Innocent people are being murdered on the streets of New York, and all the witnesses agree on that the murderer was wearing a cop's uniform. Frank McCrae starts an investigation and at the same time a young cop named Jack Forrest finds himself under arrest with the police believing he's the killer that they refer to as Maniac Cop. McCrae though is sure that Forrest has been framed and when finding some evidence to prove that, the killer strikes again and kills McCrae, leaving Forrest to escape. Now, with the whole force chasing after Forrest, together with his cop girlfriend Theresa, he must prove his innocence and capture the real killer.
When I was younger, and I mean a lot younger, I remember borrowing Maniac Cop from a friend a few times in a row and that I really enjoyed watching it. When writing this, the DVD for Maniac Cop was released only a day ago so I figured I had to do a review for this old cool flick, starring a young Bruce Campbell (wearing eye-liner) among others. Why I think this film works well even today might most have to do with nostalgic reasons, but if you've never seen the film before I'm not sure what you'd say, only except that you'd most likely agree on that it is in fact a pretty cool movie from the late 80's. Maniac Cop is a film that is extremely easy to watch and that has a lot of action mixed together with some horror and thriller elements, it delivers on more than one level and is, despite that it might lack a thing or two, pretty darn entertaining.
Maniac Cop is a low-budget B-movie, make no mistake about that, but it still looks and works out well. For fans of Bruce Campbell, just for the fact that the man is in it might be reason enough to watch it, but the film is not only about him as in fact Frank McCrae (played by Tom Atkins) is the film's main character. The cool thing with this film though is that something that hardly ever happens actually does happen, and that is that the main character dies, and after that Campbell fills his shoes and starts leading. Killing off the main character might just be as bad as it can be good, but here it only works to the film's advantage.
 
Another thing that is a bit cool and that works quite well is that the killer remains faceless until almost the very end. You get to see him kiling people, actually you get to see plenty of that, but it's always dark and they never shows his face, so hey, at least things are a bit mysterious if nothing else. The killers backstory is quite an interesting piece that is delivered like half-way through the film or so, which gives you something new to focus on, as well as it makes things a bit more interesting. The ending though is extremely predictable, but since the overall film is really entertaining, who cares? This is not a film you'd watch in order to see some gruesome killings and spectacular horror, I would say that it's first and most an action flick, but that has a horror theme to it. Simply put, Maniac Cop is just a heck of a lot of fun - 80's style.
When it comes to the acting, personally I think that Tom Atkins is the star of the movie. He makes a convincing job as the police who really cares about what's going on and wants to nail the killer at all cost. Bruce Campbell, being the icon that he is, is obviously great if your a fan of his, I know I always enjoy watching the man on the screen. If I'm gonna complain a little, it would have to be of the performance from the Maniac Cop's girlfriend, played by Sheree North (who later played Kramer's mom Babs in Seinfeld). She does a lousy job, is boring to watch and not half as convincing as the rest of the cast. Forunately, she doesn't have too much screen-time, so it's not that big of a deal.
If you're a fan of Campbell and enjoy 80's flicks, you have more than enough reasons why to watch Maniac Cop. Personally, while I don't think it's a great flick, it has a lot of nostalgia and is at least entertaining enough. It might not deserve a hard seven outta ten, but thinking back on the days when I first saw this film made the score go up. Don't expect too much and you'll most likely have a good time watching Maniac Cop. Also, look out for Sam Raimi who makes a cameo appearance as a news reporter.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 1988
DIRECTOR: William Lustig
WRITING CREDITS: Larry Cohen
GENRE: Horror, Action, Crime, Thriller
CAST: Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 91 min
RATING: 7/10
Maniac Cop Website/IMDB Click here
Maniac Cop Trailer Click here
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