Review for Police Academy 6: City Under Siege

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Introduction

Harris has finally gotten away from Lassard and his Academy, although he still has to deal with Proctor as his right hand man. But his precinct is currently suffering from a prodigious crime wave. The Wilson Heights Gang is hitting all the businesses and banks in the area, and Harris just can’t get on top of the situation. The Mayor and the Governor get impatient, and demand results. They assign an external task force to Harris to get things moving. You’ve guessed it, it’s Lassard and his favourites. But this time there is a mole in the department leaking information to the gang, keeping them one step ahead of the police.

The Disc

The film gets a 1.78:1 widescreen 1080p transfer, with audio in DTS-HD MA 1.0 Mono English along with Dolby Digital 1.0 Mono French, German, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese with subtitles in these languages and Danish, Norwegian, Finnish, and Swedish. The dialogue is clear, the music (a lot less in the way of pop music this time) and action comes across well. The image is clear but this time the colour palette tends more to the dull and autumnal, and the level of grain suggest that this film has seen no post-processing at all. The film is also prone to a little wobble during playback as well.

Extras

The disc boots to a static menu.

Behind the Scenes: Unholy Alliance: A Retrospective lasts 7:58 SD, and the director and cast reminisce.

The Theatrical Trailer for the sixth movie is also here, again in SD.

Conclusion

Well here’s a turn up for the books. Not only didn’t I laugh, I failed to smile either. Not even a smirk. This has to be the most dull, dispiriting, and unfunny experience I’ve had with Police Academy, and given that it’s been a downhill journey since the first film (and even that’s not the acme of film comedy), that’s saying something. This film is actively bad; it’s like it’s deliberately aiming for the lowest mark in an effort to get the series cancelled. The real shock is that there was a seventh movie. After this film, I would have done the merciful thing and put the franchise down.


Things have gotten utterly juvenile now, both with the characters, the dialogue and the comedy. The original film was playing to the Porkys demographic, a lot of lowbrow humour, some sex, and a general level of sauciness that you wouldn’t want your parents to know that you watch. You wouldn’t want your parents to know you watch Police Academy 6 either, although for completely different reasons. You’d have outgrown this stuff at age five. All the characters are utterly childish, the humour comes straight from cartoons, and the characters are simply rehashing their defining comedy touchstones, although apparently with no enthusiasm or energy. It also feels as if the budget has been slashed since the Miami extravagance of the fifth movie. This one feels practically studio-bound.


Police Academy 6 is Police Academy with all of the life sucked out of it. There’s nothing new here. In fact it feels old, worn out, well past its prime. I knew I should have watched these films in reverse order!

2/10