Scanner Cop II (1995)

This sequel marks the end of the series- or does it?

The rookie cop Staziak (Daniel Quinn) is now a plainclothes detective- he must have had one good year since "Scanner Cop"- and uses his scanning capabilities to rout criminals and foil evildoers. We meet an evil scanner- yes, another one- (Patrick Kilpatrick) 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 scanner finale coming as scanner cop and evil scanner do scanner battle from a scanner kilometer away.

In the beginning of the film, Staziak fools a kidnapper into thinking Staziak is an accomplice, not a cop. He does this by "scanning." The problem is the director uses the exact same special effect from "Scanner Cop," but in a very different scanning context. Another complaint I have had about the entire series, and I have seen all the entries, is that the Scanner power is never 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, but now machines can be scanned as well?

The good scanner vs. evil scanner plot has been done, yet it is still trotted out for this video entry. 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 matched the gore of the first film.

This showdown is underwhelming. Also known as "Scanners 4: The Showdown" and "Scanner Cop II: The Showdown."

Stats:
(1995) 95 min. (2/10)
-Directed by Steve Barnett
-Written by Mark Sevi based on characters created by David Cronenberg
-Cast: Daniel Quinn, Patrick Kilpatrick, Khyrstyne Haje, Stephen Mendel, Robert Forster, Brenda Swanson, Jerry Potter, Jewel Shepard, Tony Fasce, Terrie Snell, Kane Hodder, Rick Avery, Eugene Robert Glazer
(R)
Media Viewed: Home Video