Friday, July 31, 2009

Rare Flix: Scanner Cop

The word 'serendipity' is thrown around a lot these days. Mind you, it is by poet-laureates, but still. As luck...nay, fate would have it, I came from hanging out with my friends on Sunday night and found my brother about to watch a movie. The following words came out of my mouth, delivered with genuine curiosity, "Is that Scanner Cop?' When he assured me that it was, I made a decision: sleep can wait. To note, this movie is not on Region 1 DVD (that I know of) and I have only been able to catch it that one time...at about 1:30 am on Cinemax 6 or something. Either way, I've seen it and now you get to hear about it. This is my review of...
The movie begins with a little exposition about the idea of scanners, alongside some clips from the movie. We also learn that the idea of scanners is more wide-spread than the first movie lead us to believe. As such, our hero is a young man named Sam Staziak who has some latent powers. He is, let's just say, discouraged from using his powers by his father, a policeman. He is given a drug that keeps his powers in check for years. However, the side effects do not stop Sam from becoming, wait for it, a cop. Now we have a title, movie!
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The plot elapses thusly: a rash of mysterious cop-killings begin to occur. Many of them are even by the policeman's wives and/or girlfriends. It seems to be triggered by someone wearing the uniform and, combined with horrific flashbacks, incites violence. The police are desperate to find out the cause of this. I wonder if the lone cop you have on your force with psychic powers could help out with this problem. He would get right on it, but he needs to set up all of his character arc still. He saves a woman from crazed robbers, sending one of them flipping backwards several feet and into a pole with, as the trailer implies, "with the power of suggestion." Did you suggest that he get in a wire rig and allow several crew members to launch him? That is one powerful psychic! He also gets a love interest, despite living next to an oil well. No, really.
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We eventually learn about the villain who is an evil psychic who was seemingly-killed by, wait for it, Sam's father. We get a flashback to a bust of a cult that is led by the young cop. As he flees, the villain (Richard Lynch) is shot in the head. His body was stolen however and a metal plate inserted in his head. As the body count rises, Sam is desperate to find the man. This leads to the best moment of the entire film, albeit for all of the wrong reasons. He chases down the villain's lady-pal, but she gets run over by a car before he get any answers. Angry and desperate, he scans her, hoping to steal the answers from her head. She is a scanner too and has set a trap for him. She traps him in her brain (in a literal-figurative jail cell) and plans to switch her mind with his. Sam won't go down like that and scans her dramatically until, wait for it, her head explodes. Not her actual head, mind you, but her figurative/soul one. All I can say is damn! Oh and he does get the answer.
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After taking out so many thugs with his powers, our hero runs into a roadblock of sorts when trying to stop Lynch. The plate, it seems, makes him unable to scan the man. As he tries to complete his evil plan, Sam decides to go for broke. He does an insane-level scanning attempt (the kind that causes veins to pop up in the prosthetic arms used in tight shots) to take out the man. In the big climax, he manages to, really, send the metal plate flying out of the man's head. Ouch! Oh and he blows that guy's head up too. The villain is dead and everyone lives happily ever after. Of course, all those dead cops are, you know, still dead. Who cares though? The End.
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This movie is utterly generic, save for the scanning elements. The acting is pretty dry across the board, save for Lynch. As always, the burn-scarred character actor has fun with his under-written, but dramatic role. You have to admire a guy who dies so much on film and keeps coming back for more. The movie is extremely-dated as well, but that has a sort of charm. How can you not dig bad 90s prosthetic effects, especially when compared to a lazy use of CG these days? Just to note BTW, this movie is also called Scanners 4. Yeah, a lot of people think of the classic Scanners film and only that one. They forget about Part 2, 3, Scanner Cop and Scanner Cop 2. If only I could.
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Incidentally, Comcast has an HBO On-Demand program going online. Right now, it is in Beta. So, if you have that service and want to see this movie, you may be in luck. It sure beats paying for a PAL DVD from Thailand.
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How do I follow up this movie? I think a bit of Mad Max mixed with Ancient Greek lore will do the trick. Stay tuned...

1 comment:

  1. Dude.. talk about perfect timing!! Although I cant imagine there is anything really redeeming about the film, the fact that it exists warrants at least a single view, consider me jealous ;)

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