MANIAC COP 2 (1990) (Blue Underground 4K UHD Review)

MANIAC COP 2 (1990) 

Label: Blue Underground

Region Code: Region-Free

Rating: R

Duration: 87 Minutes 

English: English Dolby Atmos; English DTS-HD MA 2.0 Stereo 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 (1.85:1), 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1)

Director: William Lustig 

Cast: Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, Michael Lerner, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Robert Z’Dar, Clarence Williams III, Leo Rossi, Charles Napier

You Have The Right To Remain Silent… FOREVER!

Matt Cordell the Maniac Cop returns from a watery grave in this action-packed sequel from director William Lustig (Maniac) alongside writer Larry Cohen (Q the Winged Serpent). Having somehow survived being impaled through the chest at the end of Maniac Cop (1989) the big guy is back on the beat and patrolling the streets of NYC with a vengeance. His first order of business is to interrupt a robbery in progress at a bodega where a junkie with the gnarliest teeth you've ever seen is holding a shotgun to the face of the cashier. When he finds that the cash drawer empty the junkie directs the cashier to start scratching off lottery tickets looking for an instant winner. Funnily enough the cashier scratches off a 5 grand instant winner, and that's when Cordell arrives on scene. The shopkeeper cannot believe this fortunate turns of events, and plans to pocket that winning ticket for himself, but things don't go the way he thought they would and the Maniac Cop blows him away, much to the surprise of the disbelieving junkie. As cop cars arrive the undead cop disappears leaving the armed junkie there trying to explain that he's not the one who killed the clerk, but the NYC cops blast him to pieces just the same. It's a great opener and the film rarely let's up from there.

Also returning from the last film are officers Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell, Mindwarp) and Theresa Mallory (Laurene Landon, The Stuff), whom after passing a psych evaluation have been placed back on active duty by Commissioner Doyle (Michael Lerner, Barton Fink). Forrest is happy just to be back on duty but Mallory is convinced that Cordell will return again (and she's right!) and causes quite a fuss about it. For my tastes Campbell and Landon exit the film far too early at the hands of the grudge-holding Cordell, and they're replaced by new protagonists cop psychologist Susan Riley (Claudia Christian, The Hidden) and hard-boiled Detective McKinney (Robert Davi, The Goonies). 

Minor spoiler alert, Forrest is taken out by Cordell with his patented knife-baton, stabbing him through the neck in  brutal fashion, but Campbell deserved better! Afterward Cordell steals a vintage police cruiser and chases after Mallory and Riley, there's a great chase sequence with bare tire rims sending sparks flying off the street with plenty of vehicular carnage. In the aftermath the Maniac Cop snaps Mallory's, neck but only after she attacks Cordell with friggin' chainsaw! With Mallory out of the way Cordell handcuffs the psychiatrist to the steering wheel of the car and sends it careening out-of-control down a busy street!  The action sequences in this first sequel are fantastic, with a bit of a larger budget it's great fun to see what Lustig is able to throw up on the screen! 

There's an weird subplot with a serial killer named Turkell (Leo Rossi, Halloween II) who's murdering strippers around NYC, Maniac Cop shows up during one of his attacks and the two become fast friends, with the serial killer leading Cordell back to his pad for some psycho-bonding between like-minded killers, it's a weird team-up but somehow it works.  I have to hand it to Larry Cohen for a wacky but awesome script on this one. We have this weird buddy psycho-killer pairing and a demented Bride of Maniac Cop subplot here that never gets boring, it's weird as all get out but never dull. When Turkell eventually lands in a jail cell he tells the cops that his buddy Cordell is coming to bust him out and he ain't just blowing smoke up their asses. Maniac Cop arrives and completely destroys the police station, it's a bloody massacre with terrific action oodles of bloodshed and broken glass. Lustig seemed to really enjoy breaking glass in this film, and setting people on fire, but more on that in a minute.

Somehow all the major players end up back at Sing Sing Prison so that Cordell can have his revenge on the death row inmates who fucked-up his face and killed him in prison years earlier. It's during this killing spree that Maniac Cop is bombarded with Molotov cocktails and engulfed in flames, but that does not deter him in the slightest - he just keeps killing the inmates who mutilated him! The man-on-fire stunt work during the last 10 minutes of this film are worth the price of admission all on their own, it's awesome! Manic Cop 2 is a bad-ass revenger, and even when it gets a bit silly it never get's too silly for it's own good, I loved it. 

Audio/Video: Blue Underground previously issued Maniac Cop 2 (1990) on a 2-disc Blu-ray back in 2013, this utilizes the same 4K scan of the OCN with the benefit of Dolby Vision HDR 10 color-grading supervised by Director of Photography James Lemmo. The first thing that struck me was how nice the grain structure looks, with very nicely resolved, details and textures that are more defined and the primaries have a nice HDR pop to them, but not in an overcooked sort of way. Additionally the HDR offers deeper blacks and better more layered contrast, slightly improving depth over the Blu-ray counterpart. 

We get a Dolby Atmos remix that is robust, offering a fully immersive experience that comes to life during the action sequences, plus Jay Chattaway's creepy and atmospheric score sounds great. Also included is an uncompressed DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo with optional English subtitles.  Fans of the score will enjoy the isolated music track on the disc presented in uncompressed DTS-HD MA 2.0 stereo. 

Blue Underground carryover the archival extras from past releases beginning with an Audio Commentary with Director William Lustig and Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, plus the Back On The Beat - The Making Of Maniac Cop 2 making-of documentary featuring director William Lustig, writer Larry Cohen, actors Robert Davi, Leo Rossi, Robert Z'Dar, Michael Lerner, Claudia Christian and composer Jay Chattaway. Davi is great fun as he talks about being hoodwinked into taking on the role by Lustig, while Lerner laughs about playing an Irishman. Director Lustig and actress Claudia Christian sorta take a few jabs at each other during their interviews, neither seem enamored with the other. During the Cinefamily Q&A from back in 2012 Lustig let's loose a ton of great anecdotes about Larry Cohen, Joe Spinell, Leo Rossi and Robert Z'Dar plus the great crew who worked on the film and the possibility of a sequel/reboot. 

Finishing-up the special features we have Trailers, a deleted scene featuring Sam Raimi (Evil Dead), a Gallery of posters and pics plus an uncompressed Isolated Music Track and it's D-Box Motion Code Enabled. Sadly no booklet with words from Michael Gingold celebrating the film or soundtrack CD to accompany this one, but still a great set of archival extras. 

The 2-disc UHD/BD combo arrives in an oversized black Scanavo keepcase with a single-sided sleeve of artwork. It also includes an embossed slipcover, basically the same design as the 2013 Blu-ray edition this with the same artwork on the discs inside. 

Special Features: 

Disc 1 (4K UHD Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:

- Audio Commentary with Director William Lustig and Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn

- Theatrical Trailers: International Trailer (2 min), UK Teaser Trailer  (1 min), French Trailer (2 min), German Trailer (2 min)

- Isolated Music Track (DTS-HD MA 2.0) 

Disc 2 (Blu-ray) Feature Film + Extras:

- Audio Commentary with Director William Lustig and Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn

- Back On The Beat - The Making Of MANIAC COP 2 (47 min) 

- Cinefamily Q&A with Director William Lustig (29 min) 

- Deleted Scene (2 min) 

- Theatrical Trailers: International Trailer (2 min), UK Teaser Trailer  (1 min), French Trailer (2 min), German Trailer (2 min)

- Poster & Still Gallery

- Isolated Music Track (DTS-HD MA 2.0) 

Maniac Cop 2 (1990) is a fun, violent and kick-ass revenger with some fantastic action, brutal deaths and a finale that's engulfed in flames. This sucker is action-packed from start to finish and a shit-ton of fun, this is definitely a 90's horror entry that doesn't gets it's proper due! As with all of the Blue Underground 4K UHD catalog upgrades this another gorgeous presentation that is to please fans, and hopefully it will earn it some fresh eyes from those who haven't seen it yet. 

IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY (1974-1978) (Scream Factory Blu-ray Review)

IT’S ALIVE TRILOGY (1974-1978) 

Label: Scream Factory
Release Date: May 15th 2018
Region Code: A
Audio: English DTS-HD MA 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen

For the first time on Blu-ray, and in a new, deluxe box set, the It’s Alive trilogy is reborn! On May 15, Scream Factory will release the It’s Alive Trilogy in a 3-disc set packed with bonus features, including new interviews, and new 2K scans of each film.

IT’S ALIVE (1974)

Rating: PG 
Duration: 91 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: John P. Ryan, Sharon Farrell, Andrew Duggan, Guy Stockwell, James Dixon, Michael Ansara

Synopsis: It's newborn and … It's Alive … and murder is what it knows best! A proud couple's bundle of joy is really a newborn terror in filmmaker Larry Cohen's cautionary cult hit that tapped into environmental fears. The horror grows when multiple child monsters rampage in the first sequel It Lives Again as two brave parents try to stop them by becoming the bait for their spree. The now global mutants are rounded up and relocated to a far-flung island in It's Alive III: Island of the Alive. Will a parent's greatest nightmare become the world's gravest fear? Find out ... if you dare.

In Larry Cohen's 70's killer-kid classic we have L.A. couple Frank Davis (John Ryan, Runaway Train) and his wife Lenore (Sharon Farrell, The Premonition) expecting their second child, it was an unexpected pregnancy as she was on birth control, but they are happy nonetheless at the prospect of another kiddo around the house, as is their adolescent son Chris (Daniel Holzman) who will be a big brother. When she goes into labor they head to the hospital and as she begins to give birth while Frank sits in the lobby with the other expectant fathers, as was the tradition back in the day, not like now when father's are almost always in the delivery room. However, the birth is abnormal, and what emerges from his wife's womb is a toothy-mutant offspring that chews through it's own umbilical cord before slaughtering all the medical staff in the delivery room, the aftermath looking a bit like that scene fro Sam Raimi's Spider-Man 2 when Doctor Ock's sentient tentacles go ape-shit. The wife goes into hysterics as Frank wanders into he bloody aftermath, soon after a manhunt is launched for the ferocious killer-kid with Frank initially being on board with hunting it down and killing it, until his paternal instincts kick in. 

The film is a bit of a slow-mover by modern horror standards but I've always loved it, Cohen made a classic 70's monster movie here with early make-up effects by none other than Rick Baker (An American Werewolf in London) who sculpted quite a fearsome kid with a bulbous, vein-y head, fangs and clawed hands. Rightfully they keep the visuals of the kid to a minimum, showing it in fleeting glimpses and among the shadows. There are a lot of killer POV shots from the point of view of the homicidal baby, a double-vision image thing that worked pretty well. The film can be read in several different ways, informed by real issues like abortion, eugenics and the Thalidomide baby-deformities, with this one containing a corrupt drug company trying to erase evidence that their contraception pill which might be the root cause of the hideous mutation to begin with. 

John P. Ryan (Three O'Clock High) as the father really sells the expectant father part of the story as well as the conflicted post-hospital slaughter reality of the abnormal birth and ensuing man-hunt for the demon-toothed kid, he gives it some real depth and layers. While the film is a tiny bit slow and we don't see the killer-kid a bunch the film is very effective, plus it's well lensed with a sweeping score from Bernard Herrmann (Psycho) with loads of blood, particularly for a PG-rated horror film! I'm not totally convinced this will play all that well with a younger audience watching it for the first time, I grew up with it so it has some intrinsically nostalgic appeal, but I will say that my seventeen year old son enjoyed it quite a bit.  

This was Cohen's first time directing a horror film, it's a serious effort that's handled with a modicum of class, it's not quite as oddball and quirky as some of his later genre efforts, and I think that serious tone gives this monster-kid cult classic some legs.

Special Features: 
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW Cohen’s Alive: Looking Back at the It’s Alive Films featuring interviews with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon and more… (18 min) HD 
- NEW It’s Alive at the Nuart: The 40th Anniversary Screening with Larry Cohen (13 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
- Radio Spots (2 min) HD 
- TV Spots (1 min) 
- Theatrical Trailer (3 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (4 min) HD

IT LIVES AGAIN (1978)

Rating: R
Duration: 91 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: John P. Ryan, James Dixon, John Marley, Andrew Duggan, Eddie Constantine

Synopsis: Is it human? Is it a beast? Whatever it is, It Lives Again in this second film in cult filmmaker Larry Cohen’s Alive Trilogy. Once again, Cohen brings to the screen a hideous threesome of mutant baby monsters that are the evolutionary response to man’s polluted environment. These frightened creatures lash out with deadly claws at what they don’t understand. There are only three, but they could reproduce into uncontrollable millions if someone doesn’t destroy them. Fredric Forrest (Apocalypse Now) and Kathleen Lloyd (The Car) star as the loving parents of one of the monstrous creatures. Parental love, however, is no match for these hell-spawned mutants. Their wild blood binge must be stopped. Will the next stage of their evolution become our last?

After the success of the first film a sequel was hatched, picking up a few years after the original we have John P. Ryan returning as Frank Davis who has traveled to Tucson, AZ (love seeing my city back in the 70's) to warn a young couple, Jody (Kathleen Lloyd, The Car) and Eugene Scott (Frederic Forrest, The Conversation), that their soon-to-be-born kid will most likely be a mutant, which since that last film have been being born at an alarming rate around the country. At first they don't believe him but they come around when they meet a menacing guy named Malory (John Marley, Deathdream) who has put together a death-squad who travel around the country exterminating the mutant kids the moment they're born. With the help of John the couple escape the hospital and she gives birth to the beastly kid in a mobile birthing unit built into the back of a shipping truck, and are taken to a retreat run by a group of scientists,  Andrew Duggan (Doctor Detroit) and Eddie Constantin (Alphaville), who want to study the babies, believing them to be the next evolutionary step of humanity, a sort of underground railroad for mutant babies, where they're kid gets to mingle with two other deformed monster-kids. 

The sequel is a nice continuation of the story, it's not just a simple retread, and it's great to have John P. Ryan back as Davis. Also returning are the special make-up effects of Rick Baker plus we get another score from Bernard Herrmann. While I don't love the sequel they way I do the first it's a solid sequel that expands a bit on the story and we get more moving parts, including the Scott's being betrayed by the wife's mother, ending with the authorities showing up at the facility where the monster kids are being kept. There's a bit more gore this time around too, but not a bunch, so keep those expectations in check.

Special Features: 
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- Audio Commentary with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen
- Theatrical Trailer (1 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (4 min) HD

IT’S ALIVE 3: ISLAND OF THE ALIVE (1987)

Rating: R
Duration: 95 Minutes 
Audio: English DTS-HD MA Mono with Optional English Subtitles 
Video: 1080p HD Widescreen (1.85:1) 
Director: Larry Cohen
Cast: Michael Moriarty, Karen Black, Laurene Landon, Gerrit Graham, Neal Israel, James Dixon 

Synopsis: In It’s Alive III: Island Of The Alive, Michael Moriarty (Q: The Winged Serpent) and Karen Black (Trilogy of Terror) star as Stephen and Ellen Jarvis, the distraught parents of one of the new mutant children. They’ve watched in horror as government death squads roamed the earth, shooting the humanoids on sight. They’ve suffered through the court hearings that sentenced their child and other surviving mutants to a remote, uninhabited island. And their nightmare continues … because the abandoned creatures are now grown … and they are coming back home to the society that created and rejected them. And no one who stands in their way will live.

The second and final (so far, not counting the remake) sequel in the It's Alive trilogy throws seriousness right out the window in far or of a more humorous approach with the introduction of Cohen regular Michael Moriarty (The Stuff) as Jarvis, who opens the film in a courtroom fighting for the rights of his mutant born son to live, arguing for the death of his son is a lawyer played by Gerrit Graham (Phantom of the Paradise), the over-the-top trial ends with the killer baby busting out of it's steel cage with Jarvis managing to calm it down, showing the judge that it's not pure evil, and thus the judge (MacDonald Carey, End of the World) rules that the five surviving mutant kids known to exist are to be shipped away to an isolated island where they will no pose a danger to society.

The film moves ahead a few years and Moriarty's character has penned a tell-all book about the events, while his ex-wife Ellen (Karen Black, Burnt Offerings) wants nothing to do with him or the the damned kid, living her life out of the spotlight while Jarvis, a former TV commercial actor, has become an outcast of society. There's a great scene where the affection starved Jarvis meets a prostitute played by Laurene Landon (Maniac Cop) who beds him but goes ape-shit when she realizes why he looks so familiar, believing that the mutations gene can be passed by touch, sort of the ways the AIDS epidemic caused hysteria around the same time. 

Jarvis later is recruited to visit the island with a team to study the growth of the monster kids who have now grown into adulthood, and this is where I really started to miss the special effects work of Rick Baker who is not present here, instead we have men in rubber-suits that look real goofy, but there's also some fun Harryhausen-esque stop-motion animation which I enjoyed a bunch.

Jarvis and the team come under attack on the island by the mutants, who apparently miss home, they force him to pilot a ship back towards the U.S. mainland with his son saving his life by throwing him overboard when the other monsters - and their own monster kids - decide that Jarvis looks like a tasty piece of meat - stranding him in Cuba, where more off-kilter shenanigans take place. Eventually the deformed families arrive in Florida - where Ellen lives - and  the carnage begins with the mutants destroying a group of 80's punks down on the boardwalk before homing in on the whereabouts of Ellen, leading to a rooftop encounter/family reunion. 

This one is off-kilter and way more comedic than the first two entries, Cohen bringing in Moriarty guarantees plenty of hammed-up shenanigans which we get in spades, I love this guy, and even though it veers far away from the previous films, it's more akin to The Stuff than It's Alive, there's still plenty of low-budget horror and corny Cohen-Moriarty humor to make it a palatable straight-to-video sequel.

Special Features:
- NEW 2K scan of the original film elements
- NEW interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill (10 min) HD 
- Audio Commentary with writer/director Larry Cohen
- Trailer (1 min) HD 
- Still Gallery (3 min) HD 

Audio/Video: All three films arrives on Blu-ray from Scream Factory in 1080p HD framed in 1.85:1 widescreen and sourced from new 2K scans of the archival interpositive elements, the 2018 2K scans were performed by Warner Bros. and look great. The first film looks the best of the bunch with finely managed grain, saturated colors and deep inky blacks. There's a surprising amount of fine detail in those 70's textures and facial details. The sequels also look great, they lack some of the deep fine detail and clarity of the first film, but are solid. 

Each films sports an English DTS-HD MA Mono 2.0 audio track with optional English subtitles, all are nicely balanced and clean without any hiss or distortion. The Bernard Herrmann score of the first film is certainly a highlight, if I was to niggle about an extra I would have appreciated it would have been an isolated music score for the films, particularly he first two which are scored by the legendary composer.  

Thankfully Scream Factory carryover all the Larry Cohen commentaries from Warner Bros. previous triple feature DVD set from 2009. New stuff begins with the 18-min 'Cohen’s Alive: Looking Back at the It’s Alive Films' which features interviews with writer/producer/director Larry Cohen, actors James Dixon, Michael Moriarty and Laurene Landon, cinematographer Daniel Pearl and historians John Burligame, FX Feeney. The main attraction here is Cohen who speaks volumes about the films, from the troubled beginning of It's Alive to the success when a visionary WB exec saw the merit of the film and gave t proper distribution, creating the opening credit sequences at his home (where much of the second films was shot), working with the cast and crew, Rick Bakers special effects, getting Bernard Herrmann to score the films. The cast and crew also reminiscence about shooting Island of the Alive, getting sea sick on the open sea, bit Larry using the sick crew as extras on the boat, posing as corpses, typical low-budget Larry Cohen workarounds. The talk here is moistly centered around the first and third film with the second getting short shrift in regard to content, but there's a lot of ground covered.

We also get a 13-min  Q/A from the 40th anniversary screening of the film at the Nuart Theatre in Los Angeles from 2014, the audio on this one is a bit choppy and wonky in [paces but it's good stuff, Cohen is a great storyteller and he doesn't disappoint here. 

The last of the new stuff is a 10-min interview with Special Effects Makeup Designer Steve Neill who worked on the third film, he speaks about getting ti know Rick Baker, who offered him the job on this film. He speaks about wanting to create a different type of look for the monsters, but Cohen wanted to go a different route, leading to the rubber-suited creatures which emulate the look of the baby monsters from the previous films, he also discussed Mark Williams sculpting of the masks, and the use of stop-motion animation. 

The first film has a selection of trailers, radio spots, and a gallery, the sequels get a trailer and a gallery minus the radio spots. Onto the packaging we get pretty much the same packaging style Scream Factory offered with The Amityville Horror Trilogy, all three films get their own keepcase wrapped in a flimsy card-stock slipcover. Both It's Alive and It Lives Again feature reversible artwork while Island of the Alive features an image from the film on the reverse side. The discs themselves feature the reversible artwork options, except Island of the Alive which features the home video artwork which also adorns the sleeve. 

The Larry Cohen love continues with this impressive looking three-disc set from Scream Factory, Cohen's made so many great cult-films through the years, it's great to see many of them getting new HD releases from Scream Factory with new extras, I hope this is a trend that continues. I also hope there are kids out there discovering some of these for the first time and loving them, and that it's not just us old farts getting nostalgic cinema-erections every time they announce another one. 

Blu-ray Review: MANIAC COP 2 (1990)

MANIAC COP 2 (1990)

Collector's Edition Blu-ray+DVD Combo Pack

Label: Blue Underground

Release Date: November 19th 2013

Region Code: Region-FREE

Rating: R

Duration: 87 Minutes 

Audio: DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround EX, Dolby Digital Surround 2.0 with Optional English SDH Subtitles

Video: 1080p Widescreen (1.85:1) 

Director: William Lustig
Cast: Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, Michael Lerner, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon, Robert Z'Dar, Leo Rossi
Tagline: You Have The Right To Remain Silent... FOREVER!

Matt Cordell the Maniac Cop returns from his watery grave yet again in this action-packed sequel from director William Lustig (Maniac) and writer Larry Cohen (The Stuff, Q the Winged Serpent). Having somehow survived being impaled through the chest at the end of Maniac Cop (1989) he back on the beat and patrolling the streets of NYC with a vengeance. His first order of business is to interrupt a robbery in progress at a bodega where a junkie with the gnarliest teeth you've ever seen is holding a shotgun to the face of the cashier, when he finds that the cash drawer is empty the junkie directs the cashier to start scratching off lottery tickets looking for an instant winner, the cashier is surprised when one turns out to be a 5K winner, and that's when Cordell arrives on scene. The shopkeeper cannot believe this fortune turns of events, he plans to pocket that winning ticket for himself but then the Maniac Cop blows im away to the surprise of the disbelieving junkie. As cop cars arrive the undead cop disappears leaving the armed junkie trying to explain that one of their own perpetrated the murder, but the NYC cops blast him to pieces. It's a great opener and the film rarely let's up from there, this is quite the sweet slice of brutality.

Also returning from the last film are officers Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell, Mindwarp) and Theresa Mallory (Laurene Landon, The Stuff), whom after passing a psych evaluation are placed back on active duty by Commissioner Doyle (Michael Lerner, Barton Fink). Forrest is happy just to be back on the force but Mallory is convinced that Cordell will return again and causes quite a fuss about it, and she's right. For my tastes Campbell and Landon exit the film a bit prematurely, the Maniac Cop definitely holds a grudge, but in their place are cop psychologist Susan Riley (Claudia Christian, The Hidden) and hard-boiled Detective McKinney (Robert Davi, The Goonies). 

Minor spoiler alert, Forrest is taken out by Cordell when the Maniac Cop takes his patented knife-baton and stabs him through the neck, it's pretty brutal but the character deserved better, I wanted more Campbell! Afterward Cordell steals a vintage police cruiser and chases after Mallory and Riley, there's a great chase sequence with bare tire rims sending sparks flying. In the aftermath Maniac Cop snaps Mallory's neck but only after she attacks Cordell with chainsaw! With Mallory out of the way Cordell handcuffs the psychiatrist to the steering wheel of the car before sending her careening out of control down a busy street, the action sequences here are fantastic, with a bit of a larger budget it's great fun to see what Lustig throws up onscreen! 

There's an weird subplot with a serial killer named Turkell (Leo Rossi, Halloween II) who's killing strippers around NYC, Maniac Cop shows up during one of his attacks and the two become fast friends, with the serial killer leading Cordell back to his pad for some bonding between killers, it's the weirdest onscreen team-up ever, but somehow it works, gotta hand it to Larry Cohen for a wacky but awesome script on this one. When Turkell lands in a jail cell soon after he tells the cops that his buddy Cordell is coming to bust him out and he ain't just blowing smoke, Maniac Cop arrives and completely destroys the police station, it's a bloody massacre. Oodles of bloodshed and broken glass, Lustig seemed to really enjoy breaking glass in this film, and setting people on fire, but more on that in a minute.

Somehow all the major players end up back at Sing Sing Prison so that Cordell can have his revenge on the death row inmates who fucked-up his face and killed him in prison years earlier. It's during this killing spree that Maniac Cop is bombarded with Molotov cocktails and engulfed in flames, but that does not deter him in the slightest - he just keeps killing the three inmates who mutilated him! The man-on-fire stunt work during the last 10 minutes of this film are so worth the price of admission on their own, it's awesome! Manic Cop 2 is a bad-ass revenger, and even when it gets a bit silly it never get's too silly for it's own good, I loved it. 

Blu-ray: Blue Underground have gone all out for Maniac Cop 2 (1990) on Blu-ray with a brand-new 4K hi-def transfer from the original camera negative, it's fantastic. Color reproduction is excellent, the darker scenes look pretty crisp and there's some nice depth, clarity and fine detail is strong, no complaints with the video in any way whatsoever, there's even a nice layer of natural film grain with no harmful noise reduction, this is outstanding.

The English language DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 is pretty active, nice use of the surrounds to create an immersive experience, Jay Chattaways creepy and atmospheric score sounds great, fans of the score will enjoy the isolated music track on the disc. 

We get some great extras beginning with an Audio Commentary with Director William Lustig and Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn, plus a making-of documentary featuring director William Lustig, writer Larry Cohen, actors Robert Davi, Leo Rossi, Robert Z'Dar, Michael Lerner, Claudia Christian and composer Jay Chattaway. Davi is great fun as he talks about being hoodwinked into taking on the role by Lustig, while Lerner laughs about playing an Irishman. Director Lustig and actress Claudia Christian sorta take a few jabs at each other during their interviews, neither seem enamored with the other. During the Cinefamily Q+A from back in 2012 Lustig let's loose a ton of great anecdotes about Larry Cohen, Joe Spinell, Leo Rossi and Robert Z'Dar plus the great crew who worked on the film and the possibility of a sequel/reboot. 

Finishing-up the special features we have trailers, a deleted scene featuring Sam Raimi (Evil Dead), a gallery of posters and pics plus the aforementioned isolated music track and it's D-Box Motion Code enabled, it's a great set of extras. There's the added bonus of a standard-def DVD disc mirroring the features and supplemental materials of the Blu-ray, and an embossed slipcover, this is a very nice edition from Blue Underground. 

Special Features:
- Audio Commentary with Director William Lustig and Filmmaker Nicolas Winding Refn

- Back On The Beat - The Making Of MANIAC COP 2 (46:42)
- Cinefamily Q+A with Director William Lustig (28:36)
- Deleted Scene (1:31)
- Theatrical Trailers
- Poster and Still Gallery
- Isolated Music Track (DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0)
- Enhanced for D-Box Motion Control Systems

Verdict: Maniac Cop 2 (1990) is a pretty kick-ass revenger with supernatural elements, we get some fantastic action set-pieces, brutal deaths and a fantastic finale that's engulfed in flames. it's action-packed from start to finish and a shit-ton of fun, a very worthy sequel to Maniac Cop (1989), this is recommended with extreme prejudice. When the topic of 90's horror comes around I don't think Maniac Cop 2 gets it's due, this was a blast. 3 Outta 5 

Blu-ray Review: MANIAC COP (1988)

MANIAC COP (1988) Blu-ray

LABEL: Synapse Films
STREET DATE: October 11th 2011
REGION: Region FREE
RATING: R
DURATION: 85 mins
VIDEO: MPEG-4 AVC 1080p 16x9 Widescreen 1.85:1
AUDIO: English: 6.1 DTS-HD MA, 4.0 DTS-HD MA, 2.0 DTS-HD MA
DIRECTOR: William Lustig
CAST: Bruce Campbell, Tom Atkins, Robert Z'Dar, Lauren Landon, Richard Roundtree, Wiliam Smith
TAGLINE: You Have The Right To Remain Silent... Forever.

SYNOPSIS: In William Lustig's MANIAC COP a seven-foot tall disgraced cop named Cordell (Robert Z-Dar, TANGO AND CASH) has seemingly returned from the grave and is stalking the streets of New York City slaying not criminals but innocent folks which sets off a wave of panic and paranoia as everyday citizen's grow to fear the very men sworn to protect them.

FILM: Set to some chilling score from composer Jay Chattaway (MANIAC) a waitress walks home from work on a desolate NYC street. Two punks attack her but she's feisty and gets away but the punks give chase leading to a city park. At the far end of the park she spots the figure of a policeman, she calls for help and runs in his direction, it seems safety is within her grasp... nope. The cop grips her neck with over-sized hands lifting her off the ground, snapping her neck with ease and tossing her limp body aside like a child's toy as the punks stare on in disbelief. The punks are nabbed for the murder after being fingered by a witness who saw them hassle the young woman on the street but did little to prevent the attack, they're protests of a maniac cop on the loose fall on deaf ears.

Detective Frank McCrae (Tom Atkins, HALLOWEEN III, NIGHT OF THE CREEPS) is assigned the case and makes a great noir-ish entrance walking down the shadowy corridor of the coroner's office wrapped in a trench coat. McCrae is alone in thinking that the crimes are in fact being perpetrated by one of the NYPD's own, that the young punks just didn't possess the strength to inflict the severe injuries upon the woman. His instincts don't sit well with NYPD's Commissioner Pike (Richard Roundtree, SHAFT) or Captain Ripley (William Smith, CONAN THE BARBARIAN), the former insinuating that McCrae is unstable, suicidal and that he may be the killer himself. He also notes that he doesn't smile very often to which the veteran detective responds by cracking a bizarre awkward sliver of a grin, funny stuff. If you're a genre film fan I need only tell you once that Tom Atkins is THE fuckin' man with a list of genre film credits that include John Carpenter's THE FOG, HALLOWEEN III: SEASON OF THE WITCH, CREEPSHOW, LETHAL WEAPON and NIGHT OF THE CREEPS. Does it get any more awesome than that? Nope.

It's not long before more citizen's fall prey to the maniac cop. Next up is a young couple making out in a parked car when they are interrupted by a strangely silent officer who puts the young man through a sobriety walk only to unsheathe a blade hidden within the hilt of his billy club then double-slashing the man's throat and tossing his body onto the windshield of the car. To me this had shades of the Son of Sam or Zodiac murders, great stuff. The killing spree grips the city with paranoia which escalates even further when the next victim, a musician, falls prey to the uniformed psycho killer. Handcuffed he escapes only to falls face first into a slab of freshly poured cement as the maniac cop presses his foot into the back of his skull pushing the man's face into the concrete suffocating him, the next scene is a forensics team excavating his corpse. 

When a little old lady blows away a well-meaning officer after she mistakes for the maniac cop the mayor lays the heat on the NYPD commissioner who presses Capt. Ridley to find the culprit. It's then that a philandering young beat cop named Jack Forrest (Bruce Campbell, BUBBA HO-TEP) finds himself the main suspect when his unhinged wife Ellen (Victoria Catlin, GHOULIES) turns up dead with her throat in the very same hotel room she confronted him and his new lover Theresa Mallory (Lauren Landon, THE STUFF), a fellow officer, at the very night before. Pike and Ripley feel that he's definitely the guy, particularly when the wife's diary reveals clippings of the maniac cop killings and a journal entry indicating that she figured him for the killer. Campbell's mighty decent here and this is probably an overlooked performance coming just after what I think should have been a star-making turn in Sam Raimi's splatter classic EVIL DEAD II. Speaking of chins, actor Robert Z'Dar's chinly protuberance puts Campbell to shame by comparison, check out the mug on that man - that ain't no prosthetic.

McCrae dismisses Forrest as a suspect right away, perhaps a bit too quickly in my opinion, he figures it's a set-up to distract the authorities from the real killer. McCrae ends up working along side Forrest and Mallory and the trio come to realize the killings seem to be the work of a disgraced former police officer sent to prison for brutal acts of vigilante-style justice. The mystery thickens when it's revealed that Cordel apparently died in a shower room assault at the hands of the very criminals he sent to prison over the years. There's a great flashback to prison murder of Cordell in a steamy homo-erotic shower brawl that's right up there with Cronenberg's EASTERN PROMISES bathhouse brawl, it's well shot and thick with ropey tendrils of blood spewing from painfully broken mouths.

The films comes to a thrilling climax with a fantastic car chase with vehicles spinning wildly outta control, screeching sharp turns, a final showdown between Forest ad Cordel and a paddy wagon tearing up the warehouse district before taking a final plunge into the dirty waters of the Husdon River.

Of the film's I've seen from director William Lustig (MANIAC) this may well be my favorite, possibly inching out MANIAC. It's gritty, violent, stylish and co-written by a man who's a great director his own damn self, Larry Cohen (IT'S ALIVE, GOD TOLD ME TOO), and produced by James Glickenhaus who directed the 'Nam vet vigilante classic THE EXTERMINATOR which I would be remiss not to mention has just this week been released through Synapse Films. It has definite slasher vibe mixed-in with a rogue-cop grittiness and a unique anti-vigilante element, it's well paced and impressively action-packed. While the kills are most certainly  violent, brutal and bloody they do lack the visceral punch of Tom Savini's brilliant work in Lustig's MANIAC.

Not sure what the budget was on this production would be but I don't assume Lustig was working with a Spielberg-ian sum but the film looks fantastic with some great cinematography by James Lemmo (MS. 45, MADMAN) and the previously mentioned atmospheric and eerie score from Jay Chattaway (VIGILANTE).

BLU-RAY: Synapse follow up their meaty BD of James Glickenhaus's THE EXTERMINATOR with a single disc 50GB Blu-ray of William Lustig's MANIAC COP presented in it's original 16x9 enhanced 1.85:1 aspect ratio with a brand new 2K HD restoration of the film remastered from original vault elements. Having just watched Synapse's MANIAC COP DVD I can say it's a pretty definitive upgrade in image quality with finer detail, clearity and deeper blacklevels than I've previously seen. Quite pleased to see that the film's grain structure is wholly intact and free of any unwanted DNR scrubbing. Synapse's HD transfers are some of the best I've seen, right up there with Blue Underground and this is no exception, fantastic stuff. The print used is not pristine but nearly so with precious few instances of print damage. 

Not only a superior video upgraded but the audio gets a fidelity boost as well with a dynamic, newly created 6.1 DTS-HD MA surround sound track plus the 2.0 and 4.0 DTS-HS MA tracks. The 6.1 sounds mighty fine with great use of the directionals and atmospheric surrounds, it's an immersive track with some real depth to it plus Jay Chattaway's score sounds creepier than ever. Dialogue, score and effects are well balanced, crisp, clear and free of distortion. Overall a pretty fantastic presentation well worth the upgrade - but don't trade-in your Synapse DVD edition just yet.

Special features begins with Maniac Cop Memories a interview with Robert Z'Dar ported over from the previous DVD edition. Z'Dar reflects upon his early acting career in film and TV, Lustig bringing him onto the project, his fandom among NYPD police force (which is sorta scary) and working alongside Tom Atkins, Bruce Campbel and Laura Landon whom he hints he may have had a romantic relationship with. New bonus content created this release are the Out the Window featurette with Tom Atkins whom recalls working with Campbell and Sharee North, feeling that his character died too quickly, which I agree with, I definitely could have gone for some more Atkins here and in any film for that matter. Something else I could relate to is his recollection of watching the film for the first time on VHS with a huge "NOT FOR DISTRIBUTION" watermark imposed on the screen. I get a lot of DVD screeners with watermarks that are quite distracting, film is a visual medium so stop obscuring your films. The second new feature is Three Minutes with Danny Hicks which is exactly that, Hick's mostly recalling the joys of throwing pretty boy Bruce Campbell up against the paddy wagon during a scene in the film.

Other features carried over from the DVD are the French theatrical trailer, TV Spots, a Spanish radio spot and six scenes from the Japanese TV version of the film involving a subplot with Mayor Killium (Ken Lerner) that really aren't that interesting but are here for completest just the same.There's also an animated promotional art gallery of various posters, DVD, VHS and soundtrack artwork set to the main title. Earlier I mentioned not tossing the previous Synapse DVD to the wolves quite yet and here's why, that's because the one feature not ported over is the group commentary with director William Lustig, writer Larry Cohen, actor Bruce Campbell and composer Jay Chattaway. Not sure what the reasoning may be for this but I would speculate so as not to invalidate the DVD edition. A few of the Synapse Blu-ray editions have been Blu-ray/DVD combos, the exception seems to be titles that Synapse have released recently on DVD previously so it makes sense from a business perspective though I wish it were included just the same. What else could we want? Perhaps a Bruce Campbell interview but honestly is it worth hearing him promote BURN NOTICE every five minutes? Nah.

SPECIAL FEATURES:
- MANIAC COP MEMORIES - Interview with Robert Z'Dar (12:12) 16x9 HD
- OUT THE WINDOW - Interview with Tom Atkins (10:56) 16x9 HD
- THREE MINUTES WITH DANNY HICKS Featurette (3:32) 16x9 HD
- Motion Still Gallery (3:07) HD
- French Theatrical Trailer (1:23) 16x9
- TV Spots (3:55) 4x3
- Additional Scenes Filmed for Japanese Television (5:43) 4x3
- Spanish Radio Spot (:31)

VERDICT: Definitely a film that gets a check mark in the must-own box. Is it worth the upgrade if you own the DVD? I say yes though it's unfortunate that the commentary is absent, so don't post it on SwapaDVD just yet. That said, Synapse continue to release top of the line genre-cinema Blu-rays well-worth your hard earned bucks. OWN IT!