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Police Academy<\/strong>\u00a0 (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Ladd Company\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, comic violence, nudity, sexual content\/humor, racial epithets, lots of rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Hugh Wilson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Neal Israel, Pat Proft and Hugh Wilson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Robert Folk\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael D. Margulies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 23, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, Bubba Smith, David Graf, George Gaynes, Michael Winslow, Marion Ramsey, Bruce Mahler, Donovan Scott, G.W. Bailey, Andrew Rubin, Brant Van Hoffman, Scott Thomson, Leslie Easterbrook, George R. Robertson, Debralee Scott, Ted Ross, Georgina Spelvin, Doug Lennox, Don Lake.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $81.1 million (US)\/$146 million (World)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: ****<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Roger Ebert, a film critic that I admire, gave the comedy Police Academy<\/strong> a zero-stars rating (out of four) indicating that it\u2019s an especially bad movie. He criticized it harshly which I think is unfair. I strongly disagree with his comments; I think it\u2019s hilarious! He compared it to Airplane which is inaccurate. That was a spoof; Police Academy<\/strong> is more of a \u201cmisfits vs. establishment\u201d comedy like Stripes to which it bears a strong resemblance, right down to the contentious relationship between smart-ass recruit (Guttenberg, The Man Who Wasn\u2019t There) and tight-ass leader (Bailey, St. Elsewhere).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Nobody expected Police Academy<\/strong> to make as big a splash as it did in early spring \u201984. I had a feeling about it though. Still reveling in the joyous memory of the previous December\u2019s D.C. Cab (another \u201cmisfits vs. establishment\u201d comedy), I went to see Police Academy<\/strong> at the City Line Theater on a rainy Sunday afternoon (March 25, to be precise) and spent the next 96 minutes laughing my ass off. It was crude, stupid, silly and a complete riot!<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n The basic premise of Police Academy<\/strong> is simplicity itself. The newly-elected mayor has relaxed standards at the academy due to a shortage of police officers. In other words, they\u2019ll take anybody! That\u2019s where perennial troublemaker Carey Mahoney (Guttenberg) enters the picture. He\u2019s just been arrested for destroying property and receives an ultimatum from family friend Captain Reed (Ross, Arthur). Either he signs up for the police academy or goes to jail. Since Mahoney doesn\u2019t want to go to jail, he opts for the former with the intention of being thrown out on the first day. It won\u2019t be as easy as that because those in charge have decided it would be more fun to make the undesirable cadets quit rather than throw them out. Mahoney almost immediately clashes with Lt. Thaddeus Harris (Bailey), the meanest instructor at the academy who aspires to replace slightly-confused Commandant Eric Lassard (Gaynes, Tootsie) as head of the academy. Along with big-bosomed Sgt. Callahan (Easterbrook, Laverne & Shirley), Harris proceeds to make life miserable for the new recruits, especially Mahoney who he despises with a passion.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0The motley group of cadets include the following: human sound effects machine Larvell Jones (comedian Winslow), towering tough guy Moses Hightower (former NFL star Smith), gung-ho gun-crazy Eugene Tackleberry (Graf, Irreconcilable Differences), extremely soft-spoken Laverne Hooks (Ramsey), super-klutz Douglas Fackler (Mahler, Friday the 13th<\/sup>: The Final Chapter), rich socialite Karen Thompson (Cattrall, Porky\u2019s), Latino womanizer George Martin (Rubin), non-confrontational Leslie Barbara (Scott, Zorro, The Gay Blade) and Harris\u2019 two ass-kissing flunkies Kyle Blankes (Van Hoffman, Rustler\u2019s Rhapsody) and Chad Copeland (Thomson, Fast Times at Ridgemont High).<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Among the signature characteristics of the Police Academy movies are sight gags and plenty of slapstick humor. Police Academy<\/strong> has its fair share of both, the classic scene being the one in which Harris finds himself stuck in a certain orifice of a horse. I also like the bit involving Cmndt. Lassard, Mahoney, a hooker (porn actress Spelvin) and a podium. There\u2019s also a funny bit where Hightower overturns a police car containing Copeland who\u2019s just made a derogatory racist remark towards Hooks. That right there dates Police Academy<\/strong> because you wouldn\u2019t hear such terms in a comedy in this age of political correctness. Copeland uses a term in one scene that I\u2019ve only ever heard used by Archie Bunker. Some have accused Police Academy<\/strong> of being homophobic due to a scene where Mahoney sends Blankes and Copeland to a gay leather bar as a way of keeping them away from the cadets\u2019 beach party. I think it\u2019s one of the movie\u2019s funniest scenes.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Another trademark of the Police Academy movies is the climactic scenes that feature our heroes rushing in to stop some big crime and save the day. In this first movie, a riot breaks out downtown and it\u2019s up to the cadets to bring peace back to the streets. They also have to save Harris after he\u2019s taken hostage by a gun-toting scumbag. Guess which cadet risks his neck to save his most despised commander?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0I like how Police Academy<\/strong> is set up. It\u2019s mainly a series of gags and comic scenes. Director Hugh Wilson (WKRP in Cincinnati) makes it work. Police Academy<\/strong> will never pass for fine cinema, but who says it has to? It\u2019s funny and that\u2019s what really counts! Guttenberg is great in the lead and the characters are pretty cool too. I give it a four-star rating because it never fails to make me laugh like crazy. Sorry Roger, I hold you in high regard but must respectfully disagree with your assessment of Police Academy<\/strong>. I think it\u2019s great!<\/p>\r\n Police Academy\u00a0 (1984)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The Ladd Company\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 96 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (language, comic violence, nudity, sexual content\/humor, racial epithets, lots of rude humor)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Hugh Wilson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Neal Israel, Pat Proft and Hugh Wilson\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Robert Folk\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Michael D. Margulies\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: March 23, 1984 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, Bubba Smith, David […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":940,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-247","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-thats-some-funny-stuff"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Police-Academy-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":942,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247\/revisions\/942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Police-Academy-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C937&ssl=1\")
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