Man, I hope they show that prison flashback again

MC3 is more notorious for its production problems than for the finished product. Series director William Lustig butted heads with producers and quit with only 51 minutes in the can. So the producers had to scramble writing and filming almost half the run-time in order to get something resembling a movie out the door. Did the backstage drama effect the end result as much as it's known for?

Yes and no. MC3 reminds me of Alien 3 in that the finished product is more cohesive than it has any right to be, but not without some quibbles.

A female officer is earning a no-nonsense reputation around the department, to the point where some are calling her "Maniac Kate." When she gets caught in an inside job to rob a pharmacy (courtesy of Jackie Earle Haley), she kills a suspect and wounds the other after taking a bullet herself. Two reporters happen to be on the scene, and in order to create a sensationalist news story, edit the footage to make it look like Kate used excessive force. Robert Davi returns to clear her name, while Matt Cordell (Robert Z'Dar, also returning with his freakish jowls) wants to grab her body in some sort of bride of frankenstein plot.

One of the issues with the plot concerns Cordell's resurrection. He's brought back to life by a voodoo guy. Why? Don't ask me because I'm pretty sure they don't bother telling. As far as the plot is concerned, a voodoo guy is as plausible as anything, so why not?

But the main problem would be the lack of Cordell in general. The character the series is named for only makes a few brief appearances until showing up for the big flaming finale. Everyone involved could have saved themselves face by at  least adding a few scenes of the Maniac Cop taking out some thugs. One scene of a jerk doctor eating pussy just isn't enough to make up for it.

Even in spite of Z'Dar feeling like a cameo player in his own movie, it isn't a total failure. MC3 still feels like Maniac Cop, just more of a standard B-Action vehicle this time out.

"And then I was like, 'Got a light?' But seriously..."