Police Academy: Mission to Moscow

Police Academy: Mission to Moscow
The Looney Tunes one.
Genre: Comedy Directed by: Alan Metter Produced by: Paul Maslansky Written by: Randolph Davis Michele S. Chodos Starring: George Gaynes Michael Winslow David Graf Leslie Easterbrook Claire Forlani Ron Perlman Christopher Lee Charlie Schlatter G. W. Bailey Cinematography: Ian Jones Editing: Dennis Hill Suzanne Hines Music by: Robert Folk Distributed by: Warner Bros. Release date: August 26, 1994 Runtime: 83 minutes Country: United States Language: English Russian Budget: $10 million Box office: $126,247 (domestic) Franchise: Police Academy Prequel: Police Academy 6: City Under Siege

Police Academy: Mission to Moscow, also known as Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow, is the seventh installment in the Police Academy series to date, and sequel to Police Academy 6: City Under Siege. It was directed by Alan Metter and written by Randolph Davis and Michele S. Chodos, and opened in cinemas on August 26, 1994.

Plot

The Russian mob, led by Konstantine Konali, develops a computer game that, unbeknown to its players, has the ability to destroy security systems. As a result, a staggering number of robberies have been committed, and the Russian police have no leads. They call in the help of the Americans -- but think twice about that decision when they end up with the lovable, bumbling members of the Police Academy, including Eric Lassard and Thaddeus Harris.

Why It's Not a Mission to Moscow

1. Overuse of sound effects from Looney Tunes cartoons, which is annoying.
2. Several characters from the previous films are absent, with Eric Lassard, Debbie Callahan, Larvell Jones, Eugene Tackleberry, and Capt. Harris are the only ones to return.
3. The idea of having Lassard ending up at an unknown family's home by accident is lazy and contrived.
4. The writing is sometimes terrible.
5. Poor attempts at humor.
6. The film has a very cheap-look and lots of cheap-looking sets.
7. Lots of bloopers: One of the news anchors is playing "The Game" on a GameBoy, however, the disc isn't seen inside the "The Game". A dog pisses through Capt. Harris' telescope, which isn't possible because of the lens on it.
8. It took five years for this film to be made. Originally, this film was going to be released theatrically in 1991, but the production suffered multiple rewrites and delays, ending up to the film being released direct-to-video in 1994.
9. Since Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg) was replaced with the annoying Nick Lassard (Matt McCoy). In this film, Nick is replaced by the even more annoying, Cadet Connors (Charlie Schlatter).

Redeeming Qualities

1. Although many attempts at humor are poor, others actually work. In particular, the opening scene and the final battle with Konali are funny.
2. Christopher Lee's acting is great.
3. The plot is interesting.
4. The soundtrack is decent.
5. The film does pretty good job by exploring the past and the future of Russia.
6. There's a couple bunch of action and chase scenes, which are executed pretty well.

Trivia

• After plans to film Police Academy 6: City Under Siege in England were nixed, the idea was again considered for the seventh film under the working title of Operation Scotland Yard. Paul Maslanky's revisited idea was to have Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, and other former cast members unite with the cast for a grand finale to the franchise, with tentative plans for a 1991 theatrical release. However, the final product, Mission to Moscow, ended up being a very different, much lower budget, direct-to-video release, with Guttenberg, Smith, and others declining to return.
• Production was disrupted by the 1993 Russian Constitutional Crisis to the point where production nearly moved to Budapest. There were also difference of opinion between producer Paul Maslansky (who wanted to keep the slapstick nature of the previous films) and director Alan Metter (who would have preferred to derive the humor more from the location and cultural differences between the American and Russian officers), eventually culminating in Metter disowning the finished product.
• In an interview shortly after the Moscow revolution, Paul Maslansky said he considered re-titling this movie Police Academy: Crisis in Russia.
• Bubba Smith had planned to reprise his role as Hightower, but ended up withdrawing from the film after being told by the filmmakers that they were not planning to bring back Marion Ramsey as Hooks. As a result, scenes originally written for Hightower (who would've been promoted to Captain) had to be given to some of the other characters (i.e. Tackleberry checking up on Commandant Lassard in his hotel room, Capt. Harris wearing a tutu at the Bolshoi Ballet, etc.), and G.W. Bailey was brought on board at the last minute. In a peculiar case of life imitating art, this situation mirrors the scene in the first Police Academy movie, when Hightower is kicked out of the academy after standing up for Hooks by tipping over a police car with Copeland in it.
• Ron Perlman (Konali) considered his work on this movie "a public service", by shutting down the Police Academy franchise. Perlman said, "I'm not going to apologize. I did that piece of shit."
• David Graf (Sgt. Tackleberry), Michael Winslow (Sgt. Jones), and George Gaynes (Cmdt. Lassard) are the only actors to appear in all seven Police Academy movies.

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