Maniac Cop 2

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Year:	1990
Country of origin:	USA
Director:	William Lustig
Genre:	Maniacal cop sequel
Starring:	Robert Davi, Claudia Christian, Michael Lerner, Bruce Campbell, Laurene Landon
Rating:	4/5
IMDB link:	http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0100107/
Tagline:	You Have The Right To Remain Silent...Forever!
Favourite line:	"Every time we pull a trigger and it feels good, because no lawyers can reverse that. It all comes down to justice and pressure. There's only that much difference between a cop and a maniac cop."

Well now, Larry Cohen (The Stuff, Q: The Winged Serpent, Phone Booth) continues his naughty policeman slash-fest in this, a remarkable improvement on the original, which frankly bored me to the point of pain.
In terms of plotting, this serves merely as an excuse to kill off the survivors from the first film, including Bruce 'Evil Dead' Campbell's Jack Forrest before fleshing out the Maniac Cop Matt Cordell's backstory a little and, strangely, attempting to get the viewer feeling a little sympathy for the kill-crazy son of a gun.
Along the way, Cordell gets into an odd partnership with a New York serial killer, and attracts the attention of Babylon 5's Claudia ' Susan Ivanova' Christian, here playing another Susan, Riley this time around.
If out and out gore is what you are after, forget it, but this is well scipted by the usually reliable Cohen, with characterisation way above average for the genre. It flags a little, but it's worth sticking with it for the simply startling final showdown, a pyrotechnic masterpiece that will have you scratching your head wondering how it was shot without someone getting very seriously hurt.
It's flawed, there's no doubt, but as horror sequels go not too bad and, undoubtedly, better than the original.
Enjoyed it.