Headbanger Movie Review
By Mad Professor Mike
CopUSA - 1987Hello, America! This is Mad Prof. Mike with the Headbanger Video Capsule. Just deal with it, okay? I was talking to a friend the other day about hard boiled crime novels: "No Beast so Fierce" by Edward Bunker, "Stone City" by Mitchel Smith, and "Blood on the Moon" by James Ellroy. I said, "'Blood on the Moon" was made into a movie, y'know." My friend didn't believe me. He said, "You can't film that novel! It's too sick!!" But "Blood on the Moon" was filmed in 1987 as COP, starring James Woods and directed by former Kubrick collaborator, James Harris. I gave it another look, and my friend was right; COP doesn't succeed as a hard boiled adaptation of Ellroy's novel. It succeeds as a *HORROR MOVIE*, and as a horror movie, it is as scary as SILENCE OF THE LAMBS. COP is the story of an iconoclastic police lieutenant (Woods), who through a hunch thinks a serial killer is stalking feminists in the LA area who have a certain look of innocence. The mystery unfolds as Woods' life unravels. Both Woods and the killer have a common history, and by the time the truly demented climax rolls around, the two are almost interchangeable. COP is the only movie I can think of besides SILENCE OF THE LAMBS that really sinks its teeth into the nature of human evil. A feeling of dread and despair saturates the movie and by the end, you don't want to watch anymore... but can't tear you eyes away. That's the highest achievement a horror movie can attain. On our Headbanger scale of 1-4, COP gets 4 Headbangs. With the headbanger video capsule, I'm Mad Prof. Mike for Movie Magazine. © 1993 - Michael Marano - Air Date: 11/17/93 |
