the audience applauded

I'll tell you why so serious

It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

COP KILLERS is a typical on-the-run slice of 1970s exploitation featuring a couple of druggies who are chased through the American desert and blow away a number of cops during the pursuit. They take a young woman hostage and the film becomes a hostage thriller along the lines of RABID DOGS but without anywhere near the same kind of tension and suspense. Mostly, this is a cheap and sleazy production that wallows in excess. It has some nasty bursts of bloodshed here and there, with convincing effects contributed by a pre-stardom FX artist Rick Baker. The characters are all unpleasant and the story hackneyed from the beginning to the expectedly nihilistic outcome.

Wickedly mean, low-budget 70's road-film exploitation cinema at its best! Two sleazy long-haired dirtballs try to get rich by dealing coke, kidnapping a poor blonde chick named Karen, stealing an ice-cream truck, and killing everybody who gets in their way - mostly Arizona troopers. Filmed entirely on location around Tucson, "Cop Killers" is a non-stop stream of priceless scenes with great dialog, like when psycho Ray tries to make poor tearful, hysterical Karen read from the porno-novel she was carrying when the two scum-balls kidnapped her; "If you can't READ it out, then we'll just have to ACT it out!" he screams. When Ray then tries to rape Karen, and Alex tries to stop him, Ray says "Okay, okay, I'll leave little miss virgin alone, but if she tries to rape ME, then I won't be responsible!" The scenes with the drug dealer with the pet spider (also named Karen) and the two stoned hippie/stripper chicks reminded me of people I knew when I lived in Tucson! An absolute classic. Should be in every film-buff's library.

Alex: "Look man, I'm uptight and wasted. Your messing around with that broad nearly drove us off the road. Now leave her alone. We ain't got time for that s***." Ray: "Is that all you have to say?" Alex: "I said keep your hands off her!" Ray: "Don't ever put your hands on me again. Look man, I was just trying to relax. I'll keep my hands off the young virgin. Now if she comes on to me, that's another story".How could you not like this movie? Plenty of bad acting, poor production values, cheesy dialog, cheap violence, ridiculous music, etc... So what if the last half of the movie sucks, the first half is worth the price of admission. This is right up there with Going Bezerk and Cheech & Chong's Next Movie.

A drug deal goes disastrously wrong for two long hairs when they run into cops at a roadblock. They kill the pigs and go on an orgy of kidnap and killing. Particular highlights include the theft of an ice cream truck complete with its camp, whining driver and a hippy hangout in the desert peopled with stoned hippy chicks and a pretentious hippy drug dealer. This is a film obviously inspired by the likes of 'Easy River' and 'Electra Glide in Blue', but it has a very amateur improvised feel to it, especially the dialogue which is a real hoot of late sixties cliches. The names of the cast and crew are the same which gives it all a 'lets do the movie right here' feeling. Howard Ziehm was one of the producers and Rick Baker did the gory gunshot make up.