MANIAC COP 3: THE BADGE OF SILENCE (1993)
Label: Blue Underground
Region Code: Region-Free
Rating: R
Duration: 85 Minutes
Audio: English Dolby Atmos; English DTS-HD MA Stereo 2.0 with Optional English SDH, Français Canadien, Español Latino Americano, Português do Brasil, Español Castellano, Français Parisien, Deutsch, Italiano, Mandarin (Traditional & Simplified), Korean, Japanese, Russian Subtitles
Video: 2160p UHD Widescreen (2.35:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (2.35:1)
Director: Alan Smithee (William Lustig, Joel Soisson)
Cast: Robert Davi, Robert Z’Dar, Caitlin Dulany, Gretchen Becker, Paul Gleason, Jackie Earle Haley, Julius Harris, Doug Savant, Robert Forster
The Wrong Arm Of The Law Is Back!
In the third and final installment (so far anyway) of the Maniac Cop series we find that the Maniac Cop Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar, The Beastmaster) has been resurrected again- this time by a voodoo priest named Houngan (Julius Harris, Super Fly), but to what end? Fuck if know, even after having just watched it I couldn't tell you, but just go with it. All that matters i that through whatever contrived means necessary we have the Maniac Cop back on the beat with vengeance!
This time out Cordell is preoccupied with NYPD Officer Kate Sullivan (Gretchen Becker, Ed Wood) who has earned the nickname "Maniac Kate" from fellow officers for her brutal way of dealing with the criminal vermin on the street. While on-duty she responds to a robbery in progress at a pharmacy where a junkie (Robert Earl Haley, Watchmen) is holding a store clerk hostage, there's a double cross and in the aftermath the store clerk is dead with a bullet to the head and Kate lays brain-dead in the hospital.
A pair of unscrupulous tabloid video journalist capture the entire incident on film but edit in such a way as to make it appear the Officer Sullivan murdered the clerk in cold-blood; of course the junkie survives and threatens legal action against the city. Crooked politicians fearing legal action conspire with the attending physicians at the hospital to take Kate off life support, but the Maniac Cop has other plans for for the fallen officer.
This strange third entry in the Maniac Cop series brings back Robert Davi (Goonies) as the hard-nosed Det. McKinney who this time out teams-up with attractive physician Dr. Susan Fowler (Caitlin Dulany, Project X) to probe the accusations against Officer Sullivan, and the duo provide a ill-conceived forced romantic angle that the film definitely doesn't need. The journalist characters are pretty annoying and when the Maniac Cop catches up to them their deaths are pretty lame, which is a shame, but we do get some other fun kills. At one point the movie detours into a hospital horror sequence along the lines of X-Ray (1983) which is quite a bit of fun. At the hospital the Maniac Cop turns one doc's brains to jelly with a pair of defibrillator paddles and another is strapped to a gurney and x-rayed to death. It's pretty awesome, interestingly these two docs are played by Paul Gleason (Breakfast Club) and Robert Forster (Vigilante), strange cameos but still pretty cool.
Maniac Cop 2 was a fast-paced action-horror hybrid and some of what we get in this sequel outstanding but you can definitely tell which sequences were directed by William Lustig and which were directed by producer Joel Soisson. The producer had to take over after as director when Lustig left the film over differences in opinion, but Soisson doesn't have the action-chops of Lustig, so it does suffer for it. That said, there are some choice moments here, like a police cruiser vs. ambulance car chase at the end of the movie that's completely fucking nuts, and the man-on-fire stunt-work here nearly rivals what we saw in Maniac Cop 2, and that's no small thing.
Audio/Video: Maniac Cop 3 (1993) arrives on 4K UHD in 2160p UHD framed in 2.35:1 widescreen, sourced from the same 4K scan of the original uncensored negative that was utilized for the 2013 Blu-ray with the added benefit of Dolby Vision HDR. The image looks excellent with strong saturated colors, deep blacks and nice layered contrast, plus the colors are a bit punchier thanks to the HDR. The increased resolution offers a nice uptick in fine detail as well, with the HDR advancing in all the expected areas.
Audio options include a new English Dolby Atmos mix which gives the Joel Goldsmith score a nice bump in fidelity and makes effective use of the surrounds during the action sequences. There's also a DTS-HA MA 2.0 track, and we get optional English subtitles.
Onto the extras things kick-off with a brand new Audio Commentary with Director Alan Smithee (wink wink), which is actually director Bill Lustig and producer/director Joel Soisson. As referenced earlier Lustig walked off the film after turning in a too-short rough cut with Soisson completing the film. Its an interesting and very candid commentary with the pair discussing their now ancient disagreements, if you're a fan of the film and interested in the behind-the-scenes stories this is a must-hear extra! The guys are having a blast discussing the troubled production and share a lot of laughs about it, complementing each others work and pointing out things that irk them, this is a commentary I would put up there with Carpenter/Russell commentary on something like Big Trouble in Little China, classic stuff.
The rest of the extras are archival carry-overs, beginning with the excellent Wrong Arm Of The Law - The Making Of Maniac Cop 3 (25 min) featurette with director William Lustig, writer Larry Cohen and producer/director Joel Soisson speaking about the movies troubled production which resulted in Lustig walking off set. It's very candid as the two sides speak about the problematic shoot. Actors Robert Davi, Robert Z’dar, Gretchen Becker, Caitlyn Delany and stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos also chime in throughout the doc, it's a great extra and offets some interesting insight into just what can go wrong on a small budget production.
We also get a selection of Deleted and Extended Scenes, a 2-min Theatrical Trailer, a Poster and Still Gallery, plus Larry Cohen's original synopsis for the film which was quite different from what ended up with. Again, no booklet, no CD soundtrack, not even the isolated score option, but the archival extras are great and the new commentary is absolutely fascinating.
Special Features:
Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Director Alan Smithee
Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:
- NEW! Audio Commentary with Director Alan Smithee
- Wrong Arm Of The Law - The Making Of Maniac Cop 3 (25 min)
- Deleted and Extended Scenes (10 min)
- Theatrical Trailer (2 min)
- Poster & Still Gallery
- Original Synopsis
Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993) is a bat-shit action-horror hybrid with a weird Bride of Frankenstein subplot, while it might be the weakest of the trilogy it still packs quite an entertaining wallop. The new 4K UHD looks and sounds absolutely stunning, this is yet another stellar catalog upgrade from Blue Underground have been doing unparalleled work in the 4K home video realm.
