The Greatest Franchise of ALL TIME:
In the 80s, the cinema was populated with machete wielding psychos, bad music, and Police Academy movies. From 1984 to 1989, six Police Academy films were made, which resulted in countless imitations and a short lived cartoon series based off the hit films. In 1994 the producers tried to revive the franchise with Police Academy: Mission to Moscow, despite the sheer brilliance of the idea, the public seemingly had enough of the franchise. Not me though, they could make ten more Police Academy movies and I would be dumb enough to buy all of them, especially if Steve Guttenberg reprised his role as Mahoney. The writing was far from brilliant, the acting was less then great, the comedy often fell flat; despite all of these weaknesses, the Police Academy films had a great deal of energy to them, you got to admire a franchise that is willing to stick to a re-occurring joke in which a character unwittingly walks into a gay bar (even though the joke wore out its welcome at the end of the first film). There's something oddly enduring about Captain Harris constantly shouting,"MAHONEY" thirty times through out each film and always failing in his scheme to bring down the Police Academy. Then there's Jones constantly making sound effects with his mouth, always fooling criminals into thinking they are surrounded by police, or that they are fighting a super human being. Finally, who can forget the clue less Commandant Lassard (played by George Gaynes, who delighted millions of TV viewers as Henry on Punky Brewster), who despite being a complete moron managed to keep his job at the academy. The best scenes always involved him talking to his gold fish and nearly killing it in the process. The Police Academy series will always have a special place in my every growing, cynical heart. Go out and rent all seven! You will either be pleasantly surprised, or you will want to kill the first person you come in contact with. Either way, it is quite an experience.