Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987)

A lot more amusing than I thought it would be.

It's easily one of the freshest, sharpest and most enjoyable films of this year.

Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,

The police academy misfits are trying to help make Commandant Lassard's "Citizens on Patrol" neighborhood watch program work. Jealous Captain Harris does everything he can to make sure it fails. Most of the gang is here and likable as usual. Glad to see G.W. Bailey back from the first movie. Oddly, Art Metrano's sidekick from the last two sequels is still in this and is now Bailey's sidekick. I actually think it works better this way. Film debut of David Spade as a skateboarding recruit. Sharon Stone plays the requisite pretty woman Steve Guttenberg works his charms on. Love the '80s fads and clothing. The series is running on empty here but there are still some funny parts here and there. Bobcat Goldthwait gets most of the best lines. This was the last of the series to feature Bobcat or Guttenberg. The series really shouldn't have tried to continue without them.

Commandant Eric Lassard comes up with an idea to recruit civilian volunteers to the police force.The program is called Citizens on Patrol (COP).Captain Harris is very much against the idea and wants to see it fail.Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987) is directed by Jim Drake.This is the last part where Steve Guttenberg stars as Mahoney.Of course we can't tell yet if he will be seen in one more part in the future.Then there are those familiar faces Bubba Smith, Michael Winslow, David Graf, Tim Kazurinsky, Leslie Easterbrook, Marion Ramsey, Brian Tochi, Lance Kinsey and George Gaynes.G. W. Bailey makes a return as Capt. Thaddeus Harris again.George R. Robertson is Hurst.Bobcat Goldthwait does his crazy Zed again.Corinne Bohrer plays his love interest Laura.Sharon Stone, before her bigger stardom, plays Claire Mattson.Derek McGrath plays Butterworth.Scott Thomson plays Chad Copeland.Billie Bird plays the tough old lady Mrs. Lois Feldman.David Spade is seen on a skateboard playing Kyle Ault.Backer, remembered from Fast Times at Ridgemont High, is his buddy Arnie.Also Tony Hawk does a cameo.The late Tab Thacker plays Tommy "House" Conklin.Randall 'Tex' Cobb is Zack.The Kirkland family is there again with Colleen Camp, Andrew Paris, Arthur Batanides and Jackie Joseph.The movie has a lot of fun stuff, even though not all of the jokes work.But I really liked Zed getting all romantic with that cute chick.And Jones doing some ninja action.And all the action including hot air balloons and airplanes in the end.The rap song by Michael Winslow and the L.A. Dream Team is really neat.

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.

Having first watched this among a group of teenage friends or any other films related to these series of films would have kept you laughing throughout its length and it certainly did with me but as time wears on through the length of poor reviews often given by the press, then I have to accept and say the same after having watched it alone or with a common sense family individual. In the whole, everybody there seems to be enjoying themselves in this lame slapstick that just drags on through swamp and muck since it was originally launched a couple of years back and Steve Guttenberg quit after this one. Of course, some say the series should have stopped after the second one was received with poor reviews yet it beats one in why it should have continued with silly and unfunny slapstick scenes. Just gave the whole lot of these a miss.