Scanner Cop (1994) Reviews

• Good sci-fi movie!

  gsh9992009-05-22

  Really far exceeded my expectations. The lead actor is quite good and did not annoy me like so many actors have a tendency to do. I will agree that the opening scene special effects were very poor, with a dolls head popping out of latex on a guy's forehead. But after that, the effects were not as embarrassing. The evil guy, played by the same guy who plays villains in many horror movies, is really good, too. The female evil partner is very hot and convincing. She looks like the black widow type. Pete, the cop who adopts the scanner is very good too. I was surprised by the decent acting and cool effects after the opening scene. Most hardcore horror fans will get a kick out of this one.

• Interesting "Scanners" spin-off.

  Captain_Couth2004-10-21

  Scanner Cop (1994) was an interesting spin-off of the Scanners trilogy. This small budgeted film follows the remnents of the "scanner" underground. One of these is a young man who's a scanner and he tries to deal with his powers. Darlene Fluegal co-stars as a doctor who tries to help the "scanner". But somewhere in the big city there's an evil scanner hell bent on declaring war on the "normals". I saw this film nine years ago on cable t.v. I was impressed by it because it didn't try to hard. Just a movie about a couple of unaccounted rogue scanners roaming amongst the "normals". Not a masterpiece by any means. A nice little time killer that I wouldn't mind seeing again in the near future. Watchable, if on the idiot box. B- x

• Stupid, yes, but surprisingly enjoyable!

  Infofreak2002-06-08

  I really didn't expect ANYTHING from 'Scanner Cop', and only rented it to see two of my favourites Richard Lynch ('Open Season', 'The Ninth Configuration', 'Little Nikita') and the late Brion James ('Blade Runner', 'Crimewave', 'Tango & Cash') on screen together. The bad news is that they never share a scene, and that James only has a pointless cameo of around two minutes. The good news is that the movie is surprisingly enjoyable above average b-grade sci-fi action. Daniel Quinn ('Wild At Heart') plays a young man with "scanner" powers who has been adopted by a kindly cop (Richard Grove - 'Army Of Darkness'). The movie begins showing how to two met but quickly flashes forward fifteen years with Quinn's first day as a rookie cop, Grove by this stage being police Commander. Cops, including Quinn's partner, suddenly begin getting murdered by seemingly normal citizens. Quinn finds himself on the trail of the criminal mastermind behind this fiendish plan (yup, you guessed it, it's Richard Lynch), but to do so he must stop taking the medication which suppresses his scanner powers. By doing this he risks permanent damage and possible insanity, so the case becomes a race against the clock, and one he can't afford to lose. Stupid but fun, with Lynch at his most villainous, and having a hammy good time.

• Scanner Cop is far better than you might think.

  tarbosh220002014-10-10

  As a little boy, Sam Staziak was taken in by a police officer named Harrigan (Grove) after his own father freaked out because they both have the scanner bloodline. Little Sam grew up to be a cop like his adoptive father, and now, as an adult (Quinn), he looks to follow in his father's footsteps on the L.A.P.D. But an evil, unhinged brain surgeon (aren't they all?) named Karl Glock (Lynch) is using unsuspecting normal citizens and using them for his sick, twisted experiments. He makes them believe all cops are supernatural, grotesque monsters, so when they see them, they snap and start killing them. Now trying to figure out and combat an amorphous, confusing threat before more boys in blue get killed, Staziak must tap into his scanner abilities which have caused him nothing but pain in the process. But too much scanning can lead to insanity and sensory overload. Dr. Joan Alden (Fluegel) is helping, but truly only Sam can come to terms with who he is and stop Glock in the process. Will he do it before it's too late for the L.A.P.D. - and himself? Find out today! Much like we said in our Scanner Cop II (1995) review, not being sci-fi fans, we weren't going in expecting much. But there is more to Scanner Cop than you might think, and there are plenty of interesting ideas at work here that raise the level of enjoyment considerably. You can tell the writers actually thought about the plot a lot, which goes a long way and is much appreciated. The intelligence and serious, downbeat tone would surely do Cronenberg proud. Just the idea of a "scanner cop" is rife with possibilities, and the movie, thankfully, capitalizes on them. We couldn't help but wonder why movies about other scanner professions never materialized: "scanner firefighter", "scanner teacher", "scanner professional boogieboarder" - the options are endless. After a long career as a writer and producer, this was director David's directorial debut. He'd worked with fellow Canadian Jeff Wincott a lot, as he was a writer on Mission of Justice (1992) and Martial Law II (1992), and produced Marked Man (1996). David clearly learned a lot during his time doing other roles on film sets, because it has a professional look and you'd never know it was his debut. While the humorless, somewhat bleak approach he took was a good one this time around to sell the bizarre subject matter, some levity would have helped, and as David did not return as director for part II, seemingly a little more fun was had the second time around. The cast is plentiful with B-movie stars: fan favorite Richard Lynch does his classic baddie thing, Brion James is in it for about 2 seconds, Hilary Shepard of Peacemaker (1990) fame plays Lynch's assistant named Zena, predating Xena by a few years, Cyndi Pass of Mission of Justice is here too, and Billy "Sly" Williams plays a drug dealer named Eightball, among other names in the cast. While Richard Grove did a fine job as Harrigan, we can't help but think Stacy Keach would have been a nice cast addition in that role. He even played a similar part in Irresistible Force (1993). But maybe that's why he didn't do it. The Scanner Cop series was big on cable and in video stores at the time, and while that doesn't seem that long ago to us, clearly it is, because in the movie characters smoke cigarettes indoors and in government buildings. Which tells us intelligent, well-thought-out sci-fi (or any types of movies for that matter) are getting farther and farther away in the past. Just compare this to the "syfy" channel's "original movies". The difference is crystal clear. As with its sequel, Scanner Cop is far better than you might think.

• An amusing b-class movie.

  bato-21999-02-08

  You know, it doesn´t really need to be a high-budgeted, well-acted movie to be amusing, right? As long as the movie is at least a little bit original. The only actor that really shows up is Richard Lynch, always casted as a villain (Just look at his face and you´ll know why) Everyone else does their part normally. This movie talks about telepathic-telekinetic people who go to the good side or to the bad side. The main character is a cop that´s one of those people. The villain uses a telepathical kind of machine that kinda traumatize people and make them kill anyone wearing a batch. I say this movie is amusing, but it still needs some category.