POLICE ACADEMY. Directed by Hugh Wilson; written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft and Hugh Wilson; produced by Paul Maslansky for Warner Bros. Starring Steve Guttenberg, G.W Bailey and George Gaynes. Rated R (minimai nudity, very vulgar language).
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Hybrids are very useful in agriculture, combining desirable traits from different species. In the movies, though, success with the technique is probably rarer.
The latest example is Police Academy, which is a little like Animal House grafted onto An Officer and a Gentleman. The result is sometimes clever, sometimes funny, but more often predictable and off-target.
The story follows a squad of trainees through a police academy with an open admissions policy. The character types are standard—overweight inept trainee, gung ho gun freak, spunky female recruit, etc. Trainee Mahony (Guttenberg) is the main focus of the action.
Although his character is basically appealing, it also creates some distracting problems. ln addition to some plot inconsistencies concerning him, his motivations are a little hard to figure out. He turns from a sophomoric troublemaker into an enthuaiastic recruit determined to be a good cop.
Such a transformation is fairly predictable in a movie such as this. But it isn't adequately expressed. Like most of the plot developments in Police Academy, which follows a jerky, episodic pace, Mahoney's conversion seems a bit abrupt.
The borrowings from An Officer and a Gentleman are pretty explicit. At least from the training sequences, not the romantic ones. (There are no passionate love scenes in Police Academy and the only nudity is some completely gratuitous beach party stripping.) Police Academy has a hard-driving drill sergeant (Bailey), some obstacle course scenes, a judo demonstration. Sound familiar?
Police Academy adopts Animal House 's spirit, rather than imitating specific scenes. There is the same irreverent tone here but without the strong comic performances to make it memorable. Stunts and slapstick routines, especially involving vehicles, also abound in Police Academy.
This movie is good for a few laughs. Some of the bits work quite well. But many of the best scenes are undercut by very non-funny realities. Riots, looting and bigotry are not humorous subjects. Comic situations built on such premises are bound to make the audience uneasy. All in all, there are definitely better movie buys around this week than Police Academy.
March 28, 1984