Movie review - "Police Academy" (1984) ***

I can't be objective about this, I saw it so many times as a kid - and what's more, recited key pieces of dialogue, and had dialogue recited to m,e by friends. Some of it hasn't aged well - Mahoney sexually harrasses lots of people, the dialogue is littered with casual homophobia, it has a lot of 80s comedy moments (random topless women at parties) and many jokes do not hold up (eg the lecherous fake Italian making racist comments to a Japanese woman during the riot... isn't he supposed to be in love with Callahan by then? A lot of characters feel under-developed eg the henpecked husband (he has a great intro sequence then is kind of forgotten), the rich girl played by Kim Cattral (I kept expecting her rich mother to come back).

But it's beautifully shot, the score is memorable, I really liked the location they got for the police academy. Dramatically it's simple but very effective - within the first ten minutes they set up the basic situation: the police academy are accepting everyone and it really annoys the police... and the hero Mahoney is forced to become a police officer or he'll be arrested. Now that's good basic solid dramatic conflict - it gives Mahoney a goal (get kicked out) and an arc (to become a good cop); it motivates the baddies (to get rid of these recruits). There's a solid second act end point with Hightower and Mahoney getting kicked out

There are some excellent gags, like two bullies throwing some books out a window only to find the window is shut, and the wife running through backyards to catch her husband.

It's also extremely well cast. Steve Guttenberg is charming for all his sexual harassment; Kim Cattral is very sweet and teams well with Guttenberg; George W Bailey is an excellent villain (well supported by George Robertson, Brant Van Hoffman and Scott Thomson); Michael Winslow is great fun (a different kind of comic too - he gave the series a real point of difference); David Graf is hilarious in probably the series' best role; George Gaynes is hilarious as the ditzy commandant; Leslie Easterbook is fun as the well endowed Chapman; Bubba Smith is interesting looking and does provide some moral ballast when he sticks up for hooks on a race basis; Marion Ramsey is very relatable as Hooks; Bruce Mahler is well cast as the nerdy guy (I wish they'd used his wife more). Andrew Rubins' ladies' man and Donovan Scott's fat man are fine - though it was no loss they didn't return for other films in the series. (I did like Scott's arc where he got to beat up the bullies who taunted him at the beginning.)

This is more raunchy than later films in the series with some nudity, and gags like Bailey flying in to the back of a horse, and Georgina Spelvin performing oral sex on Gaynes and then Gutteberg (a nice call back).

Movie review - "Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol" (1987) **

Creaky as hell but you know something? Watching it at eleven at night it has its charms - the movie just wants to entertain, even if at a moronic level, and I guess I have a nostalgic attachment to the jokes: Tackleberry's violent in-laws, Hooks whimpering then yelling, Jones making noises, Mahoney sexually harassing women, Zed struggling to get out a sentence, Sweetchuck bumbling over things, visits to the Blue Oyster, Callaghan showing off her boobs, Hightower doing nothing much other than be tall, etc etc. They kept repeating those suckers with an intensity that would have put off writers of 70s British sitcoms.

This has perhaps the best cast of the series - in addition to the regulars (Steve Guttenberg, Bubba Smith, Michael Winslow, etc) there's the return of G W Bailey and early appearances from Sharon Stone, David Spade (along with Brian Backer, hilariously miscast as a juvenile delinquent) and Tony Hawk; Corinne Bohrer is very winning as Bobcat Goldthwait's new love interest. That gives it some novelty.

To be honest this is pretty bad, but it's better than the films in the series that followed.

TV review – “Veronica Mars” – Season 2 (2007) ****

I was afraid this would suffer the sophomore slump because so much of Season 1 touched on events which took place before the pilot episode, and surely they wouldn’t kill off another best friend of Veronica? (I was worried for Wallace). But the writers get around it brilliantly by killing off a whole bunch of random students on a bus, ensuring this series has the gravitas of season 1. Funny, witty - plenty of great lines for Logan but also people like Charisma Carpenter. Dick Casablancas (Ryan Hansen) steps up. Plenty of emotional depth too. Wonderful show.

Movie review – “Three Men and a Baby” (1987) ***

Some stories always seem to work with audiences: Cinderella, Robin Hood, The Three Musketeers. To that list I’d add, “comedies where an all-male house has to raise children”; look at the phenomenal success of this, Full House and Two and a Half Men. It’s got basic fish out of water comic value (a reflection of our times still), plus women seem to find it cute that hot guys changing nappies – and domesticated men enjoy swinging bachelors realising that true happiness comes not through constant parties and sex with hot women, but through preparing milk bottles and singing bed time songs.

There are some solid comedy moments – Selleck offering a thousand dollars to change a nappy and later reading a sports report to a baby; the three men singing – plus a terrific “spine” with the drug dealers getting involved. There’s some terrible 80s movie music and Nancy Travis’ English accent isn’t very convincing. The three leads are very likeable: three B-list stars adding up to a very potent one.

TV review – “Veronica Mars – Season 1” (2004) ****1/2

Kevin Smith is a big fan of this show, as he was of Battlestar Galactica and Law and Order, other shows that I've come to love – so I’m a big believer in Smith’s taste. This is everything a teen drama should be: funny, clever, extremely well put together. It also has genuine dramatic gravitas: there are big emotional stakes, Veronica is a genuine outcast in her community, her father has been hounded out of his job, bullies and villains pervade every aspect of society, she was raped, her best friend was killed, there’s a killer running free, etc. All these things stop the show from drifting into Famous Five territory (although what it reminds me of are the Encyclopedia Brown books).

 

Kristen Bell has the role of a life time as Veronica; she does get on the nerves occasionally but she’s so smart and has such large obstacles to overcome, that doesn’t really matter. Best support comes from Jason Dohring as her rich kid nemesis – he has so many brilliant lines, and has a great arrogant cockhead face.

TV review – “Party Down – Seasons 1 and 2” (2008-9) *****

Brilliant comedy, which I only happened to see because I had some time to kill and it was available on a plane, which has turned me into a big fan of John Enbom and Rob Thomas, the big creative players.

The series was originally meant to star Paul Rudd and Steve Carrell, who were in the pilot, but Adam Scott and Ken Marino are excellent replacements. 

 

The supporting cast is outstanding: Martin Starr’s character got better with every episode – bitter, tormented, with far too many principles (constantly on about hard sci-fi and selling out); it took me a while to get on Ryan Hansen’s wavelength (it’s a more familiar character, the himbo actor) but once I did, he was great; Lizzy Caplan is very sexy and funny as the love interest; Jane Lynch is a genius. Replacing Lynch with Jennifer Coolidge towards the end of Season 1 didn’t quite work because Coolidge played too similar a character (i.e. old acting veteran), but Megan Mullaly was great because she was different (a cheerful stage mother).

 

Some great guest roles: JD Simmons as a foul-mouthed producer, Kirsten Bell brilliant as a tightly-wound rival caterer (I would have loved to have seen more of her), that really tall hot Russian model from Entourage who plays another really tall hot Russian but is very funny; Steve Guttenberg (looking very weird in the face) as himself.