I was 13 when Police Academy came out, which means I had to wait until it was on HBO, so I was probably 14 by then. It was everything a newly minted teen boy could want; it had some physical comedy, naughty jokes, bad language - not a ton, but some, easily identifiable characters, a guy who could do some wild sounds with his mouth that we all tried to imitate unsuccessfully, and most importantly, boobs.
This is the Police Academy that had boobs, and not of the blink-and-miss-it variety of part 2 (then never again). I was the perfect demographic. IFC showed it a few times recently and I caught a good chunk of it. I still enjoy it if for no other reason than nostalgia. And boobs.
I thought the first few POLICE ACADEMY movies were...okay, in a "This is how you do a comedy feature" kind of way—the heroes are the outsiders who don't conform, the villains are Fascist conformists, and somehow the barely-aware old guy running things becomes an unexpected ally to the heroes, who end up saving the day because when push comes to shove they have The Right Stuff.
Steve Guttenberg hits just enough Young William Shatner notes to pass muster, and is far more engaging than Bill Murray ever was(!), as the lead; Kim Cattrall was, once again, a sexy welcome presence (mostly because she didn't have to pretend to be besties with Sarah Jessica Parker, which seemed to take up all of her acting talent on SEX IN THE CITY!); the supporting cast are mainly a group of stand-up comics stretching out the sell-by date of their *schtick*s by making them character traits (something both Tim Kazurinksy and Bobcat Goldthwait will do in future films); and the straitlaced villains are as villainous as you'd expect.
The gay panic scenes were...dated by 1984 standards, and since then have aged like milk. Part of the "humor" of the evil straight cops being "trapped" in a gay bar was the implication that at some level, they might be into what's going on there—because Nazis Cops as Secret Homos is FUNNY! LAUGH! (It's like Red Letter Media's Mike Stoklasa's endless jokes about Jay Bauman going to "The Manhole"—because his affection for *giallo*, Eurohorror, and Asian Extreme Cinema somehow means he's gay, at least in Stoklasa's estimation.)
I'm not sure how much of your anti-police posturing is a put-on, and how much is sincere—but you sound like a guy who got stopped for speeding, and is now all "FUCK THE PIGS, MAN!" (Also known as "Me, In My Twenties When I Was Still Drinking".)
The police are certainly out of control these days, and any semblance that they're protecting or serving anybody other than the Rich, Powerful, and White is getting more tattered every time they violently stop a student protest or kill an unarmed Black person. But even somebody who opposes the current state of the police can still enjoy cop shows, because they present the police as we want them to be, Protecting and Serving All Persons in a fair and just manner.
I doubt Skip Intro's COPAGANDA series on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udhDawfCLHo&list=PL2ac8vr2QyTdlWwd8OQIc1it6bAfMGPPC ) would exist if he didn't, at some level, love cop shows, even while knowing how wildly they always veered from reality if you were Black, Brown, or Gay, and how wildly they're veering from reality even for appalled White people now!
Not sure why you're doing this series given you clearly don't like it, and can't find much of anything good to say about even the early outings....
I was surprised by the vitriol towards the first movie myself as it is the pinnacle of the series. By no means a perfect film, but still an enjoyable Reagan-era slobs vs. snobs comedy. Most films of that variety have elements that didn't age well; gay panic, race-related jokes, misogyny, you name it - this one checked a lot of boxes while still being kind of lightweight fluff. Revenge of the Nerds - we all loved it back in the day, but yeah, all of the above and non-consensual sex to boot. I fully agree that being more aware of and not using aspects of these behaviors now for comedy is important, but I can't tsk-tsk everything that I enjoyed back in my youth based on what could or couldn't be made today. Hell, even Back to the Future has a scene of attempted date rape and all anyone picks up on now is the incestual hook and their overwhelming love of the series.
As bad as this is, it's rather shocking how much worse these films get. The second one was rated PG-13 and was a significant drop in quality, despite the addition of ringers like Bobcat and Tim K. From 3 on, they are rated PG and still manage to get even worse. If anything, this series was innovative in how much worse they could make each successive movie.
Been making my way through the free posts here but I love your work and will support it when I can. For now having binged all of these movies years ago while sick this one was...okay if dated.
I was 13 when Police Academy came out, which means I had to wait until it was on HBO, so I was probably 14 by then. It was everything a newly minted teen boy could want; it had some physical comedy, naughty jokes, bad language - not a ton, but some, easily identifiable characters, a guy who could do some wild sounds with his mouth that we all tried to imitate unsuccessfully, and most importantly, boobs.
This is the Police Academy that had boobs, and not of the blink-and-miss-it variety of part 2 (then never again). I was the perfect demographic. IFC showed it a few times recently and I caught a good chunk of it. I still enjoy it if for no other reason than nostalgia. And boobs.
I thought the first few POLICE ACADEMY movies were...okay, in a "This is how you do a comedy feature" kind of way—the heroes are the outsiders who don't conform, the villains are Fascist conformists, and somehow the barely-aware old guy running things becomes an unexpected ally to the heroes, who end up saving the day because when push comes to shove they have The Right Stuff.
Steve Guttenberg hits just enough Young William Shatner notes to pass muster, and is far more engaging than Bill Murray ever was(!), as the lead; Kim Cattrall was, once again, a sexy welcome presence (mostly because she didn't have to pretend to be besties with Sarah Jessica Parker, which seemed to take up all of her acting talent on SEX IN THE CITY!); the supporting cast are mainly a group of stand-up comics stretching out the sell-by date of their *schtick*s by making them character traits (something both Tim Kazurinksy and Bobcat Goldthwait will do in future films); and the straitlaced villains are as villainous as you'd expect.
The gay panic scenes were...dated by 1984 standards, and since then have aged like milk. Part of the "humor" of the evil straight cops being "trapped" in a gay bar was the implication that at some level, they might be into what's going on there—because Nazis Cops as Secret Homos is FUNNY! LAUGH! (It's like Red Letter Media's Mike Stoklasa's endless jokes about Jay Bauman going to "The Manhole"—because his affection for *giallo*, Eurohorror, and Asian Extreme Cinema somehow means he's gay, at least in Stoklasa's estimation.)
I'm not sure how much of your anti-police posturing is a put-on, and how much is sincere—but you sound like a guy who got stopped for speeding, and is now all "FUCK THE PIGS, MAN!" (Also known as "Me, In My Twenties When I Was Still Drinking".)
The police are certainly out of control these days, and any semblance that they're protecting or serving anybody other than the Rich, Powerful, and White is getting more tattered every time they violently stop a student protest or kill an unarmed Black person. But even somebody who opposes the current state of the police can still enjoy cop shows, because they present the police as we want them to be, Protecting and Serving All Persons in a fair and just manner.
I doubt Skip Intro's COPAGANDA series on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=udhDawfCLHo&list=PL2ac8vr2QyTdlWwd8OQIc1it6bAfMGPPC ) would exist if he didn't, at some level, love cop shows, even while knowing how wildly they always veered from reality if you were Black, Brown, or Gay, and how wildly they're veering from reality even for appalled White people now!
Not sure why you're doing this series given you clearly don't like it, and can't find much of anything good to say about even the early outings....
I was surprised by the vitriol towards the first movie myself as it is the pinnacle of the series. By no means a perfect film, but still an enjoyable Reagan-era slobs vs. snobs comedy. Most films of that variety have elements that didn't age well; gay panic, race-related jokes, misogyny, you name it - this one checked a lot of boxes while still being kind of lightweight fluff. Revenge of the Nerds - we all loved it back in the day, but yeah, all of the above and non-consensual sex to boot. I fully agree that being more aware of and not using aspects of these behaviors now for comedy is important, but I can't tsk-tsk everything that I enjoyed back in my youth based on what could or couldn't be made today. Hell, even Back to the Future has a scene of attempted date rape and all anyone picks up on now is the incestual hook and their overwhelming love of the series.
As bad as this is, it's rather shocking how much worse these films get. The second one was rated PG-13 and was a significant drop in quality, despite the addition of ringers like Bobcat and Tim K. From 3 on, they are rated PG and still manage to get even worse. If anything, this series was innovative in how much worse they could make each successive movie.
Keep forgetting this was rated R?! Must be the toys and cartoons that got licensed from it. The 80's were weird, man.
Robocop, too, had toys. Robocop, a movie where the title character shoots a guy in the dick.
So did Rambo! And Chuck Norris!
At least POLICE ACADEMY provided the story template for JJ Abrams' STAR TREK (2009). So I feel like it's noteworthy in that regard.
Been making my way through the free posts here but I love your work and will support it when I can. For now having binged all of these movies years ago while sick this one was...okay if dated.