New Synapse Blu Rays: Maniac Cop and Frankenhooker

MANIAC COP (1988)
D. BILL LUSTIG
SYNAPSE FILMS.
Blu Ray

I haven't watched the original MANIAC COP since it originally came out back in the 80's. It was a movie that frankly I remembered liking, but not loving, and I remember liking the sequel more (though to be fair I haven't seen it since it came out as well). So checking the movie out on this new Blu Ray release was almost like getting to see it again for the first time.

The first thing that struck my right off the bat was just how deliciously detailed the new transfer from Synapse is. This is easily one of the best looking HD transfers I have seen. Admittedly I'm not a journeyman when it comes to Blu Ray having only been buying them for a little over a year. But from frame one, the MANIAC COP transfer floored me with how clean and clear it was. The opening credit sequence that shows the cop putting his gear on in ultra close up behind the credits, is rife with crazy detail. You can see thing likes the peach fuzz on the Maniac Cops gloves for crying out loud!

The movie jumps quickly into the meat of the film with a barely seen police officer murdering people on the street for what seems like minor infractions or even nothing at all. Hard nosed Police detective Tom Atkins is on the case but no one on the force wants to believe him including the Chief (played by SHAFT himself Richard Roundtree). Tom Atkins figures it out pretty quickly that the perpetrator is a cop. Meanwhile Bruce Campbell is a cop who is having an affair  with another female officer, When his wife discovers his indiscretion, she runs out on him only to be killed by the Maniac Cop, clearly being set up to take the fall. From this point Bruce will have to find out who is the actual Maniac to clear his name. Meanwhile lots of people are still ending up dead, especially at the exact wrong time to have his name cleared.

Lots of things set MANIAC COP apart form the late 80's tide of crap. First off is the smart script from Larry Cohen. As per usual for him, the script takes the more insane sounding ideas and makes them sound ridiculously plausible. That is his god given gift as a screenwriter. The other big deal of MANIAC COP is the slick, serpentine direction Bill Lustig gives the whole production. While it is obviously not a huge budgeted movie, clearly there is a little bit more money here than usual, and it shows on screen with some really solid stunt work, good locations (Seems a lot was shot in L.A. doubling for New York, but I was totally fooled) and a gliding, prowling camera the best Giallo film would be proud of. Then there is the roster of B-movie actors making a payday and bring their A-game from the great Tom Adkins, to William Smith and Richard Roundtree. The only performances in the film I am not crazy about is Bruce Campbell and Laureen Landon. Campbell I have just never felt was hard edged enough to fit the material , and Landon is just not that great of an actress, she is fine as eye candy, but when called to emote, she is not cutting the mustard, especially across the table from guys like Atkins or William Smith. There isn't much bad you can say about Robert Z'Dar in the roll, he is menacing, and scary, and in the main shower scene beat down, he takes it like a man.

If you are a fan of the film, this is worth the upgrade simply for the gorgeous Hi-Def transfer which really is one of the nicest I have seen. I guess there are some extras gone missing from the old releases to this one, but hey you can't have it all. There are some good interviews with Atkins and Z'Dar, and a whole host of trailers and a bunch of cut scenes dealing with the Mayor, that while interesting are obvious why they were cut as they slow the movie way down.So all that stuff is still here and pretty worthwhile. But it is the new transfer that is the star of this disc.

Also out from SYNAPSE FILMS.

FRANKENHOOKER (1990)
D. FRANK HENENLOTTER
SYNAPSE FILMS
Blu Ray

The first film made but second released, in the two picture deal with Shapiro /Glickenhaus pictures in the late 80's (the other film of course being BASKET CASE 2, and then eventually BASKET CASE 3) this is easily Henenlotter's funniest film to date and his most accessible.  While on paper the plot sounds outrageous and slightly misogynistic, the final film is anything but. It is a super silly, almost lighthearted parody of teen romance films and the FRANKENSTEIN mythology. It is FRANKENSTEIN CREATED WOMAN meets 16 CANDLES.

Jeffrey (played by the super talented and funny James Lorinz) accidentally kills his girlfriend (played by Penthouse pet Patty Mullen) in a horrible Lawnmower accident. But instead of sitting on his laurels crying he sets out to bring her back using his limited knowledge of science and biology. But first he has to gather enough parts to put her back together after the accident. He doesn't mind if she is a little "improved" along the way. But being a pretty nice fellow he can't bring himself to just go and cold blooded kill women so he invents "Super Crack" That will blow up anyone who smokes it. Thus letting the hookers he will meet choose their own demise. Then he can take the parts home and build his own bride.

Completely silly and over the top, with funny lead performances, FRANKEHOOKER has stood the test of time more than a lot of other films from that era that tried to be funny and failed,  such as something like GIRLFRIEND FROM HELL or DEATH SPA. That plays out from Henenlotter's expert sense of the absurd. Each crazy set piece mounting to top the last, from the exploding cracked out hookers to the mutant body parts becoming their own little monsters at the end. The movie continues to surprise at each turn. Henenlotter also peppers his movies with lots of funny and cool side characters like Zeus the pimp, or the googly eyes john who gets humped to death.

Then there is Frankenhooker herself an awesome make up creation but brought to life by a lighthearted performance by Patty Mullen who keeps the character child like no matter how crazy of shit she is called on to do. She is terrific and very memorable in the part. Probably the biggest reason the movie is still hanging around to this day. That and that great old "Wanna Date" VHS packaging.

The new Blu Ray from Synapse is as good as it will ever get for FRANKENHOOKER. The old extras from the special edition DVD are carried over here, but the new HD transfer is just  gorgeous with solid beautiful colors. This movie is saturated with purples and blues, all which looked washed out and faded on the old VHS and first edition DVD's. The Special Edition DVD from Unearthed looked very nice and was a great improvement, but this new HD transfer is well worth the double dip for fans. The movie never looked this good.

So both these flicks are essentials for your Blue Ray collections!

Review © Andrew Copp

 

But who will police the gore who there is no more gore to police?

TOKYO GORE POLICE (2008)
D. Yoshihiro Nishimura
Fever Dreams Ent. / Media Blasters
1.66

This is probably the goriest movie to come out since Peter Jackson stopped working in the splatter genre. I've heard people laud it's freaky grue splattered approach, deride it for being so over the top that they found it stupid, or even dismiss it entirely for being so outrageous that they found it boring. As one of my friends I watched this with said when it was over, "there was enough here for at least two or three movies!" And that my friends is no lie. In a lot of ways Tokyo Gore Police is the splatter film of the technologically impaired ADD generation with limbs flying, heads splitting, torsos erupting etc. every few minutes as to never allow the audience a chance to catch their breath, much less get bored. Blood literally splatters the camera lens so much that the lens cleaning mop boy should have gotten top billing.

But if this was all this movie had to offer it would have pretty much just kinda of sucked. I was one of the few who strongly disliked MACHINE GIRL on those grounds as it was all noise, thunder and spraying blood, with nothing underneath. That film was a teenage gore monger's version of what a Japanese gore film "should" be like. I was afraid this was going to be more of the same. But thankfully it is anything but.

The schizophrenic plot starts off with a young girl watching her policeman father being brutally killed while on duty guarding some officials. A man just walks up and shoots him in the head (causing an amazing, total head explosion that sets the mood for the film to come). Cut to present and we meet Ruka (Eihi Shiina) who witnessed this as a child. she is now an adult and working for the police force just like her dad. But unlike when she was a little girl, the police have changed drastically. They are now privately controlled and funded, no longer run by the state or Government. Ruka is what is called an "Engineer Hunter" because she hunts down a mutant strain of criminal called an Engineer" that has a tumor inside of them that causes any wounds on their body to morph into a new mutated body part. So say they have had fingers cut off. Then the tumor would cause those fingers to become new, super strong, snake like appendages. These Engineers are a new breed of super Criminals that are taking over the Tokyo underground. Ruka is one of the elite team who is able to stop them. she understands you have to cut the tumor in half to get the job done. But soon she will realize there is much, much more of a connection to her past, the engineers, the privatization of the police force and the murder of her father than she could ever dream of. And mucho blood will be shed along the way. And you will see sights you have never seen in a film. Guaranteed.

Don't believe me? How about the fake commercials for a start. yes we've seen them in Paul Verhoven's work with ROBOCOP and STARSHIP TROOPERS, but here they take an even darker tone with pro suicide commercials, an anti-seppuku spot and a spot for "cute" razors for cutting yourself just like the Emo Kids in America! yay! Or what about the Mutant Engineers themselves? with each one suffering different injuries they all come back with stronger, weirder new body parts that would make David Cronenberg proud. Like the leader whose eyes have been replaced by small flesh cannons that shoot wads of tumors. Or the unfortunate fellow who had his dick bit off, so now it has grown back four feet long and works like a 44 magnum. Or my favorite the girl whose legs are now a giant alligator mouth who scoots across the floor biting the shit out of everyone she sees! Then there is the sidekick of the Chief of Police that I'm not even sure is a mutant, but just some unfortunate woman he has tortured himself. A quadruple amputee that he leads around on a lease like a dog, in full S+M gear including a gas mask, who in the final reel is armed with blades on all her stumps and sent in to fight. I also should say there is something mighty sexy about this limbless gal. I'll just leave it at that. Or that moment of moments where one dude visits a freak bar for fetishists where Engineers are the main course and sees a parade of Mutants ending with a female human chair(!) that pisses on the audience!


But even amongst the geysers (and I mean geysers) of blood and mutants, what makes this a good movie is that underneath all of this is a lot of meat for the brain to chew on. this is primarily a treatise on how privatization of any organization that serves the public interest is a terrible idea. How that will mutant into a situation controlled by lust and greed and ultimately destroy the very public it is supposed to serve. there are also several other through lines dealing with America's negative influence upon the Japanese culture going on as well. which is doubly interesting considering this was produced and financed by an American company.

Though over the top, and sometimes goofy, and certainly owing more than a nod to other films like THE EVIL DEAD, VIDEODROME and STARSHIP TROOPERS, this turned out to be a terrific little movie all its own and I highly recommend it to those looking for high octane splatter AND something with a brain to boot.

Andy Copp