Review of Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987) by Clinton D — 16 Jun 2010

Let's be honest, the Police Academy series is pretty awful but they are many people's guilty pleasure, me being one of them. The jokes are mostly terrible, the characters annoying and acting atrocious but I still watch them when they are on the TV in the vain hope that they are actually good. Most of this stems from a childhood of watching them but, sadly, they really are that bad and yet somehow manage to be entertaining.

It's clear that the writers were running out of plot ideas when they came up with Citizens on Patrol, the fourth Police Academy film in as many years. The plot revolves around an idea conjured up by the ever blissfully unaware Commandant Lassard where he decides to get his police squad to train members of the public in the basics of police work in order to provide help on the streets. Of course he hands the responsibility to the returning Captain Harris and the usual Police Academy antics begin. The entire original cast is present for this film which would end up being the last for the likes of Steve Guttenberg and Bobcat Goldthwait. The same tired jokes are all present such as Jones's sound effects, Tackleberry's addiction to guns etc. The two main new comedy characters are an old woman addicted to the military and a huge black guy who takes part in the token fat jokes. The ending is the exact same as all other Police Academy films although I must admit the airplane and hot air balloon sequences looked quite good.

The humour is as stupid as ever and mostly not funny although with all Police Academy films we do get the very odd funny moment. This fourth outing manages to be mildly entertaining which is quite a feat for such a bad film. The sad thing is I will probably watch it again the next time it is on TV.