Review of Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986) by Mickey M — 27 Jul 2008

The state's skinflint governor (Ed Nelson) claims that the current budget can't allow both police academies to run, so he announces that the two will compete to be the one which remains open. He also announces that the winning academy will be chosen by a committee.

"Commandant Mauser" (Art Metrano), who runs one of the two state police academies, will do anything to close the other academy, which is run by "Commandant Eric Lassard" (George Gaynes), so he pursuades two of "Lassard's" own trainers (Brant Van Hoffmann and Scott Thomson) to tell him what is going on at "Lassard's" academy.

"Lassard" himself is quite worried about the competition, so he calls for help from his favorite graduating class, lead by the madcap "Sgt. Carrey Mahoney" (Steve Guttenberg). Also returning to the academy are: the weapon-obssessed "Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry" (the late David Graf), the incredibly strong "Sgt. Moses Hightower" (Bubba Smith), the tough and buxom former police academy instructor "Lieutenant Debbie Callahan", the "Human Sound-Effects Machine" "Sgt. Larvell Jones", the soft-voiced "Sgt. Laverne Hooks", and the fairly clutzy "Sgt. Douglas Fackler".

With a new group of recruits behind them, "Mahoney" and the crew must fight to keep "Lassard's" long-running academy open no matter what it takes.

This is a good follow-up to the last two films in the series, with a few flaws.

The cast members from the first two movies have certainly melded nicely. Their timing is pretty flawless with the jokes and gags, and they work well with the new additions to the franchise.

The jokes and gags, for the most part, are ones seen in the previous films. However, unlike the "Austin Powers" series, which relies on reused jokes for a laugh, the reused jokes work just as they did in the first film.

Plot development moves a little quickly due to the movie being approximately 82 minutes long, which hampers the development of the characters debuting in this film. However, the pace of the film is good. It also hampers the development of the subplots, many of which are just touched upon.

Despite the problems, the film is just a fun time where you will only need some knowledge of the previous films when it comes with the characters who appeared in the first two films. It is pretty campy, with no excessive violence you might expect in a cop movie.

In my opinion, this would be a good rental for any night of the week.