Customer Reviews

Police Academy 4 [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

The Metropolitan Police Academy's commandant Eric Lassard(George Gaynes) has initiated a community relations program called Citizens On Patrol. That's where ordinary citizens witness criminal behavior and bring the criminals to justice. Much of the original gang is still here,so are Zed(Bobcat Goldthwait) and Swechiuk(Tim Kazurinsky). G.W. Bailey returns in this sequel as Captain Thaddeus Harris(he was a lieutenant in the first film). Lt. Proctor(Lance Kinsey) is now a member of Harris' precinct. Bailey returned because Art Metrano was written out for good after the previous sequel. Chad Copeland(Scott Thomson) is part of Harris' team also. Sgt. Moses Hightower(Bubba Smith) says in one of the first scenes,"I believe Brother Swechiuk is suggesting we recruit in our old neighborhood." Lassard strongly agrees. Some of the COP team members are Lois Feldman(Billie Bird) & Thomas "House" Conklin(Tab Thacker),an overweight black guy who resembles one of The Fat Boys members. Two other young male members(Brian Backer and David Spade)are assigned to the program after they're tried for disorderly conduct via their skateboards in a shopping mall. Carey Mahoney(Steve Guttenberg) who was present at the trial,suggested the idea to the presiding judge. Again,it's another gang making a large illegal mess. This film features Sharon Stone who was in 1986,when this film was made,not-so-famous. Spade would also become a major celebrity several years later,becoming a member of NBC's Saturday Night Live. Stone is Claire Mattson,who joins COP also. She and Carey went partners in whatever either did. In the last scene,Zed tells Swechiuk,"You look a little like Tom Cruise in 'Top Gun'(one of 86's biggest films)." Also Carey and Claire toast the MPA with champagne("To the academy") while ascending to the friendly skies in a hot air balloon. Remember Metrano losing his hair in PA2,and his eyebrows in PA3? Well,one funny scene is where Harris,after showering is about to apply his deodorant,and it's stolen and replaced with mace! The stinging was so painful that he couldn't bring his arms down. They were braced. He angrily warns that those caught with mace from that point on would be reprimanded and fined. Also Harris' lips are glued to the mouthpiece of a bullhorn after Carey applies the strong,powerful adhesive. This sequel would be Guttenberg's last. Goldthwait and Kazurinsky were written out. Guttenberg bowed out of the three yet-to-come sequels in favor of "Three Men And A Baby". Well,that's my assumption. Well,the next three sequels would feature a new prankster.

A film by Jim Drake

The misfit police officers are back at it again. This time the officers are being asked to help with the new "Citizens on Patrol" program. This program allows regular citizens to help clean up the streets of the city and just like the first "Police Academy" movie, the new program attracts an assorted band of misfits which is characterized by a little old grandma (Billie Bird) who, like Tackleberry (David Graf) is obsessed with guns and weaponry. Hilarity is supposed to ensue as these new C.O.P.s (clever, huh?) try to bust real criminals and make citizens arrest while they bungle their way into real police work.

Hilarity does not really ensue, though it is better than "Police Academy 5: Project Miami Beach", but then the series is getting progressively worse. The style of comedy is much the same as the other "Police Academy" movies. It is slapstick, silly, bungling humor, and it works to an extent the first time you see the movie. It works especially well if the viewer is younger, around 10 years old or so. Any truly offensive scenes have been scrubbed out of this series (though the first movie was rated "R").

This fourth movie is notable for being the last of the "Police Academy" movies to feature Steve Guttenberg as Officer Carey Mahoney. Note the drop in quality when Guttenberg leaves only to replaced by the similar character Nick Lassard in P.A. 5. This movie also has a younger Sharon Stone and David Spade is supporting roles and a cameo appearance by a very young Tony Hawk. None of the "Police Academy" movies are all that good, except perhaps the first one, but by the time the fourth movie rolled around it was clearly time to stop. That's my recommendation: stop. If you have seen the first three, you have seen all the good parts and you are now just washing a less funny rehash of the earlier movies. It is nice to see Captain Harris (G.W. Bailey) back, but let's just let this series rest now.

-Joe Sherry

Original cast members returning: Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, Michael Winslow, David Graf, Leslie Easterbrook, Marion Ramsey, G.W. Bailey, George Gaynes, Scott Thompson, George R. Robertson.

Also returning are: Tim Kazurinsky, Lance Kinsey, Bobcat Goldthwait, Brian Tochi, Colleen Camp, Andrew Paris, Arthur Batanides and Jackie Joseph.

New people are recruited as part of a Citizen On Patrol program: David Spade (three years before his debut on Saturday Night Live), Billie Bird, Brian Backer, Corinne Bohrer and Tab Thacker.
You will also get a look at Sharon Stone, Randall "Tex" Curtis and Derek McGrath.

Leslie Easterbrook does a wet t-shirt scene. Billie Bird is a laugh riot.

In this DVD, Special Features includes additional scenes not shown in theatres. Some of the cut scenes included Sharon Stone.

Easter Egg: Click down until you underline "Theatrical Trailer". Then press the "right" button. You should see red keys appear on the clipboard paper. Press "Enter" for a three-minute clip about the skateboarders.

Movie runs: 87 min.

The next film in the series: Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach.

Police Academy 4 citizens on patrol is a great movie.
Kids would love this one all the police academy movies are so funny but this one is one of the best.The charecers are so funny. This movie is steve guttenbergs last. It is a real disapointment that he is not in the other movies.
If you like great family comedy's this is the movie for you.

This is a funny movie and had me laughing hard. I still like Tackleberry, Larvell Jones and Zed. Get the pack on dvd when it comes out in april

Thanks so much for FINALLY releasing police Academy 4 on DVD! Ive been waiting for it to come DVD cause of David Spade! i want to get all his movies on DVD! I think this one is one of the best Police Academy movies! theres alot of very funny parts that have me ROFL! Ill be one of the first to buy this one!

I really enjoyed the Police Academy movies when they came out in the eighties. The cast was fantastic because everyone had their own unique personalities. But, I really think that they should have stopped making these sequels after Police Academy Three: Back in Training, because all the humor started to really be repetitive and boring. That's too bad too because this movie "Police Acamedy 4: Citizens on Patrol, really did gather together quite an impressive cast of stars. Most of the original cast, plus we got Sharon Stone, David Spade, Brian Backer (from "Fast Times at Ridgemont High"), and a cast of professional skateboarders, and we got a wonderful display of hot air balloons, and classic antique two passenger airplanes. It seems like it worked with a huge budget, but this comedy was so unfunny, I really don't know if I can ever sit through it again. I can certainly see why Steve Guttenberg (Mahoney) decided to not come back and participate in the three following (destined to fail) follow-up films of more Police Academy.

I bought the box set of all seven Police Academy films and quickly got rid of the last three after I watched them. They were so bad. Easily forgettable stories with an absolutely unfunny script. The only reason that I kept this Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, is because it has an actress that I fell in love with the first time I saw her. Corrine Bohrer, who plays Laura, and who has a strange attraction to Zed (Bobcat Goldthwait) in the film. When I saw her thick head of blonde hair flopping around, I was mesmerized. Since then, I've learned that Corrine Bohrer ended up being more of a cast extra on regular TV. That's too bad because she is so gorgeous.

Anyway, I'll keep this fourth Police Academy DVD only because of Corrine Bohrer, but I still love the first three because the humor was still fresh and new, and they actually had tangible stories that kept me interested.

I watched the movie Police Academy 4 and I liked it and thought it was funny and I recommend it. This is Steve Guttenberg's last Police Academy movie and the later movies just weren't the same without him.

Ok....so most low budget - low brow comedies are not that great by the 4th installment. Police Academy is no different. You do get some funny stuff here though. Bobcat Goldthwait reading poetry "Gene, Gene made a machine...", Sgt. Jones's kooky sound effects, the shenanigans of Lt. Proctor and Capt. Harris and the awful hilarity of Sharon Stone trying to act. But the jewel of this film (for this reviewer) is really the guest appearance by the Powell Peralta Bones Brigade. David Spade and Brian Backer play Kyle and Ernie, two 'skateboard punks' who spend their nights shredding up the streets. There's a great scene at the beginning of the film featuring the Bones Brigade in action for a glorious 4 minutes. Tony Hawk is doing the skating for Spade and Lance Mountain for Backer. Tommy Guerrero, Steve Caballero and Mike McGill are also featured. Great footage from a time where skate footy was a new thing and hard to come by.

It was pretty obvious at Police Academy 3 that the series really had nowhere to go. Part 4 slams that point home rather well. There is absolutely nothing original here. Lassard has a new Citizens On Patrol program which allows normal citizens to do police work. Basically it's like being trained as a police officer but without a gun. It seems like a silly idea to me, and really isn't much different from the open door policy of the first film. However, the writers needed some excuse to get folks back at the academy for more of the same training sequences, pranks and gags. Harris returns, and is determined to see the program fail in fear that it will put policemen out of a job. He also now has Proctor as his right hand man. The usual assortment of gags are played on Harris at every turn-armpit deodorant swapped with Mace, super glue on megaphone mouthpiece, etc. The highlight though is Harris and Proctor being tricked into going to the Blue Oyster Bar under the impression it's a restaurant with the best salad bar in town. Sadly this is the last we ever see of the Blue Oyster Bar in the series.
The original crew is still here, and returning are Sweetchuck and Zed who get quite a bit more screen time. Fackler's absent, but that's okay coz I never liked Fackler-he never seemed like a team player to me, plus he wasn't funny. Nagato shows up in the final minutes of the film, and Kirkland and her family have a cameo appearance. Copeland also has a few scenes early on. I'd have to say that this movie crams the most Police Academy characters into it. Newbies include an old lady who has the same passion for firearms as Tackleberry, a love interest for Zed, two skateboarding kids, one of them played by David Spade(and yes, he was still the same irritating weasely jerk back then), and a huge(in width, not height) friend of Hightower's named House. Sharon Stone has a small and pointless role as Mahoney's new love interest. Speaking of which, this is Mahoney's last film.
Yup, it's all the same ol, same ol. Like the other films, in the final 20 minutes our gang has to deal with a real crime resulting in a chase sequence(in planes and hot air balloons ). This time it's a jailbreak caused mostly by Proctor's stupidity(how did this ever ever become a cop?). Strangely, Hightower and Hooks seem to just disappear from the film about half way through.
Though it's very by-the-numbers and seems to be trying too hard for laughs(Really, how many times does Michael Winslow feel he has to do that Kung Fu gag of his?), I actually like this one the most next to the first film. I do actually find a lot of stuff here funny. Maybe it's because this one was shown on HBO a lot, and I more or less grew up with it, so it holds a kind of sentimental value with me, hence the four star rating. In reality it's probably a two and a half or three star movie. Either way, if you choose to watch it, I'm quite sure you know what you're getting into. Catchy theme song too!!