Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence (1993)

MANIAC COP 3: BADGE OF SILENCE

WRITER: Larry Cohen

DIRECTOR: Alan Smithee

STARRING: Robert Davi as Detective Sean McKinney

Caitlin Dulany as Dr. Susan Fowler

Gretchen Becker as Kate Sullivan

Jackie Earle Haley as Frank Jessup

Julius Harris as Houngan

Robert Z'Dar as Matt Cordell

QUICK CUT: Matt Cordell is back and he’s looking for love.

THE MORGUE

Sean “Mac” McKinney - A detective in New York who isn’t against bending the rules a little to get the right people in jail or to pay the price.

Kate Sullivan - A beat cop who has gained a reputation for excessive force on the streets. She’s becoming known as “Maniac Kate”.

Susan Fowler - A doctor McKinney meets later in the movie, who looks out for her patients, whether they’re criminals or not.

Frank Jessup - A robber that Kate runs into, who is always looking for the next high, and with no regard for other humans.

Matt Cordell - He’s a bit more of a cipher this time around, and just kinda stomps around and look menacing. He’s more of a tool than in previous movies.

TRISK ANALYSIS: Welcome back, Triskelions! It is time to get back to the Maniac Cop series, with Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence. I know I've been scattershot with this series, but part of it is I forget about it, have other stuff planned, and last year...well, a movie about a murderous cop just seemed a bit tone deaf to talk about. Things aren't much better right now, but at least there's nothing major in the news cycles.

Also, anyone seeing this when it’s fresh, might know that Joe Bob Briggs JUST showed the first two Maniac Cops last week, and let me assure you, I had this planned well before then, and in a weird bit of coincidence, I watched Maniac Cop 3 for the first time last Friday before the Last Drive In aired. But enough rambling, let's dive right back into the world of Matt Cordell.

...Who we last saw in the reused footage that kicks off the movie, so a nice recap is helpful. This is intercut with new footage however of a voodoo mystic whatever stereotype chanting over a severed head to bring back the corpse of Cordell, explaining how he punched out of his coffin at the end of #2.

After the credits and resurrection, we catch up with Detective McKinney at the firing range, talking with another cop who is very much Not Anyone from the first two movies, but still shockingly similar. They chat a bit, shoot a bit, and there is one hell of a line where McKinney says to Kate, who tried stopping an attempted rape, that she should've waited longer and she wouldn't have gotten in trouble for excessive force. Wow. WOW.

Oh, and also, Kate, because of these excessive force charges, gets called "Maniac Kate". Ha. Ha ha ha.

They say you’re not supposed to shoot down the barrel of the camera…

McKinney gets called to a crime scene, where he finds a headless body, and you can safely make the assumption where the head got off to. The neck is stuffed with a bird, and the detective knows that voodoo is involved, since he got into the subject because of everything with Cordell.

The news cameras show up, and Mac diverts them to elsewhere with a false tip of a jumper, so he can work his crime scene.

Meanwhile, Kate ends up at a bodega being robbed, and blasts through the place with a machine gun. Yeah, I see where her rep comes from now.

The robber, Frank Jessup, gets into the pharmacy in back, locks the door behind him, and raids the place, sucking down pills faster than Nuke looking for his reds. Meanwhile, Kate sneaks across the roof and comes crashing down through the skylight like she thinks she's Batman.

Jessup holds the pharmacist hostage, Kate gets ready to shoot him, and he's like, fffft, I am so high, I am immortal, go for it. Dude. We already have one headless corpse in this movie, I do not think you want that either.

Kate shoots him in the hand and the chest, and he goes down. Spoiler, he actually manages to survive. The pharmacist rambles in a panic, and it is revealed she is in cahoots with Jessup, and tries to kill Kate. They both fire, and the pharmacist ends up dead, while Kate is rushed to the hospital.

While all this is going on, the sleazy news crew has shown up, gotten it all on tape, but plays it back to manipulate the situation to show Kate murdering the girl with zero context.

All this murder and mayhem, and I ain’t even done anything yet!

McKinney shows up at the hospital, tries to get a read on the situation while also keeping Kate's mom informed, and meets Doctor Pretty McLoveinterest to get some answers.

Now, if I remember correctly, Kate was supposed to be Claudia Christian from #2, but that didn't work out, so it would've made sense to maintain the whole "kill off the previous cast anyone can die" vibe, but here it comes off as we just met this person, and now she is, for all intents and purposes, gone.

Oh yeah, and Matt finally stomps back into the movie as he is drawn towards his houngan benefactor, who explains he brought Matt back because he cleans up the streets, I guess.

I respect them not putting a No Smoking sign right behind his head in the hospital.

McKinney goes and finds the head doctor on duty, Doctor Meyerson, and he dumbs things down for the cop and says she's basically brain dead, and to just "stick her in a rock garden."

Yeah, that is some bedside manner you got there, doc.

And because it's not truly a Maniac Cop movie until we see Cordell get murdered in prison, I guess it's time to get that out of the way.

I poke fun, but credit to the director for actually making good use of available footage. I don't mind reuse if it's done smartly, and for stuff you don't want to reshoot years later if you don't have to.

By now, McKinney has heard the news, knows that's not Kate's style, and goes to have a chat with Jessup. He doesn't want to speak, because that makes him look bad, but Mac, being a good dirty cop, cuts off the criminal's oxygen as a warning, and they'll chat later.

Later, Kate has a dream about being married to Cordell, and she grabs McKinney's hand. The doctors are hesitant to believe it as much more than a random neuron firing. Especially Meyerson and his badside manner.

But because he's such a dick, Cordell somehow knows to come after him, and murders him with a pair of heart paddles.

Fowler mentions she saw a big scary cop lurking around to McKinney, he goes searching, and finds the houngan in his lair. They chat for a bit and it's just kinda there as a scene for exposition. Can't have the big fight yet. They literally say they’ll cross paths again soon.

Meanwhile, the hospital's head doctor and lawyer discuss Kate's case and how they want to take her off life support for a number of reasons.

Powell deciding this goes over well with Cordell, so he zaps him to death with a stream of x-rays. I know the things CAN kill you, but would it work that quickly? Ehh.

Got any cases of alligator attacks for me?

Meanwhile, the crew from WSLZ hear about a dead kid and interview a witness, who turns out to be her brother. They generally continue to be callous jerks about it. In due course, they get murdered by Cordell.

I don't care if he's all hoodoo voodoo magic man now, his just appearing suddenly to mete out justice randomly just doesn't work for me. I can just about handle this because he wants those responsible for framing Kate, but it's still just here he is! This movie is missing necessary connective tissue, I think.

But Cordell then acquires the original unedited footage, tears off McKinney's car door, and leaves the tape for him to find and watch. So at least they can clear her name.

Cordell never has to worry about losing his keys.

Finally, the last piece of the puzzle, Matt goes after Jessup. But he doesn't just kill the guy. He uncuffs him, and leaves a gun next to him, allowing the crazed crook to go on a killing spree throughout the hospital, with a few other minions.

McKinney shows up and pretty much puts a stop to it all very quickly, and justice is served.

In all the chaos Jessup caused, Matt uses the distraction to steal Kate's corpse and carry her off to the houngan.

McKinney hears about it, he and Fowler go to the houngan, who is about to resurrect the woman to be Cordell's bride of Frankenstein. Because this movie isn't exactly subtle.

But Kate's spirit is at rest, and won't be brought back. Matt doesn't take the news well, shoots the houngan in the back, making the mystic drop his candle, the corpse goes up in flames, and spreads through the entire building.

Cordell scoops up Kate's body, tries to carry it away, but he too is engulfed in flames, and despite all the fire he's already endured, this is too much for him.

Now, a sensible movie would end at this point, right? But no, as the cop and the doctor are driving away, the movie has to try and one up Maniac Cop 2's fiery finale by having Matt pull up IN A BURNING CAR WHILE ON FIRE.

There's still like ten minutes left, and most of that is taken up with this chase which, while not as amazing as the jailhouse fight in 2, is definitely an amazing set piece to watch. It makes up for a lot.

It ends when McKinney tosses an oxygen tank into the burning car and puts some distance between the two vehicles faster than you can say, "Smile, you son of a bitch," before the flames make the canister explode

And so our two heroes walk off into the sunrise, but not before McKinney finds a burning limb and picks it up like it's his new hand of glory, and lights a cigarette off it.

But because we always have to end a Maniac Cop movie on a hand-related tease, the two charred dead bodies of Cordell and Kate are placed next to each other, and we see his extra fried crispy hand reach out for hers in a love that shall rise again from the ashes.

TRISK ASSESSMENT

Video: This looks really good, although it does get a bit overly dark at times.

Audio: Good stuff with a solid mix.

Sound Bite: "Oh great, I shot my lawyer." "Get another one, they're free."

Body Count: A pretty decent pile of bodies, although Cordell feels like he doesn’t do much.

1 - We pretty much start the movie with a severed head, and we find his headless body 11:30 minutes in.

2 - 13 minutes in and our first real death comes when a robber kills a cop

3 - And then a second one.

4 - Kate kills the hostage

5 - Cordell's first victim is a guy being annoying that he shoots so hard he flies through the air

6 - Doc Myerson gets zapped to death

7 - Cordell x-rays Doctor Powell to death.

8 -10 - Cameraman and two EMTs killed off camera

11 - Cameraman gets knifed by Cordell

12 - Cordell shoots a cop in the stairwell

13 - Jessup shoots the suit

14 - And Jessie the lawyer

15 - Another criminal shoots a cop on duty

16 - McKinney takes out one of the escaping patients

17 - And another

18 - And finally puts about a dozen bullets in Jessup.

19 - Cordell blasts the voodoo man in the back

20 - Kate burns up in the fire

21 - Matt goes boom in fire.

Best Corpse: Powell gets the most gruesome demise with his x-ray burned face.

Peak Corpse: People finally realise something is up when they find Meyerson’s body.

Blood Type - C+: It’s not quite clean, but the blood hits seem pretty light, and there’s not much to say about it.

Drink Up! Every time Cordell kills someone.

Movie Review: Being an Alan Smithee joint, you would expect something far more terrible than what you get here, but for the most part, I enjoyed Maniac Cop 3. The story is solid, it has a plot, but it is nowhere near as good as the first two. It had a number of problems in production, too many chefs, and a lack of direction. It doesn’t quite play as good as social commentary about cops and society, it’s more straightforward, but it’s not BAD by any stretch. It just never reaches the heights of the previous installments, even though it tries really hard, especially with that end burning driving sequence. I can’t hold “It’s not Maniac Cop 2” against a movie, I have to judge it on its own merits as best I can. And in that regard it is a very solid three out of five oxygen tanks.

Entertainment Value: There’s no real recognisable actors in here beyond our usuals, there’s not a lot of really cool deaths, save for a few bits of creativity. The biggest flaw is the criminally underused Cordell. He’s been reduced almost to a Jason Voorhees figure, a force of nature, something the bad guy winds up and points at a target. Matt’s always been that to some extent, but I feel no sense of agency from him in this movie until the very end when he kills the houngan and takes charge. Just one of many missteps. Still, it’s all right, but not much of entertainment here beyond a normal movie. Two out of five baton swords.