Police Academy (1984)

Written by r96sk on March 23, 2025

'Police Academy' is proper lacklustre. I didn't find any of it amusing, even so I can usually see why a film may actually work for others - not here. Given I've heard of this franchise, I assume folk enjoy these so I am a tad surprised. To me, it's just all a rather limp effort.

The characters have one joke associated to them (e.g. tall man, quiet woman, wannabe war guy etc.) and it's just repeated numerous times throughout the movie; it doesn't get any funnier. How many times do they play the theme song, btw? It is catchy to be fair, but damn.

Michael Winslow is the only plus that I have for this. I wasn't aware of him until this very moment, those voice sounds are outrageously brilliant; even had me questioning if they were dubbed over sound effects. Awesome talent! Of the rest of the cast, Donovan Scott is the 'best' (?).

I found lead Steve Guttenberg to be more annoying than anything else, shame we never got Bruce Willis instead; he auditioned for the role, so I read. Elsewhere, Kim Cattrall is underused; interesting to see her 'Mannequin' co-star G. W. Bailey in this though, he is OK.

Despite everything, in the end when the credits rolled around I didn't hold any annoyance or anything towards the flick. The feeling is more so how lame and low quality it comes across, I expected snappier comedy. Lastly, how are there 7 of these movies?! I'm in for a ride...