Police Academy | |
---|---|
Directed by | Hugh Wilson |
Screenplay by |
|
Story by |
|
Produced by | Paul Maslansky |
Starring | |
Cinematography | Michael D. Margulies |
Edited by |
|
Music by | Robert Folk |
Production company | |
Distributed by | Warner Bros. |
Release date |
|
Running time | 96 minutes [1] |
Country | United States [1] |
Language | English |
Budget | $4.5 million [2] |
Box office | $149.8 million [3] |
Police Academy is a 1984 American comedy film directed by Hugh Wilson in his directorial debut, and distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures. [4] Its storyline follows a new recruitment policy for an unnamed city's police academy to take in any recruit who wishes to apply and study to become a police officer. The film stars Steve Guttenberg, Kim Cattrall, and G.W. Bailey.
The film was produced by The Ladd Company. It premiered on March 23, 1984. [5] It grossed $8.5 million in its opening weekend and more than $149 million worldwide, against a budget of $4.5 million, and remains the most successful film of the series as of 2022. [3] The film spawned six sequels in the Police Academy franchise.
Due to a shortage of police officers, Mary Sue Beal, the mayor of an unnamed, English-speaking, North American metropolis, requires the police department to accept all recruit applications. Easy-going Carey Mahoney, a repeat offender, is given a choice by Police Captain Reed: enroll in the police academy to reform himself, or go directly to prison, since Reed is friends with Mahoney's father who is also a cop. There is a loophole that the academy can throw him out but he cannot quit or he would end up in jail. Mahoney agrees to the demand, but plans to perform badly enough to be expelled for cause. The chief of police, Henry Hurst, outraged by the Mayor's plan, decides to make the experience so bad for all new recruits that they will simply give up and resign.
Lieutenant Thaddeus Harris makes their lives miserable, though Commandant Eric Lassard wants to give the new cadets a chance. Harris appoints Copeland and Blankes as cadet squad leaders to help him secretly execute his plan.
Lassard reveals to Mahoney his deal with Capt. Reed: Mahoney must remain at the police academy for the full term. Mahoney falls in love with cadet Karen Thompson and befriends fellow cadets Larvell Jones, a human beatbox, ladies' man George Martin, gun-obsessed security guard Eugene Tackleberry, cowardly man Leslie Barbara, accident-prone Douglas Fackler and gentle giant Moses Hightower.
Blankes and Copeland investigate a party organized by Mahoney, who tricks them by saying that the party is being held at the Blue Oyster, which they quickly discover is actually a gay biker bar. In revenge, the pair plant a prostitute in Mahoney's dormitory, to be found during final room checks to get him expelled. While smuggling her off campus before this happens, Mahoney is forced to hide with her under a microphoned lectern, just as Commandant Lassard leads a group of fellow officers inside the meeting room. While Mahoney is not looking, the prostitute performs fellatio on Lassard as he speaks at the lectern. Mahoney later steps out from under it only to find Lassard still present, leading him to assume that Mahoney performed the deed.
Hightower reveals to Mahoney that he has not driven a car since he was 12. To help Hightower prepare for his cadet driving test, they steal Copeland's small, two-door Honda after ripping out the front seats so that Hightower can fit inside. After Hightower passes the test, Copeland racially insults cadet Laverne Hooks for causing an accident. Hightower, angered by the racial slur, overturns Copeland's police cruiser with him still inside it. Harris ejects Hightower from the academy, upsetting the other cadets.
Blankes and Copeland fail to trick Mahoney into fighting them after they discover Copeland's destroyed car. Barbara stands up for Mahoney and knocks Copeland out with his metal lunch tray. Blankes retaliates, and Mahoney becomes involved in a brawl. When Harris asks who started the fight, Mahoney takes the blame to protect Barbara's cadet standing, and Mahoney is finally expelled from the academy.
While downtown, Fackler throws an apple from his police car window, which hits a man on the back of the head. This triggers a chain reaction of violence which quickly escalates into a full-blown riot. Mahoney, just about to leave, joins the other cadets to help pacify the growing, angry crowd. The cadets are accidentally transported to the epicenter of the rioting, and one criminal steals Blankes and Copeland's revolvers, whereupon the two hide out in the Blue Oyster Bar as the riot grows in size. A gang and their leader goes on to capture Harris, taking him hostage. Mahoney attempts to rescue Harris but is also taken hostage. Hightower appears, deceives the gang's leader, and easily tosses him down a full flight set of stairs to be arrested by Hooks.
Mahoney and Hightower are both reinstated, and for rescuing Harris and capturing his kidnapper, they receive the academy's highest commendation and medals, after which all the police cadets graduate from the academy.
The producers considered Michael Keaton, Tom Hanks, and Judge Reinhold for the role of Carey Mahoney. [6] Bruce Willis auditioned for the role of Carey Mahoney. [7]
Paul Maslansky says he got the idea for the film when in San Francisco filming The Right Stuff :
I noticed a bunch of ludicrous-looking police cadets being dressed down by a frustrated sergeant. They were an unbelievable bunch, including a lady who must have weighed over 200 pounds and a flabby man well over 50. I asked the sergeant about them, and he explained that the mayor had ordered the department to accept a broad spectrum for the police academy. "We have to take them in,"...[he said] ..."And the only thing we can do is wash them out." [8]
Maslansky said he wondered "But what if they actually made it?" [8] He took the idea to Alan Ladd Jr., who agreed to finance. [8] Neal Israel was hired to write the script with Pat Proft. Israel said:
It's a matter of block comedy scenes. Perhaps the most recognizable was the obvious results of guys eating beans in Blazing Saddles . If you have four or five of these block comedy scenes in a teen-age comedy, you have a hit. If your block comedy scenes are very, very strong ones, you have a blockbuster. [8]
Dom DeLuise was considered to direct the film but he was unavailable. [9] Hugh Wilson was hired as director based on his success with WKRP in Cincinnati , even though he was not familiar with many films of this genre. He then saw a lot of those sort. saying "it was fairly discouraging. This immediately convinced me to cut down on the sleaze. I asked for, and got, the power to refine the Israel-Proft script. Maintaining that 'funny is money,' I wanted to go for real laughter rather than going for the elements such as gratuitous sex and anti-Establishment exploits. I wanted jokes which were rooted in reality." [8]
Maslansky says Wilson "took a lot of the vulgarity out; some of the very things I considered necessary. I worried that it was becoming more homogenized, and I told Hugh, "Let's keep some of the flatulence in." [8]
Wilson says "I found out that the shower scene, the party scene, and the fellatio scene were obligatory; I had to put them in. So I was stuck with trying to make those scenes as artistic as possible." [8]
According to the Los Angeles Times, about "20 of the major elements in the movie" remain from the Israel and Proft version. Israel says that when Wilson and Maslansky turned in their rewrite to the Ladd Company, "it was rejected and the project was almost shelved. Only when they put back in dozens of our gags did the project get the go ahead." [8]
Some of the scenes Wilson was unhappy with included the fellatio scene and the scene where a police sergeant was hurled into the backside of a horse. A compromise was reached where these acts were not actually directly shown. [8]
"I realize that you can carry grossness, rudeness, and crudeness just so far before the audience finds it terribly repetitive and not so funny," said Wilson. "After the enormous success of Police Academy, I no longer believe that you have to show the female breast or make cruel ethnic jokes, not to mention the rampant sexism. And you don't have to reproduce the sounds that an overfed body makes." [8]
Opening scenes were shot in Toronto, Ontario. The camera booth scene was shot on the Cherry Street Bridge in Toronto. [10] The academy itself was previously the site of the Lakeshore Psychiatric Hospital in Etobicoke, and has since become the Lakeshore campus of Humber College. [11] The studio scenes were shot at Lakeshore Film Studios; the city scenes were filmed in various parts of Toronto. [12] The riot scenes was filmed at Kensington Market in Toronto, The Silver Dollar Room on Spadina Avenue is the real name of the bar that was filmed for the Blue Oyster Bar scenes.
In 2013, La-La Land Records issued a limited edition album of Robert Folk's score. [13]
Police Academy opened in the number 1 spot in 1,587 U.S. theaters on March 23, 1984, to a first weekend total gross of $8.6 million. The film went on to gross $81.2 million, becoming the 6th highest-grossing American film of 1984. [15] It grossed $68.6 million overseas for a total worldwide gross of $149.8 million. [3] The film made a profit of $35 million. [3]
Police Academy received mixed reviews from critics. [16] On Rotten Tomatoes, it has an approval rating of 56% based on 32 reviews, with the critical consensus reading: “Police Academy is rude, crude, and proudly sophomoric – which is either a condemnation or a ringing endorsement, depending on your taste in comedy.” [17] On Metacritic the film has a score of 41 out of 100 based on reviews from 6 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". [18]
Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times , gave the film zero stars out of four, commenting: “It's really something. It's so bad, maybe you should pool your money and draw straws and send one of the guys off to rent it so that in the future, whenever you think you're sitting through a bad comedy, he could shake his head, and chuckle tolerantly, and explain that you don't know what bad is”. [19]
Critic Vincent Canby, of The New York Times , gave a mixed review, saying: “The movie plows through one outrageous sequence to the next with the momentum of a freight train”. [20] Rita Kemply, of The Washington Post , wrote: “Attention, all units: Slapstick in progress in the vicinity of Police Academy. Suspects wanted for mugging the camera [...] with the intent to incite a laugh riot. Please respond to this blues burlesque, a uniformly funny hit sure to have a long run. Its target audience: those who can take their T&A with a grain of assault. Its plot [is] a combo of Animal House and An Officer and a Gentleman . Its stars a rainbow coalition of hot newcomers and dependable, unexpendable pros.” [21]
Producer Paul Maslansky says that original feedback on the film was that it was not gross enough, with one executive reportedly saying: “What are you trying to do, make a damned Tootsie ?”; and another claiming: “Paul, it doesn't fit the formula; it needs more flatulence, more slobbishness, more T&A.” [8]
Police Academy is a series of American comedy films, the first six of which were made in the 1980s and the seventh in 1994. The series opened with Police Academy (1984), which started with the premise that a new mayor had announced a policy requiring the police department to accept all willing recruits. The film followed a group of misfit recruits in their attempts to prove themselves capable of being police officers, and succeeding both in spite of and because of their eccentricities. The main character in the first four films, Carey Mahoney, is a repeat offender forced to join the police academy as punishment. The seventh and to date last installment, Mission to Moscow, was released in 1994. In September 2018, Guttenberg announced that a new Police Academy film was in development.
Dick Tracy is a 1990 American action crime comedy film based on the 1930s comic strip character of the same name created by Chester Gould. Warren Beatty produced, directed, and starred in the film, whose supporting cast includes Al Pacino, Madonna, Glenne Headly, and Charlie Korsmo, with appearances by Dustin Hoffman, James Keane, Charles Durning, William Forsythe, Seymour Cassel, Mandy Patinkin, Catherine O’Hara, Ed O'Ross, James Caan, James Tolkan, and Dick Van Dyke. Dick Tracy depicts the detective's romantic relationships with Breathless Mahoney and Tess Trueheart as well as his conflicts with crime boss Alphonse "Big Boy" Caprice and his henchmen. Tracy also begins fostering a young street urchin named Kid.
Commandant Eric Lassard is a fictional character in the 1984 film Police Academy, as well as its six sequels. He was portrayed by George Gaynes.
White Chicks is a 2004 American comedy film directed by Keenen Ivory Wayans from a screenplay co-written by Wayans, Xavier Cook, Andy McElfresh, Michael Anthony Snowden, with additional contributions by and starring Marlon Wayans and Shawn Wayans. It also stars Jaime King, Frankie Faison, Lochlyn Munro, and John Heard. In the film, two FBI agents go undercover as women by using whiteface to protect two hotel heiresses from a kidnapping plot targeting socialites.
Paul David Graf was an American actor, best known for his role as Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry in the Police Academy series of films.
Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment is a 1985 American comedy film directed by Jerry Paris. It is the second installment in the Police Academy franchise and the sequel to Police Academy.
Police Academy 5: Assignment: Miami Beach is a 1988 American comedy film directed by Alan Myerson. It is the fifth installment in the Police Academy franchise, released on March 18, 1988. The film was given a PG rating for language and ribald humor.
Harlem Nights is a 1989 American crime comedy-drama film starring and directed by Eddie Murphy, who also wrote. The film co-stars Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Danny Aiello, Michael Lerner, Della Reese, and Murphy's older brother Charlie. The film was released theatrically on November 17, 1989, by Paramount Pictures. The film tells the story of "Sugar" Ray and Vernest "Quick" Brown as a team running a nightclub in the late 1930s in Harlem while contending with gangsters and corrupt police officials.
Police Academy 3: Back in Training is a 1986 American comedy film directed by Jerry Paris. It is the third installment of the Police Academy franchise and the sequel to Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment.
Hugh Hamilton Wilson Jr. was an American film director, writer and television showrunner. He was the creator of the TV series WKRP in Cincinnati and Frank's Place, and was the director of the film comedies Police Academy and The First Wives Club.
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol is a 1987 American comedy film. It is the fourth installment in the Police Academy franchise. It was released on April 3, 1987 and is the sequel to Police Academy 3: Back in Training.
Police Academy 6: City Under Siege is a 1989 American comedy crime film starring Bubba Smith, David Graf and Michael Winslow. It was directed by Peter Bonerz and written by Stephen Curwick, based on characters created by Neal Israel and Pat Proft. The film was given a PG rating for violence and language. This was the fifth and last Police Academy sequel to be released in the year immediately following the previous installment of the series. It would take five years until the release of the following film, Police Academy: Mission to Moscow. Police Academy 6: City Under Siege was also the last film in the series to feature Bubba Smith, Marion Ramsey, Bruce Mahler, Lance Kinsey and George R. Robertson as Hightower, Hooks, Fackler, Proctor and Commissioner Hurst respectively.
Police Academy: Mission to Moscow is a 1994 American action comedy film starring George Gaynes, Michael Winslow, David Graf, and Claire Forlani. It is the seventh and final installment in the Police Academy franchise to date, and sequel to Police Academy 6: City Under Siege. The film was directed by Alan Metter and written by Randolph Davis and Michele S. Chodos. George Gaynes, Michael Winslow and David Graf were the only three cast members to appear in all seven films.
Police Academy Stunt Show or Loca Academia de Policía is a slapstick comedy stunt show located at Parque Warner Madrid. Formerly, the show was also at Warner Bros. Movie World (1991–2008), Six Flags Magic Mountain (1994), and Warner Bros. Movie World Germany (1996–2004).
Police Academy is a 1988 animated television series based on the Police Academy series of films. The show was produced by Ruby-Spears Enterprises for Warner Bros. Television. It aired weekdays and lasted two seasons for a total of 65 episodes.
Police Academy: The Series is a sitcom series that was a spin-off from the Police Academy series of films. Michael Winslow was the only actor from the Police Academy films to have a recurring role on the show, although several of the film's cast made occasional guest appearances. The series was written by Paul Maslansky and produced by James Margellos and Gary M. Goodman and aired in syndication from September 27, 1997, until May 23, 1998.
Neal Israel is an American actor, screenwriter, film and television producer, and director best known for his comedic work in the 1980s for films such as Police Academy, Real Genius, and Bachelor Party.
Get Out is a 2017 American psychological horror film written, co-produced, and directed by Jordan Peele in his directorial debut. It stars Daniel Kaluuya, Allison Williams, Lil Rel Howery, LaKeith Stanfield, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, and Catherine Keener. The plot follows a young black man (Kaluuya), who uncovers shocking secrets when he meets the family of his white girlfriend (Williams).
Paul Marc Maslansky is an American film producer and writer best known for the Police Academy movies.