 Thanks for checking out this movie review video. So this is for the 1990 film Maniac Cop 2, and right now it is available for streaming on the Shutter streaming service when I'm doing this review. So yes, I did do a review for the first Maniac Cop, it's available on my channel. And yes, I will be doing a review for the third Maniac Cop Badge of Silence, which all three of these films are available on Shutter at the moment. So this is a very rare instance with a sequel where the same director stays on, the same writer stays on as well. And that's great, especially because the director for this is William Lustig, who's done films such as Maniac Cop, or, sorry, yes, the first Maniac Cop. Also ends up doing the third Maniac Cop, but also did the original film Maniac with Joe Spinell. Great film, great film, and that was before Maniac Cop. Then the writer, who was also a producer on this one, Larry Cohen, who's written such scripts as It's Alive, Cue the Winged Serpent, The Stuff, God Told Me To, Full Moon High, and then Maniac Cop 2, 3, 1, 2, and 3. So Bruce Campbell returns in this, but briefly, obviously, because then he gets. But he's basically replaced by Robert Dovey, who does a good job in this, I think. He looks like a villain, so it's kind of weird that he's kind of like the good guy in this one, but looks aren't everything in film, and you can make someone who kind of looks like a villain into a hero like they do in this film. And it makes him more of just kind of like a brooding character who's a good guy, so it works. He does a good job, I'll always remember him most and cherish his role most in the Goonies, because he's a great Fratelli, so great job on that one. Robert Zadar is back, obviously, as the Maniac Cop in this, who does a great job. He didn't have to do as much of the interesting, more demanding physical acting in this, as far as small things that are interesting and that show some sort of personality. He was more zombie-like in this than he was in the first one, so it kind of took less for him. But he still did a good job, obviously, so it was good to see him back. Also, Loreen Landon is in this one, who is also in films such as Full Moon High, Airplane 2, the stuff, very small role in the stuff. It's a Live 3 and Samurai Cop 2, which I haven't seen Samurai Cop 2 yet, I really want to, because Samurai Cop 1 is ridiculous. It's so awful, it's amazing. And just to give you some more information on Robert Dobby, he's been in such films as obviously Goonies, like I said. And this is just naming a few, because he's been in a lot. Die Hard, the James Bond film, License to Kill, Predator 2, and he ends up being in Maniac Cop 3, but I'll see to what degree. I wonder if it's gonna be a same situation where in this one, the people who survived at the end of it get killed relatively early on. That being Jack and Theresa from the first one, which I was totally fine with, because I think it was kind of cool that they had them die initially, because it shows you that there's still a very real threat out there and that really no one's safe as well, because they're the heroes from the first one. So them dying so early on makes you feel like anyone could die at this point. But then it's kind of cool because they then introduce McKinney, as well as Riley, who end up taking their spots. So they're basically McKinney, McKinney takes Jack's spot, although he's kind of more of like the McCray of the second film, which was Tom Atkins' character from the first one, because he's more detective-ish and really looking into things. And then Riley takes Teresa's place, or Mallory, as they call her. So this film actually had a straight to video release and many actually considered to be a better film than the first one. I think it's close to on par with the first one in my opinion, but I do think I like it a little bit more, especially because there were some interesting things that they did. It's hard to have a sequel like this be better than the original, mainly because there's no mystery to it. In the first one, there's a mystery to it, like who is the maniac cop? How is this a situation where he's kind of like the zombie-like state? It goes through so much that's the mysterious, interesting stuff. That's already known going into the second film, so how are you gonna make it interesting still? But they did that in this, and I like it. Blue Underground actually, sorry, actually released this on Blu-ray in 2013, and they actually did a limited theatrical release right before they put the Blu-ray out, which is cool, that doesn't happen a whole lot, and I really like that. The beginning seems unbelievably abrupt to this film, and I was very much caught off guard with it, because it seems like they just jump into stuff without any context. And then I realized, I was like, they're rehashing what happened at the end of the last one. Now, that's good from the standpoint of if people are coming into it blind, not having seen the first one, then they don't lose out on a whole lot. Like they know what happened in the first one, well, the most important portion leading into this film, so that's fine. So then it kind of serves as a standalone film in a way, but I felt like they rehashed a little bit too long. It's like, I don't need to see exactly what I just saw at the end of the first one. So for anyone who saw the first one, they're just kind of like, I don't need a refresher, like I know what happened, but I understand why they did. So it's a little annoying for me, but I understand it. I really liked when they show the title of it, excuse me. I just ate a cucumber, it was a little piece left in there, that's gross, sorry. Anyway, I like when they show the title, and then there are like the slash marks that go through it, and the sound with it, which is really awesome, which obviously is supposed to kind of symbolize the little like knife baton that Maniac Cop has, well, Cordell, I'll refer to him as Cordell, the Maniac Cop. It's a cool way to do the title, I really like that. The silhouette of Cordell when he shows up at the convenience store, it looks really crazy because it's such a weird body shape. It's like a massive, massive top of the body, and then his face is just huge basically. But it's a cool looking silhouette, and it's a great way to bring him back into the film. And they do that multiple times throughout the film, it's just showing him as mainly like a silhouette. But then they also show like how messed up and more deteriorated his faces, which I was wondering if they were gonna do that, and I'm glad they did. I feel like because as he continues to go through all these confrontations, all this action, yeah, he would take more damage basically, because it doesn't heal or anything since he's already dead. So, yeah, I like that he continues to deteriorate. And that makes me more interested to see what's he gonna look like in Maniac Cop 3 at this point, especially after he got burned at the end, which I'll talk about that whole scene later, which I loved obviously. Early on, there's a significant focus on trauma and people kind of getting help for what happened in the first film. And that's interesting because then that, so it's weird because it's initially introduced as like a good thing, like go get help, deal with the trauma of this. And that's something that was touched on a bit in the first film. But then it's met with this, the other side of the coin basically, where people start to kind of talk crap about psychologists. McKinney initially as well is why he didn't have a good relationship with Riley initially, because he's basically like, my ex-wife went to a psychologist and then she left me. So he immediately thinks they're bad. So there's this kind of dichotomy of like saying it's a good thing, but then also making a statement about it being a bad thing, because McKinney's ex-wife went there and then she left him. So insinuating that the psychologist basically said, we'll leave your husband. And then also the fact that the commissioner, the police commissioner, is using the excuse of go to a psychologist to kind of like control people, to talk them out of talking about what actually happened with Cordell and the maniac cop situation. So it's an interesting dichotomy at play. The baton knife is an awesome weapon, yes. And Jack getting killed early on, like I said, is great because it's high stakes. It says no one is safe, so you don't really know what's gonna happen, which is wonderful. How insane is it that the guy arguing about his car getting towed ends up seeing a cop get killed right in front of him, and he has like no reaction to it. He's just like, whatever, that's fine, because he wanted so badly to get out of that parking ticket or that parking violation. I don't know why he was getting towed, but it doesn't make sense. This is one of these things of like the writing. The writing by and large was good for this, quite good for this, except that's one moment where you're just like, this isn't even like remotely realistic at the moment. I understand the whole concept of Cordell is not remotely realistic, but everything else within the film has been and in the first one as well. So the fact that the guy just sees him get killed and he just like tears up the ticket and is just like, okay, whatever. But that the post desk scene of that is really cool because, you know, he's like hanging on the hook for the tow truck and just drives away. That's a cool image. So they did a good job on that one. Like I said before, McKinney ends up being the new McCray, who was Tom Atkins character in the first one. But this time he actually already knows the information about Cordell. So he kind of has a better starting point. But granted, he's working. He's got a worse situation than McCray, though, because he has the commissioner working against him actively. So and you end up finding out in the end, obviously, it's because the commissioner ended up having a bad role in all the crap that happened to Cordell, which kind of got us to the point of all the killings when Cordell came back to life. All the sparks flying in that car chase scene when the tires come off and it's just running on the rims. That is one way to kind of up the ante in a car chase and make it more interesting, more flashy, because obviously they did a car chase in the first one, maybe two. So they do multiples in this one and they kind of make it a little more grandiose. And I think the sparks flying while the car is going is really cool, but I also have to think that wherever they recorded that, they probably really messed up those streets. Maybe they fixed it. I don't know, I would hope so, but those are the things I thought about. I was like, oh, the sparks look cool. Oh, they're really messing up those roads that's messed up. So yeah, this film has a bunch of crazy and dangerous-looking stunts to it. One of the big ones being when Riley ends up getting handcuffed to the steering wheel and then the car's just like runaway and she's hanging out the driver's side of it. A lot of that looks super dangerous, those stunts being pulled off. So that kind of struck me. And there's a lot of that in this film. I was just like, wow, they really went for it. And which, you know, it looks good for the film, but it seems dangerous. When Cordell was coming after Theresa Riley, or I'm sorry, Mallory, I had a feeling she was actually gonna die, mainly because since Jack had been replaced by McKinney, I was like, it would make sense now that she gets it and then she's replaced by this psychologist who inexplicably has a decent role in the film, even though she's not doing a whole lot. So then I was theorizing that she was actually, that Mallory was gonna end up getting killed, Theresa Mallory. So I don't think the first one had any nudity. So it kind of seemed like they needed to change that. They needed to up the ante and be like, oh, you know what, people always want in sequels more nudity. I mean, it was 1990, we just got out of the 80s. That was the thing with horror films. So, you know, whatever. It was pretty good misdirection in this, by the way, of you kind of thinking that Cordell was involved in killing all the strippers, and then you find out it's some other dude, it's some serial killer dude who keeps going to these strip clubs. And then the relationship that's created between this guy and Cordell, which initially makes absolutely no sense, because you're just like, why would Cordell join forces with this guy? And why would Cordell not just kill this guy? Because it seems like he just kills everyone he comes across pretty much, except for the guy in the beginning at the convenience store, which it kind of seemed more like he was trying to just set something up as like a distraction, I don't know. But regardless of if it makes sense, I love the fact that that serial killer, Turkle, ends up becoming a lackey or friend, as he puts it, a friend to Cordell, and then they go back to his place and they're like hanging out. Those interactions, well, kind of one-way interactions mostly, were really interesting. It's a really cool story concept. And then when it gets taken even further of the concept of kind of Cordell building his own evil police force in a way, that concept even better. And I think they, I would have loved if they went down that road more, but I obviously realized they didn't have that kind of time because it was like an hour and a half film, which perfect run time by the way. But I just really would have liked if they would have gone further down that and he actually amassed like his own police force of evil police officers who were actually criminals and then they get into this big fight, but who knows, maybe that's the third one, I don't know. We'll find out. I haven't seen the third one before, that's why I'm saying that. I will and do that review. The relationship between Cordell and Turkle is, yeah, it's my favorite thing. By the way, the guy who plays Turkle is Leo Rossi. He did an excellent job in this. He's actually my favorite character in the film, Turkle. He plays it. It just seems like he puts so much joy into playing that character and it comes through. He's like kind of funny, but he's a terrible person at the same time. Real interesting quirky dude. The shooting range scene was really excellently shot. It looked great. The other great thing about it is it was totally unexpected. It comes out of nowhere and you're just like, whoa, surprise, great scene, great scene that caught me off guard. I love the concept of the evil police force. I already talked about that. And then I put down another car chase, but this time instead of sparks flying, it's like a big bus. So that's another way to kind of up the ante on it. So they really went crazy on the car chasing in this. I've never seen a fight scene before with the people fighting on fire and that's insane. It looked really, really cool and what was even crazier is that it kept going with Cordell staying on fire and then grabbing other people and lighting them on fire and throwing them around like it was nuts. That's another thing that I'm getting at with a lot of dangerous stunts. That's dangerous to have someone on fire that much. Whenever you're working with fire on a set, like it is danger. So I guess they did a good job of kind of having safety measures and everything, but that scene in particular is crazy and cool and just seeing like the fire on Cordell in slow motion, it just looks cool. If you just like watch how fire moves and engulfs things, it's kind of beautiful in a way because it's something you don't look at a whole lot and it's interesting. I don't wanna sound like a pyromaniac or anything, but yeah. It's debatable whether the plan that the cops had to kind of make up with Cordell in a sense when they were saying, you were wrong then we'll reopen the case and all this type of stuff. It's debatable whether that plan actually worked or if, because maybe it did, I don't know because you have that moment where Cordell then goes after all the prisoners, but it's possible that that was his plan all along Cordell because that's the prison where he was killed. So I kind of have a feeling he was going there anyway to kill the people who killed him. Now, whether it was gonna be, he would just take out those individuals and then he would recruit the rest of the prisoners for his evil police force, I don't know. So it's kind of debatable whether the cops plan actually worked or not, but what are your thoughts? Put a comment down there. At the end, you just know that Cordell's hand is gonna come busting through that coffin. You wait for it. I did, I was like, I know this is gonna happen and it wasn't just because I knew that there's a third movie, it was because the way they shot it and the way they took so much time at the funeral and then also, especially when they started going into the grave with the camera, I was like, yeah, that's happening for sure. And the maniac cop song during the credits, it's something. It's something, it's a song. It made me laugh, I will say that. If you stopped the credits, if you stopped as soon as the credits came up, go back, watch the credits just to hear the song. It's something else. It'll make you laugh. All right, so some thoughts after the fact. The change in relationship between McKinney and Riley is actually super interesting because obviously it's contentious from the beginning because she's a psychologist, he really hates psychologists, as he makes that well known, but then she starts to make herself more useful in his eyes to him, such as when she has her arm in the cast and she ends up getting turquoise, catching turquoise at the strip club, then he kind of looks at her in a very different way and he's just like, oh, you're kind of like me, like you're not just some psychologist who I hate, you're valuable to me now. McKinney saying there's a little of Cordell in each officer speaks to the subtext of who Cordell actually is in the films, which is basically an exaggerated personification of the anger that law enforcement officers have when they see injustice or when they see that justice isn't properly served. That's what they're getting at with this and it speaks to, like I said, the exaggerated personification of Cordell, not just in Maniac Cop two, but in the very first one as well. So I don't think he needed to make the comment of, you know, there's a little bit of Cordell in all of us because that subtext was already there, but I think for some viewers, it would kind of lead them to that extra little hint. You know, it jogs the memory. It makes people think, oh, there's a connection. So it was fine though. And then the choice of the two main populations of victims in this is really interesting. That being strippers and being cops because you get the less protected community, which is the strippers and you get the very protected community, which is the police officers. Not only that, but it's a status thing. It's the situation of police officers because of their profession are thought of very, very highly for the most part and strippers because of their profession are not. They're on very separate ends of the spectrum and the fact that both of these victim pools were being tackled in the same film was very interesting because it seemed to kind of make a bit of a point that they're both important and the way the cops were looking into both of these situations. Because, and you can correct me if I'm wrong, from what I saw, it didn't seem like they were treating the victims' situations any differently. When they were looking into it, like who killed the cops versus who killed the strippers. It seemed like they were giving equal time and importance to both of those things, which I think is kind of a statement of, profession shouldn't really matter. The loss of a human life is the loss of a human life regardless, which that's something that is a problem in our current society where people who end up being killed, who are strippers or who our prostitutes end up being thought more of having throwaway lives, which is total BS and their high risk, so it's not that much of a problem. That's ridiculous and that's why we have a situation where people who want to be serial killers and not get caught end up going for prostitutes as that population, it's an issue. But anyway, I don't want to get too deep into that. It's totally different, although it is kind of connected to the film. But what am I gonna rate this film? So with a possibility of five stars and half stars in play, I'm gonna give this a nice solid three and a half star rating. I like this film, I would recommend it, especially if you've seen the first one. Yeah, and then obviously I'm going to the third one. But thanks for checking this out. Real quick, put any comments down here you want to talk about Meanie at Cop Two or anything more, that's fine. Do me a quick favor though, hit that subscribe button. That's your best way to support me and support the channel. It literally takes you a second, but it means a lot to me personally and my channel. And if you are gonna hit the subscribe or you have already, make sure you also hit the notification bell because that way you know whenever I'm putting up new reviews or unboxings or doing a live stream or any of that stuff goes, yeah, I appreciate it. But anyway, I really appreciate you just taking your time to watch this video. And until next time, keep it brutal.