Poll Position: Police Academy (1984)

This week the poll winner was the first Police Academy movie, narrowly beating out Training Day by 1 vote. In fact it was tied right up until the final hour. Thankfully @sniperct tipped the scales at the very end with his vote. I know you had wanted to vote for French Connection, so I'll try to get around to it sooner or later for you!

Not many movie franchises can get up over a half dozen entries, but  Police Academy is one of them, and I've never seen a single one. I'd heard a lot about the series over the years simply because there's so many of them. This possibly raised my expectations on what I might find within. You can find my conclusions after the jump!


The main thing I had heard and knew about the Police Academy series is that it is filled with crazy nutjob characters. I'd always heard about that guy who made all the noises with his mouth. I've also heard plenty of sound clips screaming the name "Mahoney!!!" in angry frustration. On that front I was certainly not disappointed as very quickly I met Mahoney and the sound effect wizard turned out to be Jones. Both turned out to be likable characters, but I found Jones to be a little over hyped from what I'd heard. He just wasn't in the movie that much. But I have to remember that audiences I've heard all this hype from have seen him in 6 other movies too.

Mahoney isn't your usual cadet

But they aren't the only characters, and I liked getting to know the large and diverse cast. Almost the entire cast stands out on their own, with only a few leaving me wondering why they were even there. I loved Hightower, and his driving scene was great. Hooks also stood out to me in how timid she was. I could go on and on with all the characters I liked as it was most of the cast. The only one I wondered why they bothered with was Fackler, the clumsy guy with the glasses. I thought his nutty wife was more interesting that he was.

The other thing I didn't expect (but maybe I should have since this is a comedy from the early 80's) was the multiple scenes of female nudity and sexual humor. I had no problem with it, but it certainly caught me off my guard since you just don't see that very much anymore in what would probably be sold as a family comedy today. This movie is basically "The Other Guys" but set in the 80's. How times have changed when it comes to comedies.

Police Academy was a fun little movie. It gave me a few laughs and it was nice to finally know who all these cadets were after hearing about them for so long. Some of the jokes don't really hold up anymore, but plenty of them still do. I don't think it was amazing, but it was decent at least, but I was hoping for more. Check it out if you like goofy 80's comedies, but I'm probably one of the few left who hasn't actually seen it.