Psycho Cop Returns

After viewing the first Psycho Cop and found that a lot of fun, but completely stupid with awful acting and then finding out that there's a part 2, to be honest I wasn't all that thrilled and thought that it would be just a watered down version of the first one. But boy I was wrong, opinions seemed mixed on this one, but honestly I found this one a whole lot better.

Okay the production isn't any better nor is the effects and acting, but this does have a certain charm to it. This time the setting is in an office building instead of the old camping teenagers in the woods scenario, which was a bit odd for a movie called Psycho Cop, but this setting makes more sense in a way and Bobby Ray Schafer (the cop himself) seems more fun in this one and has more snappier dialogue. Plus the movie itself moves along at a decent pace and I wasn't bored for a minute and the strange turn it takes during the final act was a total surprise and very different and I didn't want this movie to end.

The plot this time we start off with 2 office guys in a coffee shop making plans for a bachelor party at their office building after hours, but they are overheard by officer Joe Vickers himself and he doesn't approve and starts following them and of course when he enters the building all hell breaks loose with several office workers, a security guard and a couple of strippers all lined up ready for his brand of unique justice.

The acting of course is pretty bad but I found the characters a lot more memorable than the first one and some were even likable. Barbara Niven as the obvious final girl was pretty likable and was strong willed and proved to be a decent match for the psycho cop. Mile Dougal was annoying as hell and his acting (if you can call it that) was just strange and all over the place. But the two strippers were a riot and of course Psycho cop himself steals the show.

All in all Psycho Cop Returns is not by any means a masterpiece, but it is a lot of fun and highly enjoyable and honestly never thought that in a million years that I'd enjoy this but I did and I wish that there was a Psycho Cop 3.

(Some Spoilers) Black comedy about a crazed policeman out to enforce the law by crashing a bachelor party at the Stonecipher Building and massacring almost all those in attendance.

At the local donut shop Offcer Vickers, Robert R. Shafer, overhears office workers Larry & Brian, Rod Sweitzer & Milles Dougal, talk about a bachelor party that's to be held that evening at their office with booze and grass and semi-nude women being brought in for adult entertainment.

Vickers a law & order nut and a bit into Satanic practices and sacrifices decides to stop these impending breaches of the law, drinking and having sex on the job, before it happens and to punish those criminals who break it and the only way he knows how is with brutal and deadly force. In the Stonecipher Building everyone is ready and expecting to have a good time with Mr. Stonecipher,John Paxton, their boss being told that their staying over to catch up with their backlog of paperwork. Before you know it the local strippers are let into the building by the night watchman Gus, Al Schuerman, and the drinking and partying starts as office worker Gary, Dave Bean, is given his last fling as a bachelor before he ends up getting hooked. It turns out instead to be Gary's last day alive on earth.

Bloody and in some ways hilarious, with a number of sharp and witty one liners by Officer Vickers, horror flick with Vickers knocking off almost everyone at the party. Vickers starts with Gus who he put a pencil through his brain then works his way up the building finishing off everyone else but Brian & Sharon, Barbara Niven, who survived his rampage. As you would expect Vickers, like almost every villain in these types of films, has superhuman strength and endurance. No matter what happens to him like being pushed down an elevator shaft hit in the midsection ,full force, with an ax and almost having his head burned off with a lighted spray-can he just keeps on going as strong as ever in his crusade to enforce the law that he was sworn to uphold.

The movie has a scene in it that copies the infamous March 1991 Rodney King police beating with Vickers being beaten and kicked by a bunch of outraged citizens, after trying to murder Sharon, with bats sticks and fists as the entire scene is being videotaped by an shocked onlooker,Adam Rifkin. Still Vickers still manages to survive to live and kill another day in another Psycho Cop movie.

Adam Rifkin should not have used his 'Rif Coogan' pseudonym on PSYCHO COP 2. If he thinks a supposed A-list release like the unfortunately boring DETROIT ROCK CITY is something to be proud of, he needs to revert back to the mindset he was in while making this fun fest. After a nifty title sequence, PSYCHO COP 2 settles in to tell the tale of an after hours bachelor party at an office building. Various people die when the PSYCHO COP shows up and Julie Strain runs around in chaps. That's the plot.

Now the acting, while amateurish, gains your acceptance because the actors are naturally appealing. The script is fast, funny and never pretends to be something it's not. Sometimes the one liners are groaners but you seem to let it go, because the film's vibe is inviting you to come along, not holding you in contempt for watching this kind of picture. The only problem is all the gore effects have been excised to secure an R rating. The cuts are jumpy and ragged during those deletions and the after effects are too quickly shown. If there could possibly be a director's cut, PSYCHO COP 2 could be a guilty pleasure classic for us horror fans. So listen up, Rifkin! Make it happen. People actually like this film. I'm proud to say I do.

Well, I didn't see this coming. But I got to hand it to it. It was surprisingly entertaining and easily surpasses the original "Psycho Cop". Think of "Die Hard", but sleazier and done like a slasher outing with a touch of soft-core as Officer Joe Vickers gatecrashes a late- night stag party. Probably even more on the cheap. While the first felt serious with unintentional humour, "Returns" seems to play-up the concept with tongue-in-cheek and self-knowing quips. It's outrageous, sexed-up and totally ups the ante, nasty and gory deaths with Officer Vickers chipping with a witty response nearly every time. Robert R Shaffer returns to the deranged role and he gives an even better performance, which doesn't feel as amateurish and his delivery of the dialogue is less painful. Everything moves at a fast pace, the setting keeps the horror confined, as the body count piles up and the story's developments go over-the-top. The plot is pulpy, but a little creative and the performances are fairly animated with the ravishing Barbara Niven leading the way.

I watched this immediately after the original Psycho Cop and, wow, what a difference a little self-awareness makes! The original incompetently plodded through horrible writing, acting (with the exception of Shafer)and pretty much anything else you could screw up in a movie. For the sequel, they watched the original, expanded on the strengths and actively ridiculed the weaknesses. I almost hate to call Shafer's performance "brilliant" but there it is. Another actor would play the role just for laughs, but Shafer, after delivering a punchline, keeps the character's cheerful psychotic complexity. Did I really write that?

This is just a fun, fun film that does a great job treading the line between the "THIS IS A COMEDY HORROR MOVIE ABOUT BAD COMEDY HORROR MOVIES" and just an enjoyable slasher film.