Police Academy (20th Anniversary Special Edition)

Comment: This I think would be a classic. I am not sure what I can say about it. The epicness of this movie can not be explained.

Comment: What do Police Academy (1984) and Amadeus (1984) have in common? Well, apparently they were released in the same year, 1984, and for me, as different as they are; they both belong to the favorites. That's right, 8 times Oscar winner "Amadeus", the work of Art, the movie that deservingly has made the countless top lists, and the comedy Police Academy which received zero stars from Roger Ebert who called it bad and idiotic. He suggests in his review, "It's so bad, maybe you should pool your money and draw straws and send one of the guys off to rent it so that in the future, whenever you think you're sitting through a bad comedy, he could shake his head, and chuckle tolerantly, and explain that you don't know what bad is." Well, I've sat (or at least I tried to sit) through my portion of bad comedies and I swear, the original Police Academy is not bad. I wonder if very respected by this viewer critic ever changed his mind because I personally sat through original PA dozens of times and I like it a lot. I laugh, I have a good time and what is the most amazing thing, I remember the characters' names - it does not happen to me often. I see them all vividly and think of them with the smile - such a colorful crew of misfits who tried to make it to the Police Force. The first and the most charming is of course Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg will be remembered for this role. And for Diner, of course), a repeat offender who was forced to join the police academy as punishment and tried to get kicked out for the first half of the movie. Then there is gun obsessed Tackleberry, David Graf, RIP (Son, where did you get that gun? My mommy gave it to me). Next, the sweet, shy and soft spoken Hooks; the intimidating by his size but gentle ex- florist giant Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith), Jones (Michael Winslow),the guy who could imitate any sound possible and make amazingly realistic sound effects using only his mouth; the young and sexy long before she was not so young but still very sexy in the City, Kim Catrell (cadet Thompson), and those two idiots who look like grown up Beavis and Butthead and who were the frequent visitors in The Blue Oyster Bar where they did a lot of dancing, mostly dancing. There were also memorable staff members at Lassard Police Academy, starting with oblivious forgetful Commander Lassard who liked to give the public speeches...with some special help from under the podium. There is very diligent and strict Lt. Harris who took his job in forcing new cadets to quit very seriously. There is also Sgt. Debbie Callahan in the full Valkyrie mood. To make it short - Police Academy is fun, always has been and I believe will be. I've seen it so many times I know the lines by heart and I still watch at least the parts of this classic when they show it on TV. I'll tell you what - the second and the third movies are also funny. In the second, the new character, Zed, a leader of the local gang of punks, (Bobcat Goldthwait with Ozzy -like voice) enters the series, and in the third, the reformed Zed returns as the cadet and has the funniest scenes with Tim Kazurinsky (Sweetchuck). The rest of the series get repetitive and boring but the first three movies still hold tight. Now back to the question in the beginning of my review. What do Police Academy and Amadeus have in common? Both are the winners of the Golden Screen Award which "is presented to the distributors of domestic and foreign feature films - including documentary and children films - with more than 3,000,000 admissions within 18 months since their release or re-release in Germany". Looks like Police Academy made it internationally, and even more - the second and the third movie also won the same award. So, Mr. Ebert, I think it is the time to admit that Police Academy is very far from being the bad movie not worthy even a star from you. Silly, witless - yes. Bad? Absolutely not.

Comment: This is a rarity among comedies in that it actually ages quite well and the jokes are still pretty amusing albeit not perhaps as side-splittingly funny as when you first heard them but then again that's the way with most jokes anyway. I particularly liked Harris' horse scene the best although there are "many, many" (ahem!)good scenes throughout the film. If you like your comedies ala "Animal House" or "Caddyshack" style, you'll still love this good comedy.

The only problem though is with this dvd version which comes in mono sound quality and picture quality that's not the best that I've ever seen plus no special features worth mentioning. I would like to see a Director's Cut version with at least Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround Sound options and a vastly improved restored picture quality version with decent Special Features with anamorphic widescreen features released on either the Blu-ray or standard dvd format soon. I thought "Airplane" also aged pretty well but in my opinion, "Police Academy" has aged better as a comedy over the years.

Recommended and still good for a laugh.

Comment: The Bottom Line:

A stupid comedy that is sophomoric at best and moronic at worst, Police Academy has probably only garnered its status as a "classic" because its sequels are so poorly-regarded that even this looks good by comparison; please don't watch this when there are literally thousands of better movies you could spend your time or money on.

Comment: There certainly isn't much light I can shed on Police Academy. Anybody who was old enough to watch a movie in the 80s is familiar with this film as well as it's many sequels(and lets not forget animated and live action TV series. Well, it's probably a good idea to forget the live action series). The story of a bunch of goofballs(let into the academy due to a new rule put forth by the mayor which allows anybody to join) and their shenanigans are stuff of legend. Characters like Hightower, Jones, Mahoney, Lassard, and Tackleberry are pretty much household names.
I've always liked this movie. Sure, it's all pretty juvenile and not every joke is a winner, but what can you do? Some of the stuff is still pretty damn funny, a lot of the best gags going to Michael Winslow. Winslow isn't featured in this one as much as he would be in the sequels. And lets not forget the podium scene and the infamous Blue Oyster Bar(which is personally my favorite part of the first four movies). A young and very tasty looking Kim Cattrall is here, but she really doesn't have much to do but look cute, and she doesn't really seem to generate much chemistry with Guttenberg. No big deal, this is slapstick not a romance.
Watching these films is always a nice trip down memory lane for me, so thanks for bearing with me. The 20th Anniversary edition DVD has a nice 30+ minute documentary that has interviews with director Hugh Wilson, producer Paul Maslansky, and a good number of the cast. Well worth the very reasonable asking price.