Police Academy 3: Back In Training

Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986)

Runtime: 83 minutes

Directed by: Jerry Paris

Starring: The usual faces

From: Warner Bros.

I randomly watched this yesterday and I was glad it was able to provide me some chuckles and chortles. I talk about it in my Letterboxd review below: 

Yesterday was an “eh” day for me at best so I decided it was probably a good time to see something goofy and silly so I can have some laughs. I had seen this as a kid but I did not remember too much about it, and I recalled nothing about the final act.

What a threadbare plot it had: the area has two police academies but the state has to make budget cuts so one of them have to be closed down. Sad to say the idea of states running out of money and thus having to make such cuts is all too believable. Anyhow, there's a small committee going around looking at both programs, and as others have said this is one of many examples in the 80's trope of two groups feuding with each other. We're back in the same location of the film (I don't mean just Toronto; it's obvious it is filmed there; during the finale you see the CN Tower a few times. I mean the same academy as the original) and we get several scenes and moments repeated. Goofy, but then again the series changed into a PG thing as kids loved the first two. It doesn't mean that they left out the moments of racism, sexism, and a visit to the gay leather bar known as the Blue Oyster.

The movie is pretty stupid and there isn't much of a plot. Yet, it was nice that the films had continuity and some supporting characters from the first two returned... although a little of Zed went a long way. Not all gags worked, yet there were plenty of them so there was going to be some that worked, and I did have enough laughs to where I can at least rate it as average.

Besides it being nice to see those familiar faces, there are other things I enjoyed. I once again realized that Art Metrano did a quality job as a real butt-kissing A-hole. And it was definitely an 80's film through and through. There was even a musical scene where some members of the cast sang, and a saxophone was played. There was the 80's politically incorrect moments, and the score for the final action scene was definitely a product of the era. So was there being an Asian person (Takashi from Revenge of the Nerds) who OF COURSE knew karate. Oh, and I remembered that most of the films in the franchise ended with a halfway decent action sequence, and that was the case with the jet-ski finale we saw here.

At least I still got enjoyment out of this and my memories of it weren't tarnished.