Maniac Cop 2 *** (1990, Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, Michael Lerner) – Classic Movie Review 8300

Director William Lustig’s and writer Larry Cohen’s 1990 Maniac Cop 2 is a cheaper-looking and even more exploitative-seeming sequel to their 1988 horror thriller Maniac Cop, with a welter of violence and bad black humour jokes. It may look cheaper, but it was much more expensive to make and its budget was $4,000,000 against the original’s $1,100,000.

[Spoiler alert] Officer Matt Cordell (Robert Z’Dar), the killer cop from the original rises from his watery grave and now again becomes a supernatural, maniac killer cop, bent on vengeance on the criminals who murdered him in prison. He joins up with a New York City Times Square serial rapist and murderer, and is pursued by cynical cop Detective Sean McKinney (played by Robert Davi).

Lustig directs at a fast pace and concentrates on the grisly action and well-handled stunt work. As with the first film, the solid cast contribute better-than-average acting, giving the movie a palpable lift.

Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon and Robert Z’Dar return from the original as Jack Forrest, Theresa Mallory and Matt Cordell, and Claudia Christian, Michael Lerner, Clarence Williams III, Leo Rossi, Lou Bonacki, Paula Trickey and Charles Napier are also in the cast.

Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence, also directed by William Lustig and written Larry Cohen, followed in 1993.

RIP Larry Cohen (15 July 1941 – 23 March 2019), best known for It’s Alive (1974), God Told Me To (1976), It’s Alive II [It Lives Again] (1978), The Stuff (1985) and It’s Alive III: Island of the Alive (1987) and his screenwriting works Maniac Cop (1988), Phone Booth (2002), Cellular (2004) and Captivity (2007).

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8300

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