Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987) Warner Bros./Comedy RT: 88 minutes Rated PG (language, crude humor, comic violence, some sexual content) Director: Jim Drake Screenplay: Gene Quintano Music: Robert Folk Cinematography: Robert Saad Release date: April 3, 1987 (US) Cast: Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, David Graf, Michael Winslow, Marion Ramsey, Leslie Easterbrook, G.W. Bailey, Lance Kinsey, Tim Kazurinsky, Bob Goldthwait, Brian Tochi, George Gaynes, George R. Robertson, Tab Thacker, Billie Bird, Brian Backer, David Spade, Sharon Stone, Corinne Bohrer, Derek McGrath, Scott Thomson, Randall “Tex” Cobb, Colleen Camp, Arthur Batanides, Jackie Joseph, Andrew Paris, Michael McManus, Jack Creley. Cameo appearances: Steve Caballero, Chris Miller, Tommy Guerrero, Lance Mountain, Mike McGill and Tony Hawk. Box Office: $28 million (US)
Rating: ***
Much like the rush one gets from the opening strains of the Star Wars theme music at the start of each chapter, I feel a slight rush when I hear the opening notes of the Police Academy theme. I always looked forward to the yearly installments of the series as I found the cops’ tomfoolery amusing most of the time.
I have to say that of all the sequels, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol is the best. Granted, none of the sequels are that great. Some would argue that the fourth chapter of the clownish-cop saga is the lesser of the evils, but that’s a matter just of semantics. And this bunch is ALWAYS up for some antics! This time, most of them are funny.
I went to see Police Academy 4 opening night with my dad and once again he asked about “the idiot that screamed the whole time”. Yeah, Goldthwait is an acquired taste, one that I never fully acquired. He’s best taken in small (VERY small!) doses. Once again, I ask who thought Hot to Trot, the 1988 talking horse dud that starred Goldthwait, was a good idea. In any event, he’s fine in the Police Academy movies because he and co-star Tim Kazurinsky work so well off each other. That’s just one of the many, many good things about Police Academy 4, a good-natured comedy that marks the return of the despised Captain Thaddeus Harris (Bailey).
This time around, absent-minded Cmndt. Lassard (Gaynes) brings the old gang together to help him with his new initiative, a civilian-assistance program called COP (Citizens on Patrol). His team includes Mahoney (Guttenberg), Hightower (Smith), Tackleberry (Graf), Jones (Winslow), Hooks (Ramsey), Callahan (Easterbrook), Sweetchuck (Kazurinsky) and Zed (Goldthwait). Naturally, Harris would like to see the new program fail so he can take over Lassard’s position at the academy. He gets his chance to sabotage it when Lassard travels to London for an international law enforcement conference and he’s temporarily placed in charge at the academy along with dim-witted right-hand man Proctor (Kinsey). Once again, he and his most hated foil Mahoney are at odds with each other. Just like old times, no?
The program attracts some very interesting types: an enormous lad who goes by House (Thacker), Mrs. Feldman (Bird, Sixteen Candles), a gung-ho elderly woman that develops a friendship with Tackleberry, slightly sleazy lawyer Butterworth (McGrath, She’s Out of Control), Tackleberry’s father-in-law (Batanides), attractive photographer Laura (Bohrer, Joysticks) who becomes Zed’s love interest and a couple of skateboard punks, Arnie (Backer, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) and Kyle (Spade, SNL), sentenced by a judge to participate in the COP program. Also on hand is reporter Claire Mattson (Stone, Basic Instinct) who becomes Mahoney’s love interest. Just when all seems lost, a massive jail break occurs and the cops call upon the citizen volunteers to help round them up. It all ends with a hot-air balloon chase.
Police Academy 4 is a very crowded movie which proves both a strength and a weakness. It’s a very likable bunch of characters, but most get only a few minutes of screen time like Randall “Tex” Cobb (Raising Arizona) who plays the leader of the jailbreak which, by the way, also includes a gang of ninjas. It’s a perfect opportunity for Jones to break out his signature move before soundly defeating them with the assistance of Officer Nogata (Tochi) visiting from Japan. Even Stone only gets about ten minutes screen time total. Back to Cobb, I like the guy and wished he had been in it a bit more.
As usual, Harris and Proctor are the butts of embarrassing (and sometimes painful) practical jokes as payback for their ill treatment of our heroes and their new friends. Somebody replaces Harris’ spray-on deodorant with a can of mace and you can imagine how that turns out. Mahoney and the gang pull an elaborate prank on Proctor involving a crane and a port-a-potty that results in him being caught with his pants down in a stadium filled with sports fans. Again, it’s all in good fun.
Bird has a few good moments, like the scene in which she gets sent flying backwards after firing one of Tackleberry’s huge guns. There’s also a good bit where Jones and a few others teach House, Arnie and Kyle a lesson in humility after hearing them brag about being ready to fight crime on their own.
It has a pretty good soundtrack, especially the rap song performed over both credits sequences. For the skate rats, Police Academy 4 has a cool skateboarding sequence featuring the talents of famous-on-the-circuit skateboarders. In other words, preteens will think that Police Academy 4 is the best movie of the year. I wouldn’t go that far, but it is pretty good. It’s as dumb and inconsequential as any other Police Academy movie, but it has a certain charm that puts it a notch above the rest (except the first movie).
