Police Academy Review

Crime. The city was full of it. Desperate measures

were needed. Watch you to go to the police academy.

The police academy is such a dangerous place.

Honey, don't worry. Desperate measures were taken.

Because we have to take this riff raff. I'm trapped

here? Oh yes, we all are. What about guns? When

do we get guns? You won't be screwed! or offend.

the 51st episode of the M -Wire movie we can

review. Today we will be starting a DVD spotlight

on the Police Academy films. Over the next seven

episodes we will be covering all of the major

motion pictures of Police Academy. I am TFG1Mike

and as usual I'm joined with Steve Megatron.

Hello. Hello. And yes, this is not the Superman

spotlight. No it is not, it's the Police Academy.

Yes, um We've had some major major scheduling

conflicts and honestly for some strange reason

and wire has kind of gotten away from us Because

I don't know why I have no clue I Don't I don't

know. I don't even know what to say about this

podcast anymore because it has gotten so bad

that we are literally like Three and a half months

behind in releasing episodes. Yeah, pretty much.

Which is... I don't know how it even happened

though. I mean, we've been recording them, we've

been doing this, we've been doing that. I don't

know. I mean, the schedule that I have, the air

dates don't match the current air dates of the

show. Because we're way behind. Yes. So how have

you been, sir? Uh, pretty good for the most part.

Yeah. Anything else to report? Uh, no. Brain's

completely drained. Fried. Dead. Yeah. Yes. Well,

to remedy this whole scheduling thing, we are

most likely going to be with this Police Academy

spotlight over the next seven episodes. I don't

know if it's going to be over the next seven

weeks. It may be over the next eight and a half

to nine days where we record one or two, release,

record one or two, release, and just power through

them and get them done. When was the first time

you saw the original Police Academy? I would

have to say probably the late 90s, early 2000s.

Because I used to watch a lot of these old 80s

films with my dad Yeah, just because these are

actually funny compared to things nowadays Like

for instance the police drama cop -out was quite

retarded compared to this Yeah, yes not getting

into that movie, but anyhow Yes, this this movie

That was one of my favorites since then Yeah,

I would have to agree This movie is is pretty

good I think I first I would have to agree. I

think I saw this even though I'm slightly older

than you know I think I saw this like late is

thousand Yeah, I don't think I saw this late

eighties because I was nine or ten well I was

nine and eight nine ten ninety, but I think I

saw this like maybe Mid -90s maybe? I don't remember.

I honestly don't because I don't think my mom

would have let me see this when I was that young

Seeing as how it is rated R But I don't I don't

remember there was a lot of movies I saw when

I was a kid that weren't That you weren't supposed

to show your kids And by that I do not mean porn

so I mean rated R films is what I'm talking about

based on comedy levels and everything else. Yeah,

yeah. Okay, so getting into the plot. The newly

elected lady mayor of an unnamed city has announced

a policy requiring the police department to accept

all willing recruits, effectively abolishing

weight limits and medical standards. Not everyone

in the police force is happy about the new change.

The main character, Gary Mahoney, is an easygoing

man who has repeatedly gotten himself in trouble

with the law. By standing up to arrogant men,

Mahoney is forced to join the police academy

as an alternative to jail, a proposal by the

officer who has been lenient on Mahoney due to

knowing his father, who is also a policeman.

Mahoney reluctantly agrees to this and decides

that he will get himself thrown out as a loophole.

However, Chief of Police, outraged by the Mayor's

lowered requirements, decides that the new cadet

should be forced to quit rather than being thrown

out. Lieutenant Thaddeus Harris, who trains the

cadet, agrees with the plan and employs tactics

to make their lives as miserable as possible

so that they do, in fact, quit. I gotta say,

for me, I really like this movie, but where I

really started laughing was when Michael Winslow's

character came in. Oh yeah, where he's sitting

there in the police station next to Mahoney.

Yeah? And then Mahoney manages to shanghai him

into the police thing too. Oh yeah, yeah. He's

like, yeah with that opening theme, he's like,

so what are you in here for? I forget what he

does. He opens up his mouth and he pulls out

a little speaker phone and he goes... Yeah, no,

no, I know what he does, but I couldn't remember

if he pulls out like one of those old police

microphone, like, you know, you'd see in the

cars or something and he just makes all these

gun noises. And the desk sergeant is like...

God damn it, stop that. Yeah, that was quite

hilarious. I love all the awesome sound effects

coming out of that guy's voice throughout the

whole series. Yeah. And he's like, when we get

further down into the Academy stuff and it's,

I don't know, I guess it's close to lights out

or something. And Harris is going around checking

on people and he's like sitting there in a gun

pose. It's like he's playing a video game, but

there's no TV, there's no controller. That just

amazes me, the sounds that come out of that man's

mouth, because you can pretty much have your

own adventures just with sound. Yeah, I could

definitely see that. Oh man. I'd love to be able

to imitate some of those. Forget imitate him.

I'd love to be able to interview the guy just

to have him go on and on and on about it Oh,

man. Wow, that'd be awesome That is awesome because

I know The other another film we will they'll

be coming up actually episode 75 .5 he was in

spaceballs as one of the As radar He's like the

meeps the beeps and the creeps or whatever it

was. Oh, okay that guy So yeah Do you have anything

you want to talk about for the opening part of

the plot? for this as far as You know Carrie

doing the whole driving the car on two wheels

or anything like that. Yes I love that part where

he drives the car on two wheels and this guy's

like I don't care where you park it, just park

it." And he's like, there aren't any spots. And

then his boss comes up and says, just park the

damn car and starts talking to the guy. He's

like, all right, fine. So he hauls ass in the

car, squealing the tires, and then whips it around

and then gets it on the two wheels and manages

to drive it up on two other cars. Somehow I think

this is what happens at your car dealership.

And I think it's all your fault. No, but sometimes

I wish I could. Let's see here. Mahoney tries

many times, many schemes to get thrown out if

he cannot quit as part of the deal made with

the officers. said he quit, he was going to be

sent to jail. But towards the middle of the film,

he decides to stay for good, having fallen in

love with Karen Thompson, a fellow police cadet

played by Kim Cattrall. Holy crap, Kim Cattrall

in film before Sex and the City, holy crap. Well,

this wasn't the only time she's out of Sex and

the City. Well, I know that, but... She actually

looks good in this. Yeah, true. So, while in

the Academy, Mahoney becomes friends with fellow

cadets Larville Jones, Eugene Tackleberry, and

especially Moises Hightower, played by former

pro football great Bubba Smith, a giant of a

man who is actually quite shy and keeps away

from violence by and large, after helping him

prepare for the critical driving test. Oh wow,

that scene was nuts. Which somebody as tall as

Bubba that you know back then in the film Yeah,

he would have to rip out the front seat of that

car So after passing Hightower is very thankful

to Mahoney unfortunately The quit policy does

not apply to Hightower. Who gets himself kicked

out of the Academy because of an incident? We

need to mention the incident. We should probably

talk about... Oh, those two idiots. Copeland

and what's the other guys? Yeah, Copeland and

Blanks. I don't think... I think the plot here

pretty much glossed over the blue oyster bar,

didn't it? Um, vaguely, but this is a constant

point throughout the series that blue oyster

bar Mahoney keeps sending the cops to gets more

hilarious because it shows up in every film in

the series. Yeah, but I was going to point out

the blue oyster bar with the dancing, are they

bikers? Yeah, the dancing bikers doing the YMCA.

Yeah, and then the scene that Hightower gets

kicked out for is... I think it was Copeland

that called, what's her name, the little mousy

chick. Oh damn, what the hell's her name? The

black chick. Oh shit, what's her name? Uh, let's

see. Hooks. Yeah, Hooks. Yeah, yeah, yeah, that's

what it is. Cadet Hooks. I think it was Coughlin

or the other asshole that called her a jigaboo.

And you see, after that is said, you cut to Hightower

who just like stands up full height. And then

it cuts back to Harris. And Hightower's unstoppable.

He's like, Hightower, you better not do anything.

You better not do anything. You'll be kicked

out. And then, uh, what's his name? Little, little

pansy ass, uh, actually gets in one of the cars

and Hightower flips the car over. Yeah. So he's

kicked out. Uh, let's see. After his friend and

fellow cadet, uh, Laverne Hooks has been racially

insulted, yeah, like I said, and angered, Hightower

Liston turns over a police car with the hated

cadet Copeland inside. Shortly after this, Mahoney

gets involved in a lunchroom brawl caused by

Copeland in blanks and takes the blame for throwing

the first punch, which finally gives Lieutenant

Harris the green light to expel his most despised

cadet. Before Mahoney actually leaves the premises,

however, a major riot breaks out downtown. The

resulting police emergency forces the cadets

into real action for the first time. During the

riot, a tough outlaw manages to steal two cadet

revolvers, one from Copeland and the other from

Cadet Blanks. The outlaw grabs and disarms Lieutenant

Harris by surprise and taking the officer to

the roof of a nearby building. As a hostage,

Mahoney, despite his past troubles with Harris,

dodges gunfire and climbs to the roof in rescue

attempt. This attempt fails and Mahoney is taken

as the second hostage. Just as both hostages

are about to be killed, it is none other than

Hightower, who suddenly appears on the rooftop

in civilian clothes. The former cadet, who was

back on his old job at a nearby florist just

minutes earlier and left his shop due to a riot,

manages to fool the hostage taker. Then he is

the fellow crook. I think it's funny as hell

that they put him back in a flower shop. Yeah,

it's such a calm and not silent role. Yup. Yup.

Yeah, the other thing they gloss over in this

is the podium scene. Oh yeah, where he thought

Harris would be up there. And he puts that, I

think it was an old lady, wasn't it? No, the

podium scene was he was in there with the hooker.

The hooker in the red dress. Mahoney was in there

with her. And he sees Lissard and all these other

people. Like, Lissard's doing a tour of the Academy

with some people, because Lissard's the Commandant.

So he sees him coming and he's like, get in there,

get in there, get under the podium. And then

Lissard walks up to the podium to make this presentation.

All of a sudden you hear, and it's so distinctive,

you hear unzip. And then Lissard is just basically

making all these Different facial expressions.

Yeah, he's making all these facial expressions

and you hear zip up and then after the people

leave, Lissard looks down and unfortunately Mahoney

sticks his head out first. Yeah. Because I don't

think Lissard ever saw the stripper or hooker

or whatever the hell she was. No. So the final

part of the plot here is Mahoney and Hightower

both graduate from the Academy along with the

other passing cadets and both receive the Academy

highest commendation ever bestowed upon a cadet.

For the rescue of Lieutenant Harris and capture

of his kidnappers. Towards the end of the end

Mahoney suddenly stammers as he sees a prostitute

concealed inside the podium. and suddenly realizes

Commandant Lassard has taken subtle revenge for

one of Mahoney's earlier pranks in an attempt

to get himself kicked out. That was hilarious.

What was even more funny was just the way Gutenberg

looked at Lassard, the way Mahoney looked at

Lassard, and Lassard just kind of looks back

at him like, uh -huh, you asshole, I got you

now. Oh, because again there was the zipper gag.

Yes. But see, I liked Lesar just because he was

that cop that knew what was supposed to go on,

but wasn't all there. Yeah. Yeah. I agree with

that. And his cousin who was the captain or brother

or whoever, he just... was such a dick. Kinda

like, uh, Harris was. Yeah. Oh, Captain Reed,

yeah. Yeah. So who is your favorite character

out of this one? I would have to say, uh, I like

three characters in particular. Uh, one being

Mahoney. another being Harris and the other one

being uh Larvel Jones. I like Jones just because

of his random sound effects that he would make

in order to piss off various cops, criminals,

just his whole demeanor towards everything. Mahoney

I like because of all of his random pranks that

he played on everybody in the intention of getting

kicked out. But at the same time, it was just

hilarious watching him go toe to toe with Harris

throughout the entire movie. Oh, yeah. And Harris

was such a stickler that he hated all the new

cadets and basically wanted to kick every one

of them out. But could not. And he also wanted

to try and, you know, of course, gain higher

rank and. Well, he was a lieutenant. I mean,

there's not that much higher up that you can

go either captain or commandant or chief of police

I mean there isn't you know, but he consistently

tries and I also might note that uh granted he's

The main guy in this particular film, but he's

not and One of the other couple of the other

films They don't use him in the next one. They

have Lieutenant Mauser instead. But I think they

didn't have Proctor in this one, did they? The

little Weasley guy that follows Harris. I don't

think so, no. I don't think they had him in this

one, no. They start him in the next film, but

he stays pretty consistent throughout the rest

of the series after that And you know see that's

funny that you mentioned that because I wasn't

really in get into this yet But I don't know

I don't know which DVD you have I saw this I

Might have been best by I don't know my I don't

know I have the 20th anniversary special edition

And there's a special feature on here, all new

20th anniversary digital transfer, commentary

by Steve Gutenberg, Michael Winslow, Leslie Easterbrook,

G .W. Bailey, Director Hugh Wilson and Producer

Paul Molesky, all new reunion documentary. And

in the reunion documentary, Bailey brings up

the proctor thing. But I don't think that, I

don't think it was even said in this one. No,

he was not in this one, but the interesting thing

is they have Lieutenant Mouser for the next film

and he becomes Commandant Mouser in the third

film. And then by the fourth film we're back

to Captain Thaddeus Harris instead of Lieutenant.

Yeah. And then they keep with Harris for the

rest of the series. But it's just kind of random

that they have Mauser in there. Yeah, as far

as some of the reception stuff, it's made $81

,198 ,994 in 1 ,507 theaters, making it the sixth

biggest grossing film in the US in 1984. The

film was also a success worldwide, grossing approximately

$146 million. Although it was commercial success,

it did garner some criticism. The film currently

has a 47 % fresh rating at the film reviewer

agritite site, Rotten Tomatoes, which includes

a 7 positive and 8 negative reviews out of 15

reviews. I don't get that. I just don't get that.

It was a really good film. Yeah, I thought it

was. Despite the fact that it's old, it's still

got a lot of... Awesome. Funny clips within it.

Yeah. Oh, wow. Okay, here we go. This is probably

the most atrocious line I will ever read on this

show. Roger Ebert, that asshole of the Chicago

Sun -Times, gave the film zero stars out of a

possible four stars, commenting that it really

is something so bad that maybe you should pool

your money and draw straws and send one of the

guys off to rent it so that in the future, whenever

you think you're sitting through a bad comedy,

he could shake his head and chuckle tolerantly

and explain that you don't know what bad is.

Wow, what an asshole. Yep, the other critic for

the New York Times gave it a favorable review.

Yeah, which goes to show you most of the time

when Roger Ebert opens his mouth He's wrong.

Crap is coming out. Yeah, especially when he's

talking about video games or anything else He

knows nothing about is very very true But he

wouldn't know a good series if it bit him in

the ass considering a lot of the ones that he

chooses tend to be ones that I mean granted they're

good movies, but they're not everybody's movies,

whereas something like this would be an everybody

movie. Yeah, that's very true. So for the home

video releases, Police Academy, VHS, 1984, the

original theatrical version of the film was released

in 1984. In Europe, it was released on VHS as

Police Academy, what an institution. And then

there's the one that I just mentioned earlier,

the Police Academy 20th Anniversary Special Edition

DVD was released around the world in 2004. Special

features include making of documentary audio

commentary by the cast in the original theatrical

trailer. And then you have the... the Police

Academy complete collection DVD which is something

I would like to get eventually. This DVD collection

is a seven disc box set which includes all seven

Police Academy films released between 84 and

94. Police Academy 1, 2, 3, 6, and 7 are in 1

.851 widescreen. Police Academy 4 and 5 are in

1 .331 full screen. all the films have multi

-language subtitles and their own retrospective

feature ads. So that's pretty cool. I've seen

that, not in person, but I've seen it online,

so I'll have to pick it up at some point. I have

all the films already, so I probably won't pick

up the complete edition. Well yeah, but see,

I only have the first one. Yeah, so that's not

that big of a cut. And then, of course, like

we said, there are sequels. 85, we saw Police

Academy 2, their first assignment. 86, we saw

Police Academy 3, back in training. Police Academy

4, Citizens on Patrol came out in 87. 5 was assignment,

Miami Beach in 88. Six was sitting under siege

in 89 and Police Academy I guess you could call

it seven, but they just call it Police Academy

mission to Moscow was in 1994 So they basically

released a movie a year until 1989 and then they

waited like like five years to release one Yeah,

huh, yeah, I don't know overall I really enjoy

this first film I'm not a big fan of Tackleberry,

although may David Graff rest in peace. But overall,

I really did enjoy it, and I do think it's worth

anyone who is a comedy, a film buff for comedies,

needs to watch this. Because it is funny. And

it would not have worked without the same group.

you know, despite what you may think about certain

characters. This film definitely needed these

weird and quirky characters that it did have.

Yeah. I mean, Tackleberry was cool for his flying

off the handle with his, you know, random guns

and wanting to use his own gun. My mother bought

it for me for Christmas, sir. I will use it on

your face. I'm sorry, but that scene with them

doing the target practice and everybody else

missing all of a sudden. The whole top half of

the target blows off in this big ass gut. Thaddeus

is like, where did you get that? Damn, that's

so funny. Do you have anything else you want

to say about this one? No, but this would definitely

be one that I would pick up and watch if you

haven't seen it. It would give you an indicator

of how pretty much the rest of the series is

going to be, although they do get better up to

a certain point. I would say at least watch the

first four. and especially if you're a Gutenberg

fan. Oh yeah. Because he's not in the last three.

I have heard random rumors that either there's

going to be, you know, which we'll cover in the

last spotlight, either an eight or a reboot,

which a reboot I would say no. No. It just, it

needs to be... It needs to be left alone. Films

need to be left the way they are. They're attacking

our 80s films and destroying them. Yes, we're

so going to have to do, um... What the fuck are

you thinking, Hollywood episode of Geekcast Radio?

Because there's so much stuff that we could go

on and on and on about, but it's really not on

topic. Basically, leave the 80s alone, dammit.

Stop trying to pad your fucking pockets with

money, assholes. and ruining our damn films.

And there you have it. You know, that whole thing

I keep saying about Michael Bay, it pretty much,

uh, you know, it pretty much goes for all of

Hollywood. Hollywood, stop raping my childhood

like Starscream rapes metal bugs. You know? But,

uh... Crickets, crickets. Yeah, overall... Police

Academy one is is is very funny And it has it

has a few oh shit moments cuz I tell you what

even though I really didn't like blanks and in

Copeland I Had a oh shit moment. You're in trouble

when they get to the hole in the fence Asshole

definitely a good show though in any case Oh

yes, very much so. So, I guess thank you for

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you enjoyed this episode of NY I wish you'll

join us next time when we will be reviewing in

the DVD spotlight Police Academy to their first

assignment for now. I am TFC on mic with Steve

Megatron Phillips until next time And clean the

ashtray while you're at it Sorry Lou, you just

can't get good health these days. They don't

respect customers, they don't respect property,

they don't respect perspective. I mean money.

Holy shit! Jesus! It fits! Damn big fits! I thought

there were no more spaces. Am I an idiot or what?

What are you in for? Move it, move it