Man, Siskel is a little bitch, wasn't a shotgun to the face head explosion scene pretty common place by 1980? Tom Savini's character in this movie is named "Disco Boy" in the credits
Both visceral and hokey at the same time. The 80's were a magical time for film. Ninjas jumped from palm fronds onto helicopters, and arcades would emerge from your linen closet at night to shoot lasers into your eyeballs.
This is a pretty good movie. One of the few William Lustig films that actually manages to be kinda disturbing rather than just hokey (not that I have anything against the Maniac Cop movies) Apparently the film was some kind of labor of love for Joe Spinelli who really wanted the film to work.