As a cross between Animal House and Airplane! , this comedy along Carry on Copper lines has one big advantage over most of its kind: it's funny. Especially good is George Gaynes as the vague, even slightly touched commandant of a police academy which receives more than its fair share of misfit recruits when a local lady mayor decides to abandon all restrictions on eligibility for joining the force. Director Hugh Wilson probably knows you could write the script and character developments for him, but that doesn't stop him doing the best he can with his material. His knack of getting the most out of character and situation without ever going over the top makes for some very big laughs. You'll enjoy Bubba Smith as the tree-like black recruit who used to be a florist, GW Bailey as the sneering sergeant and of course the ever-beaming Steve Guttenberg at the centre of things. But Gaynes is the icing on this comic cake. Followed by six sequels, all markedly inferior to this.

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