Scanner Cop

My copy of Scanner Cop is included in a 10 movie set from our friends at Payless Entertainment entitled 10 Action Movies Vol. 3..

This is the fifth of the set I have watched and I can confidently say that this, along with Coyote Run, has been the pick so far.

The others, Maximum Security, Black Thunder and Strategic Command, were just awful, even with the presence of Walter White and Richard Norton in Strategic Command.

Anyways, Scanner Cop at least has some reasonable acting, pretty good (if rather disgusting) special effects and an ok storyline.

I am not holding out any hopes for the rest of the titles here. I think I have seen the two best.

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.

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

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 so much better than the previous sequels. The opening in the apartment is pretty awesome. The writing isn't deep but it is engaging. It does what is needed for this kind of film. The concept though is more interesting than the first two sequels put together. If you are reading this then you like b-movies and this is one of the better ones. On a technical front it's well made. I actually enjoyed this way more than I was expecting. Even though it's not as good as the first film, I did enjoy it just as much, maybe even more. It's a fun b-movie.