Runtime: 88 minutes
Directed by: William Lustig
Starring: Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, Michael Lerner, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Robert Z'Dar
From: Several different companies
Set him on fire, I'll shoot him with an Uzi... but he'll show up in your Jacuzzi.
As I mentioned in my last review, Friday night I saw the first Maniac Cop then this when they were on Shudder's The Last Drive-In; it was a long but entertaining night hosted by Joe Bob Briggs. The OG film was an entertaining time with a great cast but I thought this did the similar idea better. After all, this also had a nice cast of familiar faces (the new ones included the lovely Claudia Christian, Charles Napier, James Earl Jones' dad Robert, Leo Rossi, Michael Lerner, Clarence Williams III, Danny Trejo briefly, and the great Robert Davi. Plus, this has a RAP THEME SONG which plays over the end credits. Technically it is laughably bad, yet charmingly so. Rap had started to really get popular around this time so no surprise that movies started to feature them as theme songs or otherwise had prominent places on soundtracks.
But it is not just a funny-bad rap song which makes the movie endearing to me. Everything was bigger in scope, especially the stunts... holy crap, some of those stunts. The two main protagonists from the first return... for a bit. After that there are new leads (which thankfully were also interesting) and the added twist of a serial killer also becoming involved in a tale where you see Matt Cordell finally try to finish his revenge on those that “killed” him in Sing Sing. It was quite the performance by Leo Rossi as the serial killer. Like in Halloween II, he sang a hilarious colorful ditty; that made me quite happy.
There's more action, more bloodshed, more explosions, more fire, (much) more broken glass... even with some elements that perhaps could be criticized, that will not happen as this was a fun tale which not only continued the commentary concerning such aspects as “violent cops” and “corruption involving the police force”, also broached was the idea of the law having issues but there being a stigma concerning seeking mental help. That is still a concern in general-presumably it is much more so in that line of work.
If you have seen Maniac Cop and even thought it was OK rather than good or better, I and a large collection of film fans believe that its immediate sequel is an improvement. Many say that Maniac Cop 3 is not too good and from what I recall, “compromised” is the best way to describe that movie's production. At least 2 was not a movie I regret finally giving a shot to.
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