Diagonaldi Very well executed

Pacionsbo Absolutely Fantastic

Breakinger A Brilliant Conflict

Teddie Blake The movie turns out to be a little better than the average. Starting from a romantic formula often seen in the cinema, it ends in the most predictable (and somewhat bland) way.

Harhaluulo54 My mission to watch 30 horror movies from the 80's continues with Maniac Cop (1988). This content lacking and bland mess reminds me of the violent far-left anarchism and hate group BLM.I am not exactly sure how this movie became a horror classic. Often people refer to it with the words "guilty" and "pleasure". I didn't experience any enjoyment nor pleasure and the only thing guilty in this movie were the cops. The best part of the movie is clearly the catchy title 'Maniac Cop', but otherwise this is so unmemorable and dull watch that I couldn't have finished it without multitasking. Most of the time it didn't feel like anyone even tried. All in all the movie was so bland I don't even have much to say about it. 3.50/10.

tomgillespie2002 William Lustig's Maniac Cop plays like a B-movie fan's wet dream. It has Lustig - director of the wonderfully grim Maniac (1980) - at the helm, and Larry Cohen, legendary writer/director of such gems as It's Alive (1974), Q: The Winged Serpent (1982) and The Stuff (1985), on scriptwriting duties. In front of the camera it has Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, William Smith, Richard Roundtree and Robert Z'Dar - all together in the same movie! I almost feel like I should complain that Michael Moriarty wasn't invited to join the cast. Due to the stellar talent involved, I feel like Maniac Cop is almost a let-down. Contrivances and bad writing can usually be forgiven in movies like this, but it's difficult not to expect that little bit more. Still, this doesn't stop the film from being a great deal of fun.When a man dressed as a police officer breaks the neck of a woman fleeing from rapists, investigating police lieutenant McCrae (Atkins) is told to keep eye-witness accounts of a cop committing the act hush-hush. This prompts McCrae to leak the information to a journalist, only for a media frenzy to cause the public to turn on genuine police officers trying to uphold the law. A woman suspects her husband Jack Forrest (Campbell) to be the killer, and when she is murdered moments after witnessing him in bed with another woman, Jack is arrested as the prime suspect. McCrae, however, believes Jack to be innocent and digs deeper into the story of a hero cop long believed to be dead.Too much just doesn't add up in Maniac Cop. Like Jason in the Friday the 13th franchise, the Maniac Cop has superhuman strength and a sense of invincibility. Where Jason can be chalked down to some sort of supernatural influence, no explanation is giving here, failing to fit in with the back-story provided for the killer. The scenes of police procedural - something Cohen is normally very accomplished at writing - are muddled, with Jack still being held even after McCrae and Jack's lover and fellow cop Theresa (Laurene Landon) are attacked by the Maniac Cop while Jack is held in custody, and any real female police officers will no doubt be offended to Theresa's wailing reaction while being threatened.I could carry on bashing the film, but I won't, as I actually had a pretty good time watching it. Like most movies with Cohen involved, Maniac Cop is very funny. Campbell is effortlessly hilarious, even in a relatively straight role, and the script is witty when it's not taking liberties with the plot. Lustig, who went on to direct two sequels, also provides some decently staged action scenes. The film is also surprisingly brutal in it's violence and gore, so gore- hounds will not doubt finish the film feeling satisfied. And it's due to these positives that I cannot be too harsh on Maniac Cop, as even though it's little more than a decent slasher flick, I certainly kept me entertained.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

gwnightscream Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell and Robert Z'Dar star in this 1988 horror film. This takes place in New York and begins with a woman getting murdered by a mysterious killer (Z'Dar) dressed as a police officer. Soon, the killer stalks the streets and wipes out more innocent people. Atkins (Halloween III: Season of the Witch, Night of the Creeps) plays Police Lieutenant, Frank McCrae who investigates and suspects that the killer is a real cop. Campbell (Evil Dead Trilogy) plays cop, Jack Forrest who becomes the main suspect after his wife is murdered. Frank discovers that the maniac cop is Matt Cordell, a former cop who was badly scarred while in prison for brutality and is out for vengeance. Frank helps Jack clear his name and try to stop Matt from killing more people. This is a pretty good 80's flick, Tom & Bruce are great as usual, Robert is creepy and Jay Chattaway's score is chilling. I recommend this.

breakdownthatfilm-blogspot-com The decade of the 1980s was filled with production companies that made attempts to knock off or even originally make their own horror franchise that revolved around a nortiously iconic slasher villain. Most audiences at least by the late 80s had witnessed several villains in the vein of some type of knife wielding psychopath who kills innocent people. It was "the in" thing and audiences just couldn't get enough of their blood, thus the genre was began to become overused. However, there were films that tried to give a more distinctive edge in their slasher villains. The original Child's Play (1988) was one of them. It's curious though to why people seem to forget this piece by director William Lustig who also directed his more well known piece, Maniac (1980). Lustig sure seems to have a liking to the word "maniac" in his film titles.Maniac Cop (1988) is another one of those slasher knock-off films that borrows familiar concepts from previous famous slasher franchises, and then adds a little of its own originality to it. For most, as long as it doesn't completely rip off a franchise entirely or blatantly, it's fairly acceptable. Not original, but acceptable to a point. This is what Lustig does here as a final product, although I'm not sure if that was his intent. When a suspect only described as a police officer of the local force murders random citizens, people begin to panic. Of course, why shouldn't they? The police are supposed to protect not randomly slaughter. The writer behind the story is Larry Cohen, better known for writing Joel Schumacher's Phone Booth (2002). The elements that Cohen takes are the invincibility and the silent nature of the maniac cop; which resembles that of Michael Myers from Halloween (1978). Other than that, the idea is original.However, this is also the weakpoint of the story. How on earth does this character survive so many fatal injuries? At least for Michael Myers, it was at least described as if Myers was possessed by a demon, but here, nothing's given. Then again, the plot plays out like a crime mystery, which helps pull in its audience instead of just continuing to show mindless killing. There are also numerous cult celebrities like Tom Atkins as a tough detective (like many other roles he's played), Bruce Campbell, William Smith, Richard Roundtree (who all play cops) and even Sam Raimi has a brief cameo. All of which give respective performances. Even the female leads are convincing. Playing the villain is Robert Z'Dar, an actor with a unique chin / jaw line. It's about time someone finally got the idea that he could make a memorable character, which he does. Sure he's no Michael Myers, Jason Vorhees or Freddy Krueger, but he does stand out. Give him credit for that. Some of his kill scenes are even inventive that I'm not sure many villains have done before. The gore is also there. It's not gross out, but there are various disturbing images, like the maniac cop's face. Z'Dar can also perform action sequences decently. I was amazed to view a car chase scene in a horror film, it almost felt like an action movie; viewers should still enjoy it though. This goes hand in hand with David Kern's editing because the flow of the story has good pacing.The two cinematographers who worked on the film did an OK job. It wasn't bad but it would've been nice to see a little more daytime scenes considering there wasn't any visual style to the film. Producing the music was Jay Chattaway. There was a theme in the film but it's difficult to say what it represented. It was a long drawn out brassy ominous sound, which was appropriate for its tone though. Even the chase scene had adrenaline pumped beats in it, but it lacked development in any way that didn't sound anywhere close to being a memorable score. All around this is probably one of those underlooked slasher films that seems silly on the surface but actually is entertaining when given a watch.Like many other films that focused on psychotic blade wielding crazies, the reasoning behind certain facts just aren't revealed. Watch it for its plot dealing with mystery, its distinguished cult cast and unique villain.