Review of Kindergarten Cop (1990) by Ryan C — 27 Apr 2014

Directed by Ivan Reitman, who at the time had just come off the massive success of Ghostbusters II (1989), and this one had landed on his desk before then, but waited to do it. He reunited with one of his leading men from Twins (1988), who was wanting to try and show there was more to him than action films.

It might be a bit naff looking at it now, but there are some laughs to be had. Detective John Kimble (Arnold Schwarzenegger) has been after drug dealer Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson) for a while, and Kimble finds out that Crisp's ex-wife and son are in serious danger, as they moved away to hide from him.

Kimble and his partner Detective Phoebe O'Hara (Pamela Reed) find out Crisp's ex-wife lives in Astoria, Oregon. The plan is that O'Hara goes into the local elementary school, disguised as a teacher, and deduct who Crisp's ex-wife is, however, O'Hara falls ill with stomach flu at the last minute, leaving Kimble to take over as teacher, in a class full of young children, who Kimble can't stand, but he brings about order.

It's a very silly film, and putting Schwarzenegger in a classroom full of 5-6 year olds, you know there's going to be trouble, but there's a lot of heart in the film, and Reitman manages to get some good laughs out of the film.

It shouldn't work, in fact, it should be absolutely horrible, but it isn't, it's quite good.