Maniac Cop 3

Maniac Cop 3 is another great sequel to the 1988 Cult Classic original, part 2 was great but i enjoy part 3 more but the first film is the best of this excellent underrated Horror Trilogy. I just really think these flicks are so much fun.

The excellent Robert Davi is back in the lead role as tough Detective Sean mckinney (from Maniac Cop 2) who is again on the hunt for a newly resurrected zombie Maniac Cop, there's a nice night time voodoo atmosphere & this time the Maniac Cop "Cordell" is definitely a zombie & is out to murder once again, the Maniac Cop is very much like "Jason Voorhees" here as he's a big hulking silent,super-strong killer & is almost unstoppable.

Robert z'darr plays the matt Cordell aka the Maniac Cop & he's still the same in his movements & presence but more zombie looking this time.

Our Hero of this slick looking 90's Slasher-Thriller is of course the excellent rugged Robert Davi who is perfectly cast in the role of the no-nonsense,tough & gritty Detective sean Mckinney, Davi plays Mckinney serious & moody & like the equally excellent Tom Atkins in the first Maniac Cop, hes the best character & performance in the whole movie!!!

Davi has a cool presence about him, he looks rugged & comes accross like a Detective from an old pulp novel or even a bounty hunter, Davi is a class actor who appeared mostly in straight to video low-rent Thriller's during the 90's but he was always great to watch even if the B-movie isn't that good, Davi always gave a good memorable perfperformance & that's why he's one of my favourite actors along with Atkins, they both have that screen quality where you look forward to seeing them in anything. Davi is a true retro action star of the DTV B-movie era & has given us plenty of low-budget gems to uncover!!! Davi is great in The Bad Pack, The Zone, Night Trap, Center of the Web, Peacemaker & many more, go check out his awesome filmography.

Maniac Cop 3 is pure early 90s in it's look & tone, it feels like a 90s Dark Thriller with slasher elements here & there but it feels more like a Cop film or a Detective Thriller & that's fine, there is a darkness to this movie in it's style & visual look & a great new setting within a hospital abit like "Michael Myers" stalking the hospital in "Halloween 2" & it works well here as we've watched the Maniac Cop stalk the dark city streets in the other films so this is a nice new setting & feels fresh.

There's a little side story mixed in about a good lady cop who becomes abit of a bride of Frankenstein in a way to the Maniac Cop, its a fun little fantasy bit even if it's abit silly really it doesn't hurt the movie as it's so entertaining with a fantastic shootout scene in the hospital with "mckinney" taking on some street thugs in a hospital corridor, it's truly an Awesome action scene & there's another great bit where "mckinney" discovers a secret underground tunnel leading from the hospital to an old church where the Maniac Cop hides out along with the zoodoo witch doctor guy who brought him back to life, the look is lovely with candles all over the old church it's a great peice of production design in it's almost cosy look.

There's also the spectacular end car Chase sequence, it's Amazing.

Maniac Cop 3 is a thrilling sequel with a great rare lead role for Davi & some excellent action scenes & some real gory death scenes, it's great late night entertainment in it's old school 90s vhs Slasher Thriller feel.

Former killer cop, officer Cordell is resurrected to take care of some unfinished business and exact revenge on those who have disgraced a policewoman shot in the line of duty.

Despite being made in 1993 Badge of Silence reeks of the 80s farmore than Cordells rotten flesh, basically it's part slasher flick, part cop shoot 'em up. There's stunt doubles, car chases and cops on the edge. To its credit Larry Cohen's Maniac Cop 3 story touches on some topical issues, problems with gun crime, the TV/press manipulation and corrupt officials.

With a hint of the Bride of Frankenstein and a more blatant supernatural overtone Robert Z'Dar is reduced to a zombie with a bigger chin than Bruce Campbell as wronged cop Matt Cordell. It feels like Z'Dar has less to do this time around and through no fault of his own his character is a shade of grey with his motivations as murky as cities officials.

The casting is above par for this kind of flick. Robert Davi is on form as usual, returning as Det. Sean McKinney and pretty much owns each scene with a Dirty Harry grimace. Top character actors Robert Forster and Paul Gleason have welcomed bit parts with Ted Raimi putting in cameo.

Where as part one shocked because of its daylight surprise setting, two because of its dark tone, grit and seediness, part three is most notable for being the darkest looking instalment lacking it's own identity - it feels like an episode of the Equalizer starring The Terminator in places. However, where the aforementioned parts were low budget with a big budget results, edgy and delivered shocks, three falls short feeling rushed and underdeveloped retreading the antagonists past and redemption. Nevertheless, to director William Lustig's credit and writer Cohen part 3 manages to mix a voodoo element on the gritty police backdrop successfully unlike for example Halloween 6 which followed two years later.

Overall, while not as entertaining nor as well executed as its predecessor it's worth seeing if only for Caitlin Dulany and Davi's performances and also to hear Joel Goldsmith overlooked score.

With Maniac Cop 2, director William Lustig and screenwriter Larry Cohen imagined a mixture of bloody slasher and crime thriller The French Connection, and delivered just about the most satisfying sequel imaginable to an original that was hardly great. It delivered on car chases, action set-pieces and slasher mayhem, backed with a witty, sharp script and an impressive cast. It also delivered a full-body- burn climax that was as exciting as it was technically impressive. While part two looked at William Friedkin's classic thriller for inspiration, just where Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence found inspiration is anyone's guess, other than perhaps the sort of drivel you used to find buried on the bottom shelf of the video store. Lustig and Cohen have both disowned the movie since its release, and it isn't difficult to see why.

Citing studio interference, Lustig walked from the set half-way through filming for the movie to be picked up by inexperienced producer Joel Soisson, who is uncredited. The resulting film is less than a half-baked idea: a lumbering mess of a film, primarily made up of filler that is, at times, downright unwatchable. Having clear Matt Cordell's name and buried him with honours in tact, Detective Sean McKinney (Robert Davi) had hoped to have seen the last of the 'Maniac Cop'. His close father-daughter-like relationship with young police officer Katie Sullivan (Gretchen Becker) is ground to a halt when she is gunned down and placed into a coma by junkie Frank (Jackie Earle Haley), only for two 'nightcrawler' cameramen to smear her name with some edited footage. After being resurrected by a Voodoo priest, Cordell sees Sullivan as an equally tortured and unfairly disgraced soul, and sets about claiming her for his own.

It's hard to know where to start with Maniac Cop 3, as the film is so lacking in ideas and structure that it barely has a beginning, middle and end. When it hits a wall, it looks to its predecessor for ideas. So we are treated to another convenience store shootout, another high speed chase, and another finale involving a full body burn. In its defence, the climax mixes both a high speed chase and a full body burn, and while it goes on for a little too long, you have to appreciate the complexity of such an intricate set-piece. Cordell, again played by Robert Z'Dar, is relegated to little more than a glorified cameo in his own movie, appearing ever now and then to carry out a bloody deed seemingly for Voodoo priest Houngan (Julius Harris), whose motives are still unclear when the credits roll. As a fan of the first two Maniac Cop movies, it's easy to feel as cheated as Lustig did as he stormed off set.

The plot apparently was not the main consideration of the people who decided to make this, the second sequel to the 1988 surprise hit; that's the only way to explain why there are so many gaps in it (like "Who is that voodoo master?", "Why did he choose to resurrect the Maniac Cop" and "Why does the Maniac Cop kill / help good AND bad guys so arbitrarily?"). Since justice had been set straight at the end of the previous installment, there is no really compelling reason for the title character to return from his grave, so the whole movie seems pointless and unmotivated. But the lengthy chase sequence near the end is so fast-paced and well-done that made me raise the film's rating by half a star. (**)

In New York city , Policewoman is gunned down, staying in coma , and being accused of use excessive force by the nasty delinquents . Then the grossly disfigured police Robert D'Zar returning from his grave to wreak futher vendetta yet again, as he emerges to exact gory revenge as the good guys attempt to get rid of him once and for all . As the huge maniac cop goes on his vengeance, why never matters .

Run-of-the mill and routine sequel with usual elements as noisy action , thrills , chills , car pursuits , shootouts , grisly violence , high body-count and lots of blood and gore. As it is, despite abundant action and involving a fistful of murders , the overall effects is sluggish . A medium-budget slasher/thriller that too often saga, but it has more action than the previous entries , outstanding the final scenes when our starring Robert Davi and a nurse are mercilessly chased by the psycho killer , maniac cop throughtout the railway . Blood and guts fly as any plot shortcomings are intelligently masked by an array of lethal , sadistic and violent deaths . This is third of the William Lusting's Maniac cop trilogy about the cop goes beyond the realm of sanity and turns vigilante, being formed by the following ones : "Maniac Cop" 1988 with Tom Atkins , Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon , Richard Roundtree , William Smith , Shree North , Sam Raimi. "Maniac Cop II" with Robert Davi, Claudia Christian , Michael Lerner , Bruce Campbell , Clarence Williams III, Leo Rossi, James Dixon . An this "Maniac Cop III Badge of Silence" with Robert Davi , Paul Gleason , Doug Savant , Jackie Earle Haley , Robert Forster and of course Robert D'Zar as the zombiefied cop Matt Cordell . All of them were written by Larry Cohen and middlingly but professionally made.

The picture was regularly directed by William Lusting , who here used the frequent pseudonym Alan Smithee , giving a passable filck in which interpretations , occasional bizarre details and camerawork are solid enough , but both cutting and filmmaking are flabby and formulary. This craftsman filmmaker has made various films with plenty of violence , action and terror , such as : "Uncle Sam" , "Relentless" , "The Hit list" , "Vigilante" and "Maniac" . Rating : 5/10 . Average but passable and acceptable .