Avis des utilisateurs

Scanner Cop (1994) was an interesting spin-off of the Scanners trilogy. This small budgeted film follows the remnents of the "scanner" underground. One of these is a young man who's a scanner and he tries to deal with his powers. Darlene Fluegal co-stars as a doctor who tries to help the "scanner". But somewhere in the big city there's an evil scanner hell bent on declaring war on the "normals".

I saw this film nine years ago on cable t.v. I was impressed by it because it didn't try to hard. Just a movie about a couple of unaccounted rogue scanners roaming amongst the "normals". Not a masterpiece by any means. A nice little time killer that I wouldn't mind seeing again in the near future.

Watchable, if on the idiot box.

B-

x

I really didn't expect ANYTHING from 'Scanner Cop', and only rented it to see two of my favourites Richard Lynch ('Open Season', 'The Ninth Configuration', 'Little Nikita') and the late Brion James ('Blade Runner', 'Crimewave', 'Tango & Cash') on screen together. The bad news is that they never share a scene, and that James only has a pointless cameo of around two minutes. The good news is that the movie is surprisingly enjoyable above average b-grade sci-fi action.

Daniel Quinn ('Wild At Heart') plays a young man with "scanner" powers who has been adopted by a kindly cop (Richard Grove - 'Army Of Darkness'). The movie begins showing how to two met but quickly flashes forward fifteen years with Quinn's first day as a rookie cop, Grove by this stage being police Commander. Cops, including Quinn's partner, suddenly begin getting murdered by seemingly normal citizens. Quinn finds himself on the trail of the criminal mastermind behind this fiendish plan (yup, you guessed it, it's Richard Lynch), but to do so he must stop taking the medication which suppresses his scanner powers. By doing this he risks permanent damage and possible insanity, so the case becomes a race against the clock, and one he can't afford to lose.

Stupid but fun, with Lynch at his most villainous, and having a hammy good time.

Really far exceeded my expectations.

The lead actor is quite good and did not annoy me like so many actors have a tendency to do.

I will agree that the opening scene special effects were very poor, with a dolls head popping out of latex on a guy's forehead. But after that, the effects were not as embarrassing.

The evil guy, played by the same guy who plays villains in many horror movies, is really good, too. The female evil partner is very hot and convincing. She looks like the black widow type.

Pete, the cop who adopts the scanner is very good too.

I was surprised by the decent acting and cool effects after the opening scene. Most hardcore horror fans will get a kick out of this one.

Pretty disposable sequel of sorts to the Scanners series. I've only seen the first Scanners film, which I didn't think was one of Cronenberg's better ones.

Anyway, in this one a poor father and son are taking drugs to suppress their abilities as scanners, but have run out for lack of money. The father is going crazy, hallucinating, and becoming violent. The police arrive, and the father gets killed. The boy gets adopted by one of the cops.

Years later, the boy is now a cop and his father the Commander. Throughout the city, ordinary people are killing cops without provocation. They're seeing the cops as things they fear. The Commander hopes that his son would be willing to go off his medication to try to use his abilities as a scanner to find out what is going on.

There are a couple head explosions (something memorable from the first Scanners), but mostly the psychic powers are used here to read minds, or throw people through the air.

There's a Scanner Cop II, oddly also known as Scanners IV when it should seemingly be the fifth one, if this is the fourth. Evidently Scanners is also being remade; really, Hollywood, enough of the remakes of horror movies already!

While the original "Scanners" was a ground breaking entry in the exploding head genre, "Scanner Cop" takes scanning to a new level. Daniel Quinn is quite good as the cop with brain reading powers. Naturally this asset can be very useful in a police investigation. Ordinary citizens have been programmed to kill cops by the always intriguing Richard Lynch and his fortune teller accomplice, Hilary Shepard. The story is fast moving and engaging as hallucinogenic programmed assassins think they are killing a programmed entity. As entertainment, this one is totally acceptable from any angle. Recommended. - MERK

this is a B movie,no doubt about it.that isn't always a bad thing.i f you have good acting,decent characters,and a decent storyline,it could work.does this movie have any of that?maybe a little.the story is mildly interesting.none of the characters are,except for one.that would be the villain,played by Richard Lynch.Lynch has a certain quality about him that makes him watchable.the rest of the characters,i didn't really care one way or another.the reason for that is the suspect acting.the other thing i didn't like(in fact,it really annoyed me)was the unbelievably cheesy.sound effects/music that was used every time somebody was being scanned.it drove me up the wall.while this is nowhere near the worst movie i have seen,it is closer to the bottom than the top. 3.5/10

You know, it doesn´t really need to be a high-budgeted, well-acted movie to be amusing, right? As long as the movie is at least a little bit original. The only actor that really shows up is Richard Lynch, always casted as a villain (Just look at his face and you´ll know why) Everyone else does their part normally. This movie talks about telepathic-telekinetic people who go to the good side or to the bad side. The main character is a cop that´s one of those people. The villain uses a telepathical kind of machine that kinda traumatize people and make them kill anyone wearing a batch. I say this movie is amusing, but it still needs some category.

Opening scene Special Effects were really Cheesy, and I mean REALLY!!! Cheesy. The plot wasn't that bad, and overall the acting wasn't all that bad either. Special effects were done well for a low budget film. If you're going to the movie store to rent one movie, don't rent this one. If you're got a 5 movies 5 bucks deal...pick it up, it's worth it then! :)

After the abysmal, but consequently very entertaining Scanners III, which once again saw good scanners versus bad scanners, the franchise took a different approach, focusing on the character of Samuel Staziak (Daniel Quinn), a young policeman who uses his powerful psychic abilities to uphold the law. In Scanner Cop, B-movie bad guy Richard Lynch plays Karl Glock, who has a score to settle with Staziak's adoptive father, police commander Harrington (played by Richard Grove, who, in reality, was only a year older than Quinn), the villain using brain-washing techniques to achieve his goal.

Scanner Cop is cheap straight to video nonsense that is far removed from the brilliance of Cronenberg's classic shocker, but it's not an entirely worthless effort: the film features some reasonable special make-up effects by John Carl Buechler, including bulging blood vessels and one exploding head (they had to do it); there's a handful of enjoyable hallucination scenes, including a large insect creature and a zombie; we get one pair of boobs; and Lynch is as loathsome as ever. Hilary Shepard is also fun as Glock's evil henchwoman Zena, who seems to be in it for the sh**ts and giggles. Quinn does well in the central role, genuinely looking like he's about to have an aneurysm whenever he uses his powers.

If you're a fan of the franchise, this one will most likely entertain, especially if you don't go in expecting too much from it. 5/10.

A tense and bloody mix of gruesome body horror and an action-packed police thriller, Scanner Cop is far better than one might originally think as a quasi-sequel to Cronenberg's Scanners. While the script may be nothing overly special, it's a tightly written and fast-paced thriller that delivers an abundance of B-movie exploitation goodness. Marking his directorial debut Pierre David, long-time producer on all the other Scanner films and Cronenberg's Videodrome, delivers a humourless, somewhat bleak approach to help sell the bizarre subject matter. Populated by a plentiful cast of the usual suspects including an always-welcome Richard Lynch doing what he does best in the villain role. Backed by a funky synth score by Louis Febre, there's never a dull moment in Scanner Cop but almost too many highlights to list, although the minuscule and completely irrelevant role of Brion James feels criminal.

"Told you so...". That's what my movie-buddy said when I told him how much fun I had with the copy of "Scanner Cop" he lent me. And he's absolutely right, too! He tried persuading me of its massive entertainment value before, but I skeptically downgraded it as an insignificant straight-to-video 90s horror flick and a lame attempt to further cash in on David Cronenberg's wonderful creation "Scanners".

Well, I'm glad I was wrong - like so often the case - and can only concur "Scanner Cop" ticks all the required boxes for qualifying as terrific B-movie entertainment. It has a simple but engaging and unpretentious plot, plenty of action, several familiar names in the cast, and a handful of splendid make-up effects by specialist John Carl Buechler. What more do you need? An over-the-top psychotic villain, perhaps? Sure, we'll throw him in, too.

Following an action-packed intro, in which a Scanner goes berserk from the voices inside his head and gets assassinated, his teenage son - also a Scanner - gets adopted by the caring detective Pete Harrigan. Several years later, Harrigan is police commissioner of the LAPD and his adopted son - Samuel - graduates as a law enforcer. Samuel keeps his Scanner condition under control with medication, but need to unleash his dangerous power when the city is plagued by a series of extremely violent and mysterious murders of police officers. The mad-raving culprit behind the killings is Dr. Carl Glock, who found a way of hypnotizing/manipulating the minds of innocent people and instruct them to kill cops. That sounds an awful lot like the plot of "The Manchurian Candidate", and the script also shamelessly refers to it as well.

There's not a dull moment in "Scanner Cop", but almost too many highlights to list. The murders of the several police officers are extremely brutal, especially to see them being committed by innocent and unwary marionettes, like a janitor or even a loving wife. There are also bizarre moments, like the hallucination of little heads popping out of someone's forehead, or Samuel acting like a furious Scanner against lifeless objects like police computers. Still, though, the indisputable show-stealer of the film is Richard Lynch as the utterly insane Glock with a metal plate in his skull, and a vicious grudge against cops. Biggest disappointment, however, was the minuscule and totally irrelevant role of Brion James.

I loved this movie! I have Scanner Cop 1&2 On VHS!

After Samuel's Dad - who was a scanner - is killed, a cop takes custody of him. The film then jumps ahead 15 years and Samuel (Daniel Quinn) now too is a cop. Just like his dad, he also has telepathic powers, and needs to take pills to suppress his powers.

But when someone starts killing cops, Samuel realizes he has to use his powers to find and stop the killer. The killer and the film's antagonist is Dr Karl Glock (Richard Lynch), a psychiatrist who brainwashes people to commit the killings. To those who have been brainwashed, cops appear to be giant insects or horrible creatures, and they unintentionally kill the cops.

'Scanner Cop' is a spinoff to the 'Scanners' series, which started back in 1981. The final act is a wild ride filled with hellish images. It becomes an all-out clash between our hero's powers, and hallucinations. The film has an 80's feel to it, with excellent practical effects.