Original Title: |
Omega Cop
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Alternative
Title(s):
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John Travis, Solar Survivor - claims IMDb (I want to see proof of this). | |
Year
of Release:
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1990 |
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Duration:
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85 minutes |
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Country
of Origin:
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Tagline(s): |
The year is
1999. John Travis is the toughest cop alive... He's the only cop alive!
- US VHS
(He is NOT the only cop alive, and if he was, surely saying he is the
toughest cop would be a moot point!) |
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Reviewed
Version Rating:
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Review: |
Let me see,
we
have had a Maniac Cop, a Violent Cop, a Beverly
Hills Cop, even a Kindergarten
Cop, in fact we have had every damn type of Cop
you can think of, so why not an Omega Cop?
Omega literally means the “Last O” and is often
used to
denote the last, the end, or the ultimate limit (thanks Wikipedia). Of
course,
the word Omega has had plenty of cinematic outings (Omega
Man, Omega Factor, Buio Omega). Brunging the words together It makes good sense.
It’s a nice title that is both easy to remember and also so
very deep in meaning.
Well, maybe it’s not very deep, but compared to the actual
movie, the title is a
masterpiece. Yes, this is a tale of the last cop. Not the last cop on
Earth,
maybe not even last cop in America, but the last cop in Stockton,
California.
In fact, he isn’t even technically the last cop in I like our lead actor Ronald L. Marchini (or Ron Marchini as he's credited here). Don’t get me wrong, I don’t think he’s a great actor, not even a good one, but he seems really likeable. I reckon he’s a friendly guy in real life, somebody you could have a beer with (although I imagine he likes to reminisce about “the good old days” when drunk). The problem is, he just seems a bit too slow for this film, not while fighting but while running. You see, nobody checked to see what Ron looks like when he runs, and he spends at least half this film either running after criminals or running away from them. He may have a squeaky clean smile and boyish charms, but he’s 45 (I believe), and it shows. He can still take on 15 criminals at a time and come out a winner, but his top running speed is humiliating, and his running style is laughable. I’m no sprinter, but every time I saw Ron running I had to crack a smile, but at the end of the day, isn’t that what it’s all about? Thanks Ron, for making me smile. And that (making me smile) is the one thing that this film has in its favour. It’s a low budget PA that plays it straight. It’s just a simple and pointless plot with basic but solid camera work, extremely conservative editing and rough acting. It come so close to being worthless, but somehow little touches keep it from drowning. There are a couple of nice cameos, some ultra cheesy music, some superbly bad one-liners, and of course Ron and his three groupies, whom you will hear about so very soon.  So I bet you are all now desperate to find out what happened to society? No, it’s not nukes, it’s recently-fashionable global warming, or as they used to say in the early 90’s, the Greenhouse Effect and the depletion of the Ozone Layer. Thanks Mr. Voice-Over guy. How civilization would collapse as it has here is not very clear, but a weird and totally unfounded side effect of solar radiation in the film can account for a lot of it. Every so often there are solar flares (though only once in the film) and just a small time under the bright sun will give you a disease. Slowly your skin turns a burnt-black, and then I presume you die, but it’s all a bit weird. The way it’s discussed in the film it’s claimed that this radiation turns people into barbarians (or Scavengers as the credits call them), yet none of the bad guys seem to be burnt. I guess it’s just some kind of plot hole. Claiming the radiation addles minds was an unusual call. So after our voice-over, we get to meet the stars of the show. Down in a bunker hidden safely underground is Prescott (yes, yes, Batman himself, Adam West) and the rest of what's left of law and order in the future (or at least in Stockton California). We only see one room (filled with computers) and we only see a handful of people, but I'm under the impression that the bunker is quite sizeable. Of the people we do see in the bunker (bar our hero), the only two that are of any importance are Prescott, the serious and exceedingly grumpy commander, and his assistant, a blonde woman called Sanders who seems to have a crush on John Travis, the hero of the piece, played by Marchini. From the safety of the bunker Prescott sends out the last remaining cops on missions to try and keep at least some form of law and order in the surrounding area. Today's mission? Slavers! Someone phones in a tip-off of where the next slave auction is being held, so Prescott sends Travis and his "goons" to sort it out. Travis and Prescott seem to have a real hate for each other (I would hate Prescott too, he complains and bullys everybody) but the desire for a civilized society seems to hold the chain of command together (I imagine nobody's getting paid, it's all for rations).   I imagine everyone begged Ron not to wear that top, but he insisted.   Ron presses random buttons and pretends to know what he is doing while Sanders checks out some highly detailed maps (hastily sketched by the prop department five minuted before). So
Travis heads off with his
three cop buddies to sort out the slavers and hang the auctioneer! They take two jeeps and we get to see them
driving around to an "Oldies"
music cassette that Sanders gives to Travis. The music is Beach Boys in
style (no information on the credits), and it's not so bad. I actually
remembered the tune from when I
saw the film years ago, so it can't be that bad. At least it's
different from your typical PA. There are lots of abandoned industrial
buildings to
give an atmosphere of desolation, and they pass a couple of dead bodies
by the road.     "Do you like oldies?"   The cops park up around the corner from the slave (think slave women) auction. After some joking around, some discussion on how to handle the situation, and a lot of cocking of weapons, they decide to dive right in. There is quite a crowd of mucky faced patrons at the sale, and a lot of strategically placed men with weapons who work for the boss, Wraith (Chuck Katzakian in his third and final film). One of the women on sale will become one of Travis' three groupies. I'm probably doing women a great disservice here, but for ease of use, and comical effect (and because I'm actually not sure which woman is which), she's getting the nickname of G1 (get it?). The cops surround the auction and Travis runs onto the stage and smacks the auctioneer, Norm ( D.W. Landingham, who stars as a different character in the sequel Karate Cop) in the stomach with the butt of his rifle. So they now have about 100 people surrounded. Now what?       Norm tries to raise bids for G1. Face paint guy is one of Wraiths top men.     Yeah,
you guessed it. The
stand-off doesn't last long. Someone fires a shot and the action
begins. Lots of shooting, lots of people running around and lots of
slow-motion camera work. Not a bad little action scene. Travis proves
to be good with his gun and also pretty good with his
fists (of course). He may be getting old but he's a real-life martial arts expert.
Unfortunately, his cop buddies aren't so skilled, and all get shot down
(in slow-mo).   Wraith (looking like a reject from the Village People) and one of his other top men (with a perm).         Lot's of Slowwwww-motion. Travis
does a good job but
he can't take on everybody (at least not yet) so he decides to leg it
back to the jeep. Wraith and his top goons chase him, but nature
decides to intervene and the world is troubled with a solar flare.
Obviously, staying out under the sun is not an option, so everybody
heads for the nearest shelter. Travis finds himself in a big warehouse
and manages to sneak out the back when the flare dies down, and get
back to his jeep to inform Prescott about what's happened. Grumpy old
Prescott is worried that Travis may have suffered some of those
radiation burns that turn people crazy and refuses to let Travis back
in the bunker, but he still wants Travis to continue in his job and to
follow orders.
    Run Travis run!     Travis gains blood on his hand and face from somewhere! Travis is obviously angry about this. He takes out some funny-looking gun (which I believe is fake) and heads back to the slave auction. Wraith and everybody has scampered, leaving only the dead bodies behind. What does Travis do? Well he makes a pose and screams in the air "Wraith! It's not over yet!"  "Wraith! It's not over yet!" he screams (with a lot of help from an echo effect). Cut to a bit later on in the day, and something very special has happened. Travis has had a change of clothes. This may not seem special, but he's the only character who is allowed such luxuries. Even Adam West doesn't get to mix his wardrobe up. He's even cleaned up that blood. How come nobody else is allowed a wash? Is there a water shortage? Nobody really mentions it until much later, and then only in passing. Despite the fact that Prescott is not letting him back in the bunker, Travis still wants to deal with Wraith, so he's following some of Wraith's men in his jeep (gasoline is apparently free out here). It turns out that G1 has been re-captured by the gang, who are heading back to wherever their base is. Travis pulls up, gets out and makes it clear he wants a Wild West-style showdown. The two main goons (Norm and Facepaint Guy) run off to let the nobody's deal with Travis. There's a pause, one of the men makes a move and Travis shoots them all in a second. Cheesy, but nice. The girl is saved and Travis has his first groupie. "Who are you?" she asks. "John Travis, Policeman. Do you like oldies?" he replies, referring to his music collection. "How old are you?" she quips as they drive off.       "Do you like oldies?" Another
call to Prescott
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