InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.
Lollivan It's the kind of movie you'll want to see a second time with someone who hasn't seen it yet, to what it was like to watch it for the first time.
Sienna-Rose Mclaughlin The movie really just wants to entertain people.
Billy Ollie Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Art Vandelay This isn't funny or dramatic. Just a badly acted cartoon showing incompetent cops pulling stunts that would get them killed in real life. Liebman and Selby are so desperate, white and obvious, it's impossible to believe how any street-wise hustler in 70s NYC couldn't smell the bacon from a while away. Harold Ramis pretending to be a cop on SCTV's Undercover Mountie was more realistic. But they hit upon a plan to trample the civil rights of the neighbourhood ne'er-do-wells as a way to shake down the street dealers and work their way up to the local heroin dealer. I wouldn't be surprised if the DEA use this as a training film. For all the criticism Dirty Harry received as a fascist film, when it was really more like cop fantasia - ie. license to blow away the bad guys - this movie is likely closer to the subversive truth about how the po-po will stop at nothing to make their bust and go home safe. As an added bonus, Liebman grins his way through every scene. What the hell was so amusing. I'd be shocked if this movie got booked outside NYC. It has no appeal other than ''hey, look, they filmed that scene in front of my drug-infested tenement house!''
qormi This "buddy cop" film is all about Ron Leibman constantly flashing his buck toothed grin while David Selby looks on.That's it.The criminals, dope pushers,prostitutes - all are extremely unauthentic. Leibman is strangely attracted to a black prostitute who works out of a cockroach infested, paint chip peeling, stinky skid row room. She is perfectly coiffed and speaks like she went to Harvard. The drug pushers and pimps seem like reasonable people and will bend over backwards as "grin" and "bear it" get over on them. Totally unconvincing as they go against the grain and all the superior officers are portrayed as corrupt imbeciles. The claustrophobic New York City environs seem authentic enough; everything else is way off base.
Tiny-13 This film has slipped through the cracks of film history. It is by far much better than some other New York films of the same era such as: "The French Connection" or "The Taking of Pelham 1-2-3". There is a gritty reality to this film which also manages to effectively use humor to further the plot line. It's engaging from start to finish and hasn't tarnished with age as is the case with the above two examples.Ron Liebman turns in a bravura performance as "Batman" and it's a shame his career didn't take off as a result of this project.Gordon Parks directs and, coming as it does after "Shaft", it at first appears to be a strange choice. Yet it is the flip side of that earlier effort and approached with just as much in your face machismo.Unfortunately this film has not been made available on either DVD or VHS in the United States. United Artists really has a gem on their hands and it's a shame they're not doing anything with it.
tonypuma "The Super Cops" was surprisingly rare on video for a long time, and my first exposure of it was a grey-market copy of the 1982 MGM release on videotape. Allegedly available on laserdisc, also note there was a Super Cops comic book also released at the time. I just received what seems to be a legal release of this film on DVD, from New Star Video. It's still relatively hard to find, but the DVD features a slightly cleaner version of the print that I had previously. The colors in the film are able, but this film would look far better if it were cleaned up. The DVD features above average cast bios/filmographies of Leibman and, but all in all is a pretty slim packaging. This is the third directoral outing of Gordon Parks, famed photojournalist/renaissance man best known for "Shaft" and "The Learning Tree." It's not his filmic acme, but one would hope that it might become available again as Parks' genius has not yet been fully celebrated.This film lacks the vitality and edge of "Shaft", something that must have been a budget issue. Nonetheless, it's quick, good-hearted police action based on the L.H. Whittemore book of the same title. Whereas the book covered the late 60's/early 70's NYC crime scene very well, the film comes only halfway in detailing the true story depicted here. The plot is somewhat disted, with choppy arrest and pursuit scenes that do not build upon each other. By the end of the movie, one still has the interest in the characters, but no clue exactly how much they've endured. Still, it's a fun ride and good visually if one is familiar with the book. At best, a solid document of the time- a good cop story if nothing more.The underrated Ron Liebman is excellent in one of the lead roles, cocky and enthusiastic. David Selby is more refined and cool, and many of the police superiors are great as gruff, cranky New York types. This story is begging for another attempt, with more detail and character development. But without the superb 70's environment and post-Serpico interest in police flicks, would it float?A friend of mine to whom I screened the movie years ago met the great Gordon Parks a few years before Parks' death. He reports that upon mention of The Super Cops, Parks immediately responded, "I like that one!! ...but Shaft was better."
