Review of Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988) by Adam C — 24 Jun 2011

Memory and the rule of thumb that all franchises follow the 'law of diminishing returns' took a bit of a kick in the nuts with this one. True the bar was never set high by the franchise but after the lackluster PA4:COP, the only way really was up.

So after being generally relegated to the background in what was their own franchise, the remaining original characters are once again front and centre. Sadly missing is Guttenberg who was last seen flying away with Sharon Stone, though fear not Matt McCoy is on hand in a role that was clearly meant to be Guttenbergs and the only real change is the name and his relationship to Lassard.

What also struck me this time around is the prominence of black leads in this film, Smith, Winslow, Ramsey and Thacker, with Thacker being the only minor character from a previous film carried over. In fact its probably because of this that original cast members come off so well, with less minor characters occupying the running time the cast all get decent moments on screen, hell there is even something resembling a plot this time around. Whilst PA2:TFA suffered from removing the characters from the Academy this time around they actually benefit from it.