Maniac Cop (1988)

Admirable film.

I like movies that are aware of what they are selling... without [any] greater aspirations than to make people laugh and that's it.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

The 80s is a wild time when literally everything or everyone can be a serial killer even a cop.Begin with Matt Cordell a super cop after being wrongly accused and sent to jail he come back as a unstoppable killing machine known as the Maniac Cop.On the path of revenge with blood of many innocence people the only hope left is two NYPD cop Frank McCrae played by Tom Atkins and Jack Forrest played by the man the legend himself Mr.Bruce Campbell.It a good fun horror movie that i enjoy a lot but there one things really bugging me that although Maniac Cop is very strong but he still a human so how the hell in one scene he getting shot multiple times but still alive.I guess the sequels will answer me that

When old (and by 'old' I mean in the eighties!) horror films are discussed, you normally hear about the Friday 13th and Nightmare on Elm Street franchises. Granted, they were the most successful, yet for some reason the unsubtly-titled 'Maniac Cop' never really gets a mention. This is surprising for two reasons: the first is that it stars Evil Dead lynchpin Bruce Campbell and, secondly, it's actually quite good.Okay, so when I say 'good' I kind of mean that it's good if you know what you're getting. And you should. In the same way as if you watched 'Snakes on a Plane' you should know what kind of film you're about to sit down to. Maniac Cop is a horror, vaguely slasher film, although rather than having an unstoppable brute mercilessly stalking a bunch of over-sexed teens, you have an unstoppable, well, maniac policeman stalking people in a major U.S. city.But, fear not good citizens, for every nut-job with a badge who wants to hack you to pieces for running a red light, there's an honest cop waiting to solve the mystery (and a mayor who doesn't want to admit that there's a problem – kind of like that official in 'Jaws,' but we're dealing with a shark with a truncheon here). So, our decent, law-abiding boy in blue sets out to investigate the strange sightings of a cop out of control. But our hero isn't Bruce Campbell. He's also in it, but spends a large portion of the film in a cell. That's not really a spoiler as it happens almost directly after meeting him. However, he does – as in many cheesy horror films – tend to steal every scene he's in and the film wouldn't be half so much fun without him (even if his 'boomstick' never makes an appearance.As I mentioned, Maniac Cop never received the attention other – equally B-movie – horror flicks got and perhaps that's because it's (if I'm being generous) a little uneven (and if you don't like the film you'll probably call it 'all over the place plot-wise). It's like it really wants to be taken seriously as a film, yet exhibits no real traits of anything other than a B-movie horror film. Everyone plays it straight and there's nothing particularly tongue-in-cheek here. The plot has various elements and threads which start heading in one direction, only to go off in another. Like I said, this could be a deliberate attempt to mislead the audience by the writer, or it could just be sloppy writing. We may never know.However, what I do know is that Maniac Cop – for all its numerous faults – is actually quite good fun and well worth a watch if you're into horror (and Jason-style slasher) films in general. See it quickly before it's remade for the worse (Evil Dead, I'm looking at you).

After a strange rash of local killings, a police detective finds that the reports of a cop committing the crimes aren't leading to the forces' scapegoat and rather to a former member though dead and tries to help him clear his name against the true killer.Overall this one here was quite the fun and exciting offering with a lot to like about it. What really gives this one a lot of its main enjoyment here is the fact that this one does so much of taking the reason for trusting the police-force out on duty and warps it into something to be feared, with the main gimmick of the undead policeman still wearing his old uniform bringing in the unlucky victims only to turn the tables on them. The kind of fear and panic this generates is quite fun and impressive here, as the early stalking scenes out on the city streets showing this off makes for quite a fun time here as this manages to keep the suspense going of whether or not it's possible to trust the police in uniform here with the identity behind him being quite mysterious and hidden so there's a lot to like here. Even furthering this is the slow- building angle of this one getting the framed-innocent-officer storyline as part of this one as there's a much bigger amount of deception required here to pull that off and manages to make this quite fun going about this. Not only does that play into the slasher angle here as this makes for a perfect foil to keep the killings going despite being held prisoner the entire time, there's plenty of action in here as these lead into the truly startling and wholly enjoyable mid-section here where he goes to town on the police force and launches a massive attack at the officers there after he's held for questioning, and the rampage is packed with brutal, bloody highlights and tons of fine action in the brawling and stalking to stop him, then gets quite fun as they have to maneuver through the corpses left behind only to make the mistake of being there to take the fall again. That makes the action even better in the later half, with the appearance at the police headquarters leading to the suspenseful stalking of the policewoman despite being handcuffed to a dead partner, the escape from the trapped supply room in front of the other officers and finally the out-of-control car chase through the streets leading back to the docks where the great shoot-out occurs and leads into the thrilling resolution here. There's enough fun here in the back-story for what happened here to keep this going along nicely with a fine series of flashbacks to his true identity and what happened that there's some fine motivation for his actions while making sure that the supernatural aspects throughout here are given some rather nicely-appointed reasoning as the early scenes of the inhuman killer seem appropriate given the later revelations given. As the make-up for the undead killer looks great and the kills are certainly gruesome and bloody enough, these here are more than enough to make this a highly enjoyable effort which holds out over its few flaws nicely. The only area that holds this down is the length it goes to keep the false-accusation thread going, blatantly ignoring tons of witness testimony and their own officers' accounts merely to keep his neck on the line and enabling the rampage to continue when it makes no sense to continue it. Otherwise, this one here is a pretty enjoyable and entertaining slasher.Rated R: Graphic Violence, Graphic Language and Brief Nudity.

Maniac Cop is definitely a cult classic horror action flick from the 80's.In New York a man dressed as a police officer is killing innocent civilians. Jack Forrest is a cop and gets framed, the real killer is Matt Cordell, a cop who was sent to prison for brutality and ended up getting killed inside. Forrest, his piece on the side Theresa and detective Frank McCrea try to solve the case, before the maniac cop kills again.Maniac Cop is a 1988 American action-slasher film directed by William Lustig and written by Larry Cohen. It stars Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Richard Roundtree, William Smith, Robert Z'Dar, and Sheree North. Z'Dar plays the title character, a murderous ex-cop who returns from the dead, chased by his former co-workers. It was released on May 13, 1988, and grossed $671,382 from a budget of $1.1 million. Maniac Cop still is a cult film today.I seriously love this action Horror film. Tom Atkins,Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon did definitely the best acting job. Specially Robert Z'Dar who plays Maniac Cop, a murderous ex-cop who returns from the dead, chased by his former co-workers did a terrific job one of his best roles I have ever saw. I love the sequels but for me this one is the best in the series. The acting in this film is pretty decent good for a 80's slasher horror flick. Jack Forrest is played by the legend Evil Dead trilogy Bruce Campbell. Campbell is one of the few actors that can make even the worst of films watchable, and makes any good film like this that much better. After the Evil Dead movies and Army of Darkness this is Campbell's best work. Genre legend Tom Atkins is perfectly cast as McCrea, Atkins starred in some of my very favorite 80's movies including The Fog, Escape From New York, Lethal Weapon and obviously this. He was also the main star of the underrated Halloween 3 Season Of The Witch, a film that would probably be quite well liked if they had left Halloween out of the title. He also played in another horror flick that I do like very much My Bloody Valentine 3D. Richard Roundtree who is better known as Shaft is good in a small role as commissioner Pike, Laurene Landon, William Smith and Sheree North give good support. Robert Z'Dar who looks like a real life Quagmire from Family Guy, is a huge man and is very effective as the supernatural Matt Cordell.Maniac Cop is definitely William Lustig's and Bruce Campbell's best Action Horror fun flick from the 80's. I really miss the 80's because back than they had much better action horror slasher films. 10/10