For some reason there is just something oddly entertaining about "Maniac Cop". And I do believe it is based on the fact that I used to have this movie on VHS back in the day when it was released, and I do have fond memories of it being a fairly good movie back then.
Then I got a chance to revisit Matt Cordell and the rest of the people in "Maniac Cop" in 2017. And my fond memories of the movie were slowly starting to vaporize into mist. The movie is quite campy and cheesy actually, and it really had that late 1980's and early 1990's horror movie feel to it.
The story in "Maniac Cop" is quite straight forward and very easy to keep up with. A deranged killer is stalking the innocent people on the streets of New York. And as the death toll rise, police officer Jack Forrest finds himself arrested for a murder he didn't commit. Determined to bring the real perpetrator to justice, Jack seeks out to track down the killer.
"Maniac Cop" is labeled as an action/crime/horror, so it spans over a wide array of genres with very different contents. And to some extend it does deliver on these accounts. The action, well it was there, just don't expect it to be anything grand or jaw-dropping. The crime, well that was actually the focal point of the movie. The horror, again not overwhelmingly a factor for the movie. It wasn't even scary back in 1988.
This movie actually has some interesting enough actors and actresses on the cast list. Most memorable for me was Bruce Campbell, of course, and it is still a wonderful treat to watch him in this movie. However, it should be said that Tom Atkins was also good in this movie, and he is one of those faces that you instantly recognize and remember from that era. And then there is also Robert Z'Dar who brought life to Matt Cordell, and he was nicely cast for the role.
All in all, then "Maniac Cop" is a mediocre movie, but still proves to be entertaining and watchable given how cheesy and campy it actually is. And true to the horror movies of the late 1980's, the ending was just quite predictable, and of course laid grounds for a potential sequel.
"Maniac Cop" is not an overly impressive movie if you sit down to watch it today and compare it to the movies readily available and released today, especially so if you weren't already familiar with the movie from back in the day.
