Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence

So, you’re gonna read the criticisms I have of this movie, and your reaction will be “what did you expect, it’s Maniac Cop 3”. And to that, I say go and read my reviews of the first two. Are they B-movies? Absolutely. But they’re well done B-movies, and actually have a decent story to them. It’s not The Reader or anything, but for the genre, it has WAY more story than honestly 90% of the genre. MC3 wants to have that much story, but it only just barely gets to a level of acceptability, undercut by the quality of the story itself. The first problem is the premise is undone by its own design; the Maniac Cop is resurrected by a voodoo priest to serve justice for someone who has been wronged … but said person (a cop) HASN’T BEEN WRONGED YET. So already, there’s a hole a mile wide in the story logic. Then comes the bigger problem: you’ll have a hard time rooting for anybody. Kate, the cop who needs to be avenged, is shot in the line of duty and rendered brain dead. During the shooting, she shoots and wounds a drug addict thief and kills his accomplice, but everybody thinks the accomplice (who was working at the place) was a hostage. So, Kate is brain dead AND framed to be a murderer … except the movie makes the mistake of telling you she has a history of using excessive force, brandishes illegal weapons while on duty, and has such a bad reputation, City Hall knows who she is and wants her off the force. So, the human Macguffin fueling this movie is unhinged, breaks the law to suit her needs, and abuses power constantly. Why should we, the viewers, be sad this terrible psycho is a vegetable? Meanwhile, the Maniac Cop is, you know, a zombie cop killing people to “bring her justice”, except most of them are just people who get in his way. Oh, and it turns out, he kidnaps the body of Kate and brings it back to the priest because he wants a zombie bride. Fantastic. And the main protagonist — a carryover from part 2 — is trying to defend Kate and clear her name, even though he knows she’s got a bad history. WHO SHOULD I BE ROOTING FOR HERE? Plus, the kills are bland, the pacing is off, the titular character feels like a third wheel in his own movie, there’s plot holes galore, logic issues (the Maniac Cop is on fire for a solid ten minutes of the finale, as if he’s made of a Duralog) … it’s just not up to the level of the previous two.