Maniac Cop (1988)

A killer dressed in police uniform begins murdering innocent people on the streets of New York City.

You have the right to remain silent… forever!

Personnel

Director

  • William Lustig

Starring

  • Tom Atkins
  • Bruce Campbell
  • Robert Z’Dar
  • Laurene Landon
  • Richard Roundtree
  • William Smith
  • cameo from Sam Raimi

Info

Trailer

Full movie

(Warning: there’s a licensed copy available on YouTube, 1hr 19min, but it screws up the ending, cutting most of it. It was only after running into that problem that I finally remembered it was on Fawesome, complete at 1hr 25min.)

I’m pretty sure I saw this in the 90s. I remembered it a lot more “exploitationy” but seeing it now it was more like a fairly competent TV movie. Maybe the sequels are trashier and I’m confusing the original with the sequels. (For example, I could have sworn I remember seeing Robert Z’Dar in Hell Comes to Frogtown, but it turns out he’s only in Return to Frogtown which I didn’t even realize existed.)

  • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
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    1 day ago

    Bruce Campbell??

    OP should’ve lead with that!

    Currently watching Jack of All Trades and Brisco County Jr., two shows that should’ve had years of episodes (especially Jack).

    Bruce just gets it.

    • fistac0rpse@fedia.io
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      1 day ago

      as a huge Bruce Campbell fan, how have I never heard of Jack of All Trades? thank you, gonna download it now

      • Onomatopoeia@lemmy.cafe
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        22 hours ago

        Jack is outrageously funny, irreverent, and a bit too adult for broadcast TV at the time.

        Just like Brisco County, he was just a little early. A couple years later when the dedicated cable channels hit their stride he would’ve been very successful (FX, SciFi, etc).

        I bought the Jack DVD’s, they were like $20 - totally worth it.

        • klu9@piefed.socialOP
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          16 hours ago

          Bruce is in Maniac Cop, but he doesn’t get the chance to be very “Campbellesque” ;)

          I’ve still never got round to watching Jack of All Trades, although back in the day I did catch some episodes of its “stablemate” Cleopatra 2525.

          I did finally see Brisco a few years ago, such a shame it was cut short. Apparently it was during a moral panic about violence on TV, and the campaign group picked an episode of Brisco featuring a boxing match, and they counted every single punch as another incidence of violence, giving a total that made it seem like it was a Blumhouse slasher.