Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987)

Highly Overrated But Still Good

It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

I enjoyed watching this film and would recommend other to give it a try , (as I am) but this movie, although enjoyable to watch due to the better than average acting fails to add anything new to its storyline that is all too familiar to these types of movies.

One of the worst ways to make a cult movie is to set out to make a cult movie.

This movie shows us the first signs of decline of the series. The jokes are getting more and more childish and one-dimensional and there are many things and scenes we have already seen in the first three movies. There are no new interesting characters that have been added to the series and especially the young Sharon Stone does a quite disappointing job and even the presence of David Spade and the cameo appearance of the young Tony Hawk don't help in here and are just interesting side notes.But surprisingly the movie still works as we are happy to meet the old and well known characters again and even if most of the scenes and jokes are predictable, they are still funny and have their moments. When Mahoney and Jones capture two killers with some arrogant citizens on patrol, I really laughed out loud and felt entertained. When Proctor and Harris get fooled over and over again, especially in the toilet scene or the microphone scene, the whole thing is funny as usual even though it is nothing innovating or surprising. While the ending of the third movie and the chasing scenes with the boats was rather dumb, the ending of the fourth part with the air planes is really entertaining and quite spectacular.On the other side, there are many scenes that are somewhat overlong, ridiculous and boring for example the first minutes of the movie or the ninja fighting scene on a boat in the end. The entertaining parts are though still in the majority.Anyone who liked the first three movies should also watch this one as the quality only got a little bit lower and as important characters such as Mahoney and Zed are still on board for a very last time and funny as usual. I would suggest to rent this movie and have some fun and finish the series on a higher note. Only the hardcore fans should maybe go further than part four. I would give between five and six points to the movie and ultimately rate it up for this site as the average vote of this mostly enjoyable flick is still way too severe.

The only laughable aspect of this harrowingly pitiful, putrid sequel is the fact it was ever made.Noted feminist Sharon Stone humiliates herself in an early non-role as a reporter. She is the sex interest for head clown Mahoney's latest lechery. If the yearning was ever reciprocated it failed to make it through the editing process...if indeed there was one.In common with #3, this smear of celluloid woe features a humour-free chase sequence, the elongated nature of which can only be explained by a lack of gag material. This is especially unfortunate given it arrives so earlier in proceedings.An abysmal black hole of joylessness, perhaps the most dismal aspect of all is Bobcat Goldthwait's screeching, speech defective moron Zed. He finds a girlfriend instead of the spear to the balding pate which he so patently merits.

Of the Police Academy movies the worst of the bunch for me is the final movie in the series to star Steve Guttenberg as Mahoney. The jokes are the same, the cast is the same the only difference here is they are training citizens to help fight crime in a neighborhood watch type deal. Mauser is gone, replace once again by Harris and I liked Mauser better as he and Proctor to me worked better. Bobcat is back which is bad, as is most of the jokes in this very forgettable movie. Seriously, other than a plot point or two here and there it is very hard to recall this movie other than I did not care for it except for when Proctor ends up letting a whole slew of criminals escape and we have our typical Police Academy ending. I also remember the end with a hot air balloon and Harris. This one also tries to introduce new characters to the gang one overweight dude and an older lady stands out in my mind and for some reason in the next movie the overweight guy would be a cop which makes no sense.

G.W. Bailey returns as Harris and we find ourself face to face with pre-Basic Instinct (dammit, pre-Total Recall!) Sharon Stone. The premise is a rerun of the second film - the 'Citizens On Patrol' bit allows the incorporation of the recruitment/training idea from the previous sequel.David Graf has now positioned himself as one of the favourite characters in the franchise. This is basically because he can act a bit. Concealed behind his warped, pyromanic character he also knows that when it's all over he can emerge without having compromised himself as, by now, Guttenberg knows he has done. I expect that Guttenberg wasn't sufficiently dejected not to make sure he got paid well for it all this time. 1/10