**An unnecessary film.**
Sometimes it seems producers have a hard time understanding when a movie shouldn't be made. The “Police Academy” franchise should have ended in the sixth film, and even then it would be ending up pretty worn out. This film, made several years later, was an effort that was simply needless and certainly leaves no one with good memories.
After seeing the movie, I was really sorry that the franchise ended with such a bad movie. It was something that, for me, should have been avoided. “Police Academy” was one of the most interesting and successful comic franchises of the 80s, and there are still many people who have fond memories of these films today. I myself, as a child, saw them several times on television.
The script is perfectly idiotic and a simple excuse to take some of the characters in the film to post-Soviet Russia, where they must help the local police to fight a big mobster who is turning into an oligarch (one of many that, as we know, emerged from the ashes of the communist regime, fat with shady deals in which the Russian people ended up losing). It's an unhappy, poor script made by incapable people. Humor, on the other hand, is completely absent. I don't laugh for a single minute.
The cast, which until now had been relatively stable (with the absence of several actors starting from the fourth film), had completely collapsed, and most actors refused to be part of this project. George Gaynes is back, but his character, Commander Lassard, looks simply like an old man with Alzheimer's (with all due respect to anyone suffering from this serious illness, don't get me wrong). Gaynes is not funny, and his performance here is disgraceful. Michael Winslow also tries to make some of the jokes he's already used to us, taking advantage of his vocal skills... but he doesn't have the material or time and what he does has no freshness or novelty. Sir Christopher Lee makes a brief appearance in the film, and as far as I can understand, he did so as a favor to the producer. Friendship is a beautiful thing, and also professional courtesy, but I bet Lee won't want to be remembered for this movie (and he certainly won't, he's done better things, as we know). Who ends up standing out in some way is Ron Perlman. The actor, who we know for other, much more dignified works, tried to be funny and give some dignity to his character. Meritorious, respectable, but unworthy of the actor he is. The rest of the cast is not worth mentioning.
Are there any redeeming qualities in this film? To be honest, I don't think so..., but even so, I feel obliged to make a small caveat: I liked the fact that they did a lot of the filming in the real city of Moscow and that they used real Russian extras and Russian speakers. This gives the film a certain authenticity that deserves to be highlighted, and which is most lacking nowadays, where any piece of green or blue screen replaces a real set and saves a few dollars on the production budget. However, it must have taken courage and some dose of madness to try to make a film in the midst of the political and military upheavals Russia was experiencing in those years.
<em>'Police Academy: Mission to Moscow'</em> brings this franchise - as it stands - to a close. It's not good, but it's not the worst of the series in my opinion; not that it's far off being so, more the case that I 'enjoyed' it a tiny bit more than the sixth entry.
The cast feels bare-bones, at least in terms of the original bunch of characters. Bubba Smith dropped out for this, which is a loss, so only Michael Winslow, David Graf and George Gaynes stayed to complete the run of appearing in all seven films.
It's actually away from them that you find the interesting performers, as Christopher Lee and Ron Perlman turn up. The former doesn't feature heavily, though the latter does and is alright I guess; as noted already, he is better than last time out's attempt.
On the cast, the film has a crafted sequence at the end where it gives special mention to the key performers... via horse riding, no less. Given the obvious cuts to 'hide' the stunt performers, I'm surprised they went to so much effort for a short moment like that - must've had budget left over!
I'm rather glad to have completed this franchise. Despite that and that none of these flicks scored positively, I actually didn't mind watching them. I might be being generous, but honestly they are relatively simple to watch; the filmmakers had the common sense to limit 'em to 80-90 minutes, which most certainly helps!
