Product Details

• Actors: Steve Guttenberg, G.W. Bailey, Kim Cattrall, Bubba Smith, Donovan Scott
• Directors: Hugh Wilson
• Writers: Hugh Wilson, Neal Israel, Pat Proft
• Producers: Paul Maslansky
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• VHS Release Date: August 12, 1997
• Run Time: 96 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (54 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 0790731754
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,757 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Astoundingly silly but incredibly popular, Police Academy is the first film in a seemingly endless franchise that takes aim at the men in blue. After a police academy drops all of its entrance requirements, all manner of misfits flood in, hoping to make it onto the force. One of these misfits, a lazy, aimless cadet played by Steve Guttenberg (Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby), was forced to enlist and tries whatever he can to get kicked out. But once he decides to stay, he tries anything and everything to finish his training, even as his drill instructor tries to shove him out. Featuring a wild bunch of strange supporting characters, from a female trainee who speaks below a whisper to a dominatrix instructor to a human sound-effects machine, Police Academy is mindless but fun. --Robert Lane

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Original and Best, February 9, 2000

By 

R.THOMPSON (St. Louis, Missouri) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Police Academy (DVD)

This was a great movie from a lost age of silly moviemaking. While the sequals were too trying, the original is a classic from the 80s. Porky's, Animal House, Stripes and Police Academy are all cut from the same mold. Silly, mindless fun. This was when movies were dumb and a whole lot more fun!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars "Tackleberry, we really need to talk.", January 6, 2001

By 

Buck Murdock (the place) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Police Academy (DVD)

This is by far the best and most consistently funny of the 7 Police Academy films. They pretty much got worse as they went on. Some of the funniest gags take place in this one: Tackleberry going nuts during obstacle training, Harris driving the motorbike into the back of a horse, Hightower tearing the seats out of the car and also flipping one over with his hands, the infamous podium/hooker scene, and of course Mahoney and Jones(the sound effect guy) have several funny scenes. Fans of the series will want to have this. The DVD isn't bad for a cheap one. It includes only the full screen version(bummer), the languages/subtitles(of course), cast and crew bios, interactive menus where you can read facts about the film, a reel recommendations section which suggests another Steve Guttenburg film and other films that are also funny (such as Austin Powers), and a scene selection which is common but welcome. The best part of the DVD other than the film itself is the inclusion of all 7 theatrical trailers for each Police Academy film. Genuinely funny and contrary to other reviews, this is no where near the worst film ever made. See it for yourself many many many times on many many many different occasions (inside Police Academy joke).

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars First and only good movie in the series, July 30, 2004

By 

Daniel J. Hamlow (Narita, Japan) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Police Academy (20th Anniversary Special Edition) (DVD)

On March 4 of this year, the newly elected mayor announced that she was changing the hiring practices of the city's police force. No longer would height, weight, sex, education, or physical strength be used to keep new recruits out of the Metropolitan Police Academy. Hundreds of people who never dreamed of becoming police officers signed up immediately. Naturally, the police completely freaked. -opening prologue of Police Academy.

OK, so this is dated in terms of style and the chauvinism rampant in 80's comedies, but seeing it again for the first time in nearly twenty years brought back some nostalgic memories. Granted, it's not an all-time classic, but hey, at least it's not as raunchy as American Pie.

Diehards of the old school like academy chief and Lieutenant Thaddeus Harris work on a plan to make things tough for the new recruits, not by throwing them out but to make their training so miserable, they'll quit on their own accord. Harris handpicks a Mutt-and-Jeff pair (both with crewcuts, no less) named Copeland and Blankes to help him weed out the scumbuckets, dirtbags, or whatever unpleasant name he has for the other recruits. Yes, they'll learn about firearms, local laws, police procedure, and many many other things. Well, it's mainly the first and last that happen in this classic 80's comedy.

Then again, they were up against the likes of Carey Mahoney, the Monsignor Larvelle Jones, the suave lounge lizard George Martine, Leslie Barbara, Doug Fackler, and Tackleberry. Mahoney is the main character and he's at the Academy as part of a deal with his friend Captain Reed, of a choice between the academy or the lockup for another minor offense. And he can't quit as part of the deal-hence he tries to get himself kicked out by his antics. For the most part, the main victim is Lieutenant Harris. The funniest moment involves Harris, a borrowed motorcycle, a parked car, and Harris flying into the air towards the rear end of a horse. To which Mahoney says, "Someone call a veterinarian!" Basically, some of the plot involves Mahoney pulling a prank on Harris, and either being called to Harris's office or being forced to do punitive exercises supervised by Harris or his handpicked student squad leaders, Copeland and Blankes. However, Mahoney plays a real nasty and funny trick on those two involving the innocuously named Blue Oyster Bar. And as for Commandant Lassard, that involves a funny moment at a podium.

Larvelle Jones has to be my favourite character here. He has an uncanny gift for sound effects, and when he and Mahoney first meet at the police station waiting room, he demonstrates his ability by imitating a machine gun. Another one has him imitating the squishing sounds shoes make as the inspecting officer walks past the row of recruits on the academy lawn.

Mahoney's roommate, Tackleberry, is a gung-ho type who wouldn't be out of place in Vietnam. Call him a more comic version of Animal Mother in Full Metal Jacket. He has guns that blow the heads off the firing range targets and his funniest moment involves the firearms drill, where he goes nuts. When he says, "It's time this cop met the public," watch out!

But there are others. Laverne Hooks, a short gentle black with a shy, timid voice, Doug Fackler, whose specialty is slapstick, mainly being clumsy at someone else's expense, Lesley Barbara, a chubby white guy and another timid soul, and Hightower, a quiet, towering black man who seems most likely to succeed, except for one thing that he needs help. And this is one of Kim Cattrall's early films. She plays Karen Thompson, Mahoney's love interest, at least when he's not asking her to bare her thighs.

Steve Guttenberg (Mahoney), Michael Winslow (Jones), and David Graf (Tackleberry) boost this comedy, as does G.W. Bailey (Harris). But the others are good too. This is the best of the seven movie series. Unfortunately, it all went downhill from there.