Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. This Dolby Vision presentation worked much better than one might expect from a 28-year-old low-budget direct-to-video flick.
For the most part, sharpness fared well. Occasional interiors felt a bit on the soft side, but these remained modest and appeared to reflect the source. The movie usually came with good accuracy.
No issues with jagged edges or moiré effects materialized, and edge haloes remained absent. With a nice layer of grain, the transfer appeared to lack problematic use of noise reduction, and it also came free from print flaws.
Colors leaned toward the natural side, with occasional forays into more stylized hues. These came across with nice vivacity and punch, and the disc’s HDR allowed the tones to seem especially dynamic.
Blacks appeared deep and dense, while shadows boasted nice clarity. The HDR gave whites and contrast nice impact. Though not an image you’ll use to show off your 4K TV, Badge nonetheless offered a highly satisfying presentation.
Like Maniac Cop 2, Badge took a stereo source and remixed it into Dolby Atmos. Like Cop 2, the multichannel audio of Badge tried too hard to make an aging track sound “modern”.
Downconverted to Dolby TrueHD 7.1, this left us with a soundscape that used the back channels in a manner that could overwhelm the viewer. Too much of the time, music and effects from the surrounds dominated the soundfield in a way that didn’t seem especially natural.
At least material from the front worked better, as the track offered appealing movement and integration. Through in some directional dialogue and the forward soundscape functioned pretty nicely. That made it unfortunate that the rear speakers took control so often.
Audio quality showed its age but seemed satisfactory. Though speech occasionally became a bit reedy and edgy, the lines always remained intelligible, and they showed reasonably natural tones much of the time.
Music seemed bold and bright, while effects came across as fairly accurate. Some distortion interfered at times, but these elements seemed satisfactory in general. While not a bad remix, the audio would’ve worked better with a little more subtlety.
In addition to the movie’s trailer, the 4K disc presents a newly recorded audio commentary from director “Alan Smithee”. This actually pairs director William Lustig and producer Joel Soisson, the man who completed Badge when Lustig quit.
Both sit together for this running, screen-specific look at story/characters and the movie’s script, cast and performances, sets and locations, photography, music, stunts, and various conflicts/controversies.
Given the troubled nature of the production, I expected a testy, contentious commentary. Instead, Lustig and Soisson offer a surprisingly genial affair.
Not that this means they avoid the difficulties they experienced, but they don’t revel in the misery. Lustig and Soisson cover various issues in an engaging way that makes this an informative reel, if not a chat that comes across with the level of fireworks one might anticipate.
We get additional extras on the included Blu-ray copy, and it presents a featurette called Wrong Arm of the Law. It runs 25 minutes, five seconds and offers info from Soisson. Lustig, writer Larry Cohen, director of photography Jacques Haitkin, stunt coordinator Spiro Razatos and actors Robert Z’Dar, Robert Davi, Caitlin Dulany and Gretchen Becker.
“Arm” covers the film’s development, its original script and changes, casting, characters and performances, stunts and action, and general thoughts about the final product. Inevitably, some of this repeats from the commentary, but “Arm” benefits from the presence of others in addition to Soisson and Lustig and it gives us some good insights.
Seven Deleted and Extended Scenes span a total of 10 minutes, six seconds. Given the fact that so much of the final product offers filler, I felt surprised Badge enjoyed any unused footage.
Unsurprisingly, the clips we find here seem forgettable. They offer some minor character moments and expansions but nothing especially interesting.
A Poster & Still Gallery presents 21 shots, all of which feature ads for the film. It becomes a passable collection.
Finally, the Blu-ray provides the movie’s original synopsis. As mentioned, Badge went through a messy production, one that required major shifts from the original screenplay.
Here “Haitian-born detective Moonjean” becomes the lead character, and huge chunks of the story differ from those in the final film. It’s too bad we don’t get a copy of the entire original script, but the “Synopsis” offers an intriguing look at the movie Badge could’ve been.
Note that the included Blu-ray provides a 2021 release, not the prior BD from 2013. I suspect both offer very similar – if not identical – picture and sound, but since Blue Underground didn’t put out the 2021 BD on its own, I didn’t create a separate review for it.
Though Maniac Cop 2 offered a pretty engaging genre flick, Maniac Cop 3: Badge of Silence fares less well. Thanks to a good lead performance by Robert Davi, it doesn’t flop, but it also seems too rambling and incoherent to turn into a consistently intriguing tale. The 4K UHD offers very good picture along with overactive audio and a roster of bonus features. Expect a quality release for an iffy movie.