I guess seeing parts of one or two of the sequels had soured me on the franchise. But, this original is hilarious. And did I mention that it is about the most NON-POLITICALLY-CORRECT movie ever. Did I mention that I an giving it an extra star for driving today's politically-correct fools crazy. Can you imagine how many blood vessels pop whenever one of today's politically-correct fools dares to watch this? Countless. I recommend all of today's colleges show Police Academy & Animal House non-stop in all their official "safe spaces". I'm giving another star for Bubba Smith. Beyond that, well, good speech.

Part of me did want to see the first 'Police Academy' film for a while now, but the bad reputations of the sequels and that the style of humour 'Police Academy' has has been done really badly elsewhere that it did admittedly put me off.Seeing all the films recently, for curiosity and giving the benefit of the doubt, while the sequels are really not good on the most part the original 'Police Academy' is and is rightly considered the best of the series. 'Police Academy' is never going to be one of my favourite films, and won't be in my list of favourite comedies any time soon, but, taking it for what it is and what it set out to do, it entertained for most of the just over an hour and a half running time.It is a bit hit and miss in places, not all the jokes work (most do though), due to going a little too heavily on the childish and cheap low-brow factors. That said, nothing is distasteful at least, nothing makes you want to gag or make you go to the bathroom and throw up copiously (which is more than can be said for stuff like 'Freddy Got Fingered' and the worst of Adam Sandler).'Police Academy's' story is rather thin, with less eventful parts leaving some rather draggy stretches, and gets a bit silly. Kim Catrall does a good job being sexy and sassy but she is given little to do and the film didn't seem to know what to do with her.However, 'Police Academy' is competently made visually, not stunning but hardly cheap. The setting looks good too and is well utilised. The soundtrack is catchy and infectious, fitting the tone perfectly.While it has been said that not everything in the humour works, most of it does, the crudeness is mostly not overdone and the silliness is mostly endearing. Much of the dialogue is hilarious and there are set pieces that raise at least a couple of big belly laughs, the highlights being the speech scene (absolutely hilarious and to me the single best and funniest scene of the whole 'Police Academy' series) and the scenes with Copeland and Blankes.Steve Guttenberg seems to be really enjoying himself, and is a fun and amiable presence. Easy to see why his role here made him a star at the time, even if somewhat briefly. George Gaynes is a hoot and GW Bailey is suitably hard nosed, which provides some entertaining conflict. Everyone else is fine too.Overall, good fun film that never tries to be more than it is and knows what it wants to be. Hit and miss perhaps, but when it hits man isn't it entertaining. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Due to a severe shortage of police officers, the mayor of an undisclosed city decides to issue new guidelines for the local police academy which essentially abolishes all normal standards. As expected this results in a large response for applications but when all is said and done those finally accepted aren't exactly the cream of the crop by any reasonable standard. Consequently, the chief of police orders the man in charge of the police academy, "Commandant Lassard" (George Gaynes) to weed them out. However, since he has been prohibited from firing them he has to make them quit instead. Yet even then this goes against his temperament and knowing this the chief of police turns to two of the meanest police cadre by the names of "Lieutenant Harris" (G. W. Bailey) and "Sergeant Callahan" (Leslie Easterbrook) to essentially get the job done. But none of them fully comprehend what they are up against. Now rather than reveal any more of this movie I will just say that this was a decent comedy for the most part and from what I understand it has garnered more than $100 million and spawned at least 6 sequels. So it has been quite successful in that regard. That said, about the only criticism I have of it is that some of the humor tended to be a bit on the crude side which I thought was completely unnecessary. But that is just my opinion. In any case, there is some good humor here as well and because of that I have rated this movie accordingly. Slightly above average.

With seven films in the 80's and into the 90's, the Police Academy series of comedy films are known for their stupid humour and crazy bunch of characters. Here is where the insanity all kicked off and in mediocre fashion, how this spawned so many sequels I'll never know although financially this was a massive success though. The film is about a new law where basically anyone can apply to be a Police Officer and go through training in the academy. Of course the law brings in many wacky people and those who don't even want to be there because they have to go, the film thrives on creating oddballs but really fails to get a lot of decent jokes out, squandering any chances this had at being at least satisfactory.The film stars people such as Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, Bubba Smith and for me and I think for many others the best person in this, Michael Winslow. Although the character of Cadet Eugene Tackleberry is close to being the best comedy performance in this, Winslow's character Larvell Jones another cadet is actually funny in this, the noises this guy makes are very memorable even from this film. The movie isn't bad in my opinion far from it, many critics in the day really hated this but it isn't really a movie so dumb you'll want to turn it off, it has it's moments and some are pretty good but I just felt it is a little too dumb to be anything but average.Hugh Wilson is the guy behind this directing and co-writing and he doesn't do so well, the moments in which the film could have been funny are squandered by bad choices direction wise and making some jokes just too crude. The movie could also be said to be misogynistic and homophobic which could be true, I heard many homophobic slurs and characters saying another is gay as an offensive term. The treatment of women in the film is questionable and although Cattrall's character Karen Thompson is a strong minded woman, many women in this are seen only in a sexual way.I think although the film can be backwards, some moments of this movie do have good humour and can be funny(it doesn't excuse the backward attitudes though). It mostly gets by in the laughing areas with physical humour and at times Commandant Lassard the man in charge of the academy has some great one liners. Lt. Harris played by G.W. Bailey is also pretty good in his role, he is easily dislikeable and so many things that happen to harm him or offend him are easily likable moments of this movie. Overall I can't really recommend Police Academy mostly because it's just not that good, I mean some people may really like it and it could right up you street but it's too silly for me and I feel for others too. So there you have it, the start to a long running series of films that just seemed to never stop, it did finally of course but even today they are talking about doing a reboot, I hope if they do then it can actually be a good film for once.