What ought to be an all-out gorefest with loads of hilarious dialogue and vicious scenes of terrific disembowelment is actually something like an episode of "Law & Order", but with more of a zombie feel. (Which, come to think of it, would make a fucking great addition to the "L&O" franchise.) The story concerns a police officer (Bruce Campbell, seemingly intent on not being smarmy, charismatic, or memorable) wrongly accused of a string of murders reportedly committed by a rogue cop. As the evidence mounts against him, he struggles to clear his name and crack the case, before the Maniac Cop can hunt down and kill the mayor and police commissioner. The police commissioner is Richard Roundtree (also looking kind of embarrassed to be present); the guy who plays the mayor barely looks capable of managing a State Farm field office. Turns out, the Maniac Cop had been railroaded by the mayor, and, left to fend for himself in a jail full of criminals he helped convict, was sliced to ribbons by some disgruntled inmates. Horribly disfigured, he was declared dead but actually released into the care of his girlfriend, who nursed him back to health and got him back on the horse with his plan for deadly revenge. Now, had the Maniac Cop actually been dead, and was, in fact, a zombie, this movie would be a lot cooler. In fact, all these years I recalled him being a zombie, hence my unbridled enthusiasm. But no, he's just disfigured and angry, and that's just so … understandable. Also, the cops are depicted with no cliché left unemployed, but not lazily enough for them to be laughable. The cop scenes play like early-80s cop shows – tough-talkin' contentiousness, not-quite-car-chase shadowing of suspects, etc. The believability actually gets in the way of enjoying what otherwise might have been a great bad movie. No good gore, except one guy getting suffocated face-down in wet sidewalk concrete, which hardens overnight so his corpse has to be jackhammered out. No gratuitous sex, and the one "gorgeous" actress looks sort of like Loni Anderson, that is, if she were a guest on "Springer." Still, I enjoy Maniac Cop, even if it's mostly just in concept. Few films have brought me as many years of lingering gratifcation at having seen them in the theater. I like to be able to say, "Oh yeah, I saw Maniac Cop in the theater … the way it truly needs to be seen!"
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