Steve Barnett's Scanners: The Showdown
Added 5/23/2002
This sequel, also known as "Scanner Cop II," marks the end of the series...or does it?The rookie cop Staziak is now a plain clothes detective (he must have had one good year). He uses his scanning capabilities to rout criminals and foil evildoers. We also meet an evil scanner (yes, another one) who has escaped from a mental ward and is trying to kill Staziak. It seems he can also suck the "lifeforce" out of other scanners. You see the finale coming as scanner cop and evil scanner do scanner battle. In the beginning of the film, the scanner cop fools a kidnapper into thinking he is an accomplice, not the cop. He does this by "scanning." The problem is the director uses the exact same special effect from "Scanner Cop," but in a completely different context. Did FX guru John Carl Buechler get lazy this time around? One complaint I have had about the entire series, and I have now seen all five entries, is that the Scanner power is never really explained. We see scanners command others to do their will, we see scanners getting scanned, but what specifically does "scanning" entail? Reading minds? This question has never been adequately explained, especially when you throw in the fact that machines can be scanned as well. The good scanner vs. evil scanner plot has been done to death, yet it is still trotted out for this video. This came out a few years ago, without a sequel, but after witnessing the rebirth of movie series like James Bond, Halloween, Friday the 13th, etc., I am not holding my breath. In a complete pageant of unoriginality, every single episode of this film series has had an exploding head, but none of them ever matched the gore of the first film. This showdown is underwhelming, and I cannot recommend it. This is rated (R) for strong physical violence, strong gun violence, mild sexual violence, strong gore, and profanity.
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Pierre David's Scanner Cop
Added 5/23/2002
The producers of the "Scanners" series decided to take this in a whole new direction.This time out, we meet a young scanner whose birth father goes insane. He is adopted by an understanding cop. Years later, his adopted dad is police commander and Staziak is a rookie cop. He is on drugs to keep his scanning under control, but helps out his dad after a bunch of cops are shot by usually normal people. It seems perennial villain Richard Lynch is programming people to kill cops as revenge for his being shot by the commander. The whole plot is just fine and dandy, but this film feels like one of those syndicated TV action shows like "VIP" or "Silk Stalkings." Better action has been witnessed on "T.J. Hooker." It seems all the budget was spent on the special effects by John Carl Buechler, which are fine except for a hilarious finale involving a defibrillator (sp?). The film makers also do not remember their own mythology, as we see the scanner cop chase someone in an elevator by taking the next elevator that comes along. As we know, and the film shows us, scanners can "control" machines, so why doesn't he just scan and tell the elevator with the criminal in it to stop? In the finale, as the scanner cop is running all over a hospital looking for his injured dad, he scans everyone he comes in contact with. The facial contortions and scanning take longer than just using his mouth and asking where his father is. I had the same reaction to this that I did with "Scanners" I and II. Fine, I have now seen them, time to go outside. This is average in the purest sense of the word, and I wish the film makers had taken more chances with this by-the-numbers production. I cannot recommend it. This is rated (R) for strong physical violence, strong gun violence, strong gore, profanity, very brief female nudity, very brief male nudity, and drug references.
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