Police Academy Retrospective

I think your review us too negative.

https://web.archive.org/web/20160701205930/http://www.zonetroopers.com/the-franchise/police-academy-1985-1997

Director: Alan Metter

Stars: Charlie Schlatter, Claire Forlani, Ron Perlman, Christopher Lee

I think it was a surprise to most that Police Academy 7 happened. 1997 was actually the biggest year for the franchise with both this theatrical movie and the TV series starting since 1988.

Initially, I had high hopes for this. I imagined the hiatus between 6 and 7 had allowed the writer(s) time to dream up a slew of great ideas. The had managed to pull in Lee, Perlman and the utterly gorgeous Forlani. However, all was not well with this.

Where to begin? The cast does its best. These are veterans of having to contend with terrible material and any slight laugh or smirk generated by the film is entirely down to the actors involved. Graf, Gaynes, Bailey and Easterbrook are fine and they make this watchable. Winslow is pretty useless and whilst it probably isn't his fault he really serves no purpose.

What doesn't? The sound. It's as if they went to Russia with all the gear and cast however the microphones were lost at check in. The entire film has been overdubbed at a later stage. Wildtracks have been added and it would seem that the sound designers felt it necessary to overdub every human noise. Expressions are accompanied by exaggerated grunts and hums. Character's mutter and grumble without moving their lips. It becomes quite embarrassing after a while.

There is not a single joke in the film that was funny. The only time I smirked was when one of the cast's delivery made me smirk. It's any old saying "It's the way I tell 'em." I struggle to think of a better example of this in a film. If anything the cast here is one of the most talented in history as they manage to make this purely awful script full of pathetic non-jokes into something that I managed to sit through and, as I already admitted, smirked at.

Outcome: Embarassing

POLICE ACADEMY in the 1990s | Mission to Nowhere

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYjIsoJusxY

NO LAUGHING MATTER - Part Three

At the dawn of the 1990s, one of the most profitable Hollywood franchises of the previous decade was staring into the abyss.

Police Academy had built its own comedy film empire in the 1980s, with the first three films in the series each making over $100 million dollars from their cinema runs alone. By the time part six limped onto screens in 1989, however, the party was pretty much over for the brand as a whole.

As a new decade began, could the Police Academy franchise ever hope to reclaim former glories? Would a mid-’90s Mission to Moscow be the golden ticket the series required? As the story moves into the 21st century, would Police Academy get the modern reboot treatment? And…what legacy does Police Academy leave behind in its wake?

The documentary also explores the wider cultural and social landscape of the era, and the changes seen across film, music and politics.

00:00 Intro
02:31 Culture Slice - watch and subscribe
03:11 The dawn of the 1990s - life outside the Police Academy bubble
10:14 Mission to Moscow: Police Academy 7 and the wider cultural landscape
25:51 The short-lived history of Police Academy: The Series
29:20 Police Academy's journey in the 21st century
33:28 End of the line: The legacy of Police Academy

This is part three of NO LAUGHING MATTER, a documentary series telling the story of POLICE ACADEMY’s epic rise and fall.