moment you think its Mr. Cop, but instead its revealed to be the Fedora-wearing supercop Robet Davi. He's always been an underrated actor who unfortunately is probably still best known as the exploding FBI agent in DIE HARD. But with Davi in COP 2, I must say he comes off as badass without having to do anything but wear the hat. It's never mentioned, but Davi I assume is meant to represent the same sort of fuck-the-rules-if-they-get-in-the-way-of-crimebusting copper that Cordell was once upon a time. The same sort of fellow, with a police psychologist (Claudia Christian), who must find a way to stop his seemingly superior but not dead alter-ego.
I get a good humor kick out of these movies is how throughout, they're very insistent that Mr. Maniac Cop aint a zombie despite the evidence, but only a brain damaged bastard who also is an almost impossible bastard to kill. I also laugh at how in the first MANIAC, he's got some scars but otherwise looking good for someone who can't take care of themselves or their cuts for over 2 years. Then the sequel takes place a few days later, and suddenly Mr. Cordell's skincare has gone to hell, now looking like a bonafide zombie. Sheesh New York City's waterways can't be that polluted. OK they are, but I think MANIAC COP 2 gives that H20 population a bad name.
Also, I don't think he is that mindless. Remember, he put alot of thought and effort into framing Campbell, and his entrance in COP 2 is great. Then in COP 2 when he arrives at the convenience store, takes the crook's gun, blasts away the clerk but not the hood. In fact he gives it back and walks away, and we wonder why...then the real cops arrive, see the scene and blast the dude away. His consolation prize though was winning $5,000 on one of those ticket. Though imagine if he had escaped and tried to claim the money. Could the state lottery deny a wanted murderer? I don't think New York State Lottery has a rule prohibit having someone scratch for you, then kill and take credit. They should though.
The story (yes there is one) with MANIAC COP 2 is that the Maniac Cop teams up with a schitzoid hooker-preying serial killer (Leo Rossi). Apparently Lustig initially had planned to cast MANIAC slasher Joe Spinell as the murderer, thus an unofficial MANIAC / MANIAC COP crossover, and that would have been fun. But Spinell had to be a dick and die, so oh well. Rossi seems to admire this Maniac Cop for alot fo the same reasons I noted in my first review: Kills randomly, mostly anyone that gets in his way, unstoppable, not immediately noticed because of his police uniform, etc. There is a funny scene when the killer invites the Cop to his rattrap apartment and invites him to sit down and talk. Of course the Cop is a mute brute (save for one word) and Rossi goes: "It's ok, I'm used to talking to myself."[/i]
Now remember THE TERMINATOR, especially that bloody massacre by Schwarzenegger at the police station? Well imagine Lustig/Cohen upping the ante, or trying at least. I saw part of this scene as a kid, and I thought it was odd how this wasn't as fucking violent or over-the-top as I remembered it. Then I find out it was originally, but the MPAA had it cut down and that uncensored sequence was used instead in MANIAC COP 3. Still, you have to love the beginning, and how the dude just walks through the walls and windows without bothering with grace.
MANIAC COP 2, much like #1, is stupid, rather ordinary and cliche in the storytelling dynamics, and more cheesy than ever scary. And I loved it, to a distance. At times I was fully into this hyperbolic excursion ahead of a ridiculous as hell concept, but overall I'm still left with the impression that while I'm somewhat content with what I have, I wanted more. Consider how the Maniac Cop disposes of Rossi at Sing Sing. Since Mr. Cop was on fire, he touches Rossi and sets him ablaze. Then he football tackles him through the cement brick wall, where they crash onto a prison bus. Which then explodes, a very nice bright orange fireball. That's what four times he killed the guy? Jesus, talk about fucking overkill. I mean you agree, don't ya Jesus? Even you think you got off easy by contrast.
Or the ending. Davi figures out that after all this time what Cordell wants exactly (somehow) is for his arrest to be re-examined and overturned, and apprehend the city officials/dirty cops who framed the dude in the first place. Get his honor back, deserving of his record, and he'll finally die. And he does. I appreciate filmmakers who want you the audience to have to deal with the fact that this crazy psychopath, who murdered dozens (at least) of innocent people for no logical good reason at all and without remorse, gets buried with full honors out of convenience than necessarily out of merit.
Compare that most recent Hollywood horror, especially those remakes from Bay's Platinum Dunes production company (i.e. FRIDAY THE 13TH) and you might understand why I tolerate and sorta admire MANIAC COP and COP 2 for what they are, and what they accomplish. But don't watch COP 2 unless you enjoy COP 1. And that's an order. I also won't file charges if you actually dig COP 2 more. Though bad bad Cordell was what Ice-T was rapping about: