My Review of "Police Academy"

I remember a time when Police Academy sequels used to come out all the time. I remember liking them way back when but then again I was a little kid back then. The only people I kind of remember were Michael Winslow as Larvell Jones, Steve Guttenberg as Carey Mahoney and G. W. Bailey as Lieutenant Harris. I was a little worried because when I watch movies that I used to love when I was a kid they tend to be pretty horrible movies that I can't stand as an adult.

For those that don't know already, the premise behind this movie is that the city has lowered their requirements to allow for a more diverse police workforce to apply to become police officers. As a result, a ton of misfits apply to become police officers and the higher ranking officers don't like this. These higher ranking officers decide that they will try to weed the misfits out of the police academy by making their lives a living hell.

The main character is Carey Mahoney. He's a guy that constantly gets into trouble but because he has friends in the police force, he has been given a free ride until now. His friend gives him one last get-out-of-jail-free card so long as he joins the police academy and doesn't quit. Obviously Carey agrees to this since he's a miscreant. He believes that he will be so bad in police academy that they'll just kick him out. This is where the comedy comes in.

There are pranks galore in this movie and some of them were pretty darn risqué. I actually can't believe I was allowed to watch this when I was a kid because they have jokes about peeping toms and goes as far as public fellatio.

The years have not been kind to this movie as there are a few homophobic references in it, as well as some scenes that might make the Me Too movement cringe. It's not acceptable, but it was the times of when this movie came out. You can sense that it was perfectly acceptable at the time and it's a little odd seeing it today.

Although there are many of these scenes, you do still get a sense that this movie was a little more progressive than other movies back in 1984. You really have to understand those times. They didn't talk about equality in the workplace — pushing to have women and people of color to work in the police force. Some of their jokes about going to a gay bar seemed a little more progressive than you'd expect if you knew those times. They pushed the envelope in this movie with a lot of interesting things. Although certain things weren't done in the best way if looked at through a 2019 perspective, I would say that in 1984 the intentions were innocent.

Still, the rest of the cast did a wonderful job and the movie still has a ton of charm and some cleverness to it. You'll see a lot of the pranks coming before they even happen but they kind of flow a little better than you would see in today's situational comedy movies. They kind of make the situations make sense in the movie rather than today when they just force things and do things at random.

After watching the movie again today, I could say that I still remember a lot of the scenes. Oddly enough I still enjoyed this movie, regardless of the inappropriateness of certain scenes, maybe because I understood the times and what was going on at that time.

Overall, I would say that it's still a very enjoyable film, but you have to see it in the perspective that the 1980s were ignorant times. Kids of the newer generation might not like this movie at all. They might get too caught up with one or two scenes and will be turned off from it. I still think that there is a ton of entertainment to this movie. It's got tons of charm and character. That's exactly what we look for in comedies. I'll have to give this movie a 7 out of 10. If you watch without being offended you'll be able to really enjoy this one. It's a dumb movie — you shouldn't take it too seriously.