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Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment
1985 - PG-13 - 96 Mins.
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| Director: Jerry Paris | | | | Starring: Steve Guttenberg, Michael Winslow, Bubba Smith, David Graf, Bobcat Goldthwait |
| Review by: John Ulmer |
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Ah, yes, the cadets from "Police Academy" are back to give us migraines once more. As if this film were an attractive production, the scratchy-voiced comedian Bobcat Goldthwait has joined the cast as a bumbling criminal who likes to watch cheery television shows in his little underground gang hangout. Does that sound like something worth paying to see? Me, neither.
"Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment" is -- oh, and this is very original -- about the new cops' first assignment. Zed (Goldthwait) and his gang move into town and terrorize the peaceful little surroundings, and so Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith), and Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow) carry out their assignment of ridding their little town of the bad guys once and for all. Meanwhile, Eugene Tackleberry (David Graf) sparks a relationship with a fellow officer of the law that gets a bit out of hand.
"Police Academy" was nothing new -- just another typical retreat of the underdogs formula which has been used up by movie studios one (million) too many times. Yes, "Rocky" was a great film, and "Stripes" was funny, and the following films started to become unfunny. "Police Academy" was one of the many unfunny ones. And, as I stated in my review of the original, I simply cannot fathom why the original spawned six very, very unwanted sequels.
I also said that the first "Police Academy" film was the best of the series in my review yesterday. I was wrong about that. "Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment" is better, mainly because it made my laugh more than the first. But that is not to say it is even a good film -- I am still not recommending it. Just wait until I get around to the sequels past number three...
Even the underdog formula can be put to good use once and a long while. All I demand is that the movie have heart -- heart for its characters, their outcomes, and the humor therein. The Disney feature "Cool Runnings" with John Candy was nothing new at all -- but yet the heart of the film shone through and made it a heartwarming true story. "Police Academy" doesn't have a heart. Perhaps the entire series is Hollywood's way of getting back at us for wasting hours of our time on other great, classic films, and ignoring their new crapola blockbusters. Perhaps they are trying to desensitize us so that when the really crappy films come along we will praise them for not being of the same caliber of "Police Academy." I'm really not sure. Perhaps the entire series is just some kind of punishment from God for neglecting and/or making fun of Him in our films. But even He wouldn't be that cruel, right?
Alas, already I am running out of things to say about this movie. What is there to analyze and generally criticize? Everything in this movie is criticizable -- but do I feel like wasting precious hours of my already partially-wasted life on discussing them? Not really.
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