Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989)

Those bumbling cadets take to the streets when three inept goons successfully orchestrate a metropolitan crime wave.

Director:

Peter Bonerz

Writers:

Neal Israel (characters), Pat Proft (characters)

Stars:

Bubba Smith, David Graf, Michael Winslow

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Bubba Smith	...	Hightower
David Graf	...	Tackleberry
Michael Winslow	...	Jones
Leslie Easterbrook	...	Callahan
Marion Ramsey	...	Hooks
Lance Kinsey	...	Proctor
Matt McCoy	...	Nick
Bruce Mahler	...	Fackler
G.W. Bailey	...	Harris
George Gaynes	...	Lassard
Kenneth Mars	...	Mayor
Gerrit Graham	...	Ace
George R. Robertson	...	Hurst
Brian Seeman	...	Flash
Darwyn Swalve	...	Ox

Storyline

A string of business robberies have taken place in the city's Wilson Heights neighborhood, all done by the same three crooks. Captain Thaddeus Harris is no longer in the same precinct with a certain group of cops that he doesn't like. That's why Harris is so happy to be in the Wilson Heights precinct. But then The Mayor tells Harris that business in the city is plummeting because of the robberies. Since there appears to be a leak in Harris's precinct, the Governor has sent in a team to stop the Wilson Heights gang. Much to Harris's dismay, the team is led by Commandant Eric Lassard, so Harris knows who the team members are -- exactly the cops that he doesn't like. The team members are Nick Lassard, Moses Hightower, Eugene Tackleberry, Larvell Jones, Debbie Callahan, Laverne Hooks, and Douglas Fackler. The stakes are raised when Commandant Lassard is accused of being the mastermind behind the robberies, and the team must clear his name.

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Plot Keywords:

police academy | sixth part | sequel | jewelry store robbery | 1980s | 

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Taglines:

THE FUNNIEST COPS ARE FUNNIER THAN EVER! They're Undercover To Unmask The Mastermind of Crime!

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Genres:

Comedy | Crime

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Certificate:

PG

Details

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

10 March 1989 (USA)

Also Known As:

Police Academy 6: The London Beat

Filming Locations:

1100 Wilshire Blvd, Los Angeles, California, USA

Box Office

Budget:

$12,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend USA:

$4,032,480, 12 March 1989

Gross USA:

$11,567,217

Cumulative Worldwide Gross:

$11,567,217

Company Credits

Production Co:

Warner Bros.

Technical Specs

Runtime:

84 min

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

(At around one hour and twelve minutes) As Nick Lassard is being driven in the cherry picker, one of the piles of trash he hits on the street sounds like bowling pins falling down.

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Goofs

(at around 13 mins) In the first briefing scene, Hightower rigs a wooden chair in front of him so that it breaks when Harris sits on it. The chair is seen to completely collapse. Then when we cut to Hightower again, the chair is intact in front of him. It cuts to a wide shot and the chair is broken again.

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Quotes

Sergeant Moses Hightower: [rapping] We believe you guys, so we wont dispute you. But if you're lying to us, we'll come back and shoot you. Word!

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Alternate Versions

When shown on the FOX TV network, many scenes were added to fill the time. They include: -One scene shows Nick Lassard arresting a lady for acting as a car valet so that she can steal cars. The lady is caught but tries to bribe Nick into letting her go; "I can really make it worth your while". Nick apologizes saying she's a nice girl but he can't break the rules in his position as a police officer. -One scene has Fackler mopping up a water jug spill from Harris in a previous scene followed by Commandant Lassard receiving a call informing him that the Wilson Heights Gang just robbed the Wilson Heights Bank. The scene ends with Proctor attempting to dry Harris' wet clothes by fanning him with a poster board. -One scene has the Police Academy team making a phone call to the Mayor about the Wilson Heights gang having the blueprints to shut down all the power to the city. The scene changes to show the Mayor discussing his thoughts to the officers followed by his making a secret deal with Captain Harris. -In the scene where Jones is performing impressions at the Comedy Pub, there's an added scene of him asking if the mike is real and then doing an impression of "garbage trucks passing by at 5 a.m." where he makes a small rumbling sound to resemble a truck then makes it louder by adding screeches and then screaming in the voice of the garbage men, "YEEEEEEHA! WAKE UP STUPID!" -One scene has Hooks trying to find a little boy's dog named Pokey. She looks down an alley and sees a small patch of fur and says in her tiny voice "Pokey?". The dog doesn't come out so she then shouts, "YOU COME OUT NOW YOU MANGY MUTT!". When the dog comes out, it's revealed that he's gigantic! Hook's grabs him and yelps, "YOU'RE POKEY?!". She puts a leash around the dog but the dog drags her around the sidewalk. -In theatrical trailers for the film, during Harris' fall from the window washer's scaffold, there was a shot of him upside down, looking at a reflection of himself in a window, and screaming "OH HELP ME! I'LL HELP THE HOMELESS!"

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Connections

Features The War of the Worlds (1953)

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Soundtracks

What's The Matter With Your World
Performed by Melle Mel (as Mele Mel) and Ralph Blandshaw (as R.C. Vansilk)
Written by Melle Mel (as Mele Mel), Ralph Blandshaw (as R.C. Vansilk) and Ron Dean Miller
Courtesy of Posse Records, Inc.

User Reviews

Actual quote - "Fighting is one thing. But bad jokes is where I draw the line."

Like the last movie, Police Academy 6 starts out with Harris and Proctor on some ridiculous mission to outsmart the rest of the crew and ensure that they get all of the glory for something or other. At least this time they're not breaking and entering like they were in the last movie, but have stationed them on a stake-out at a location that they are sure is going to be the next hit for the dreaded Wilson Heights Gang who, if nothing else, should definitely find someone else to come up with a threatening name so they'll sound more like a group of hardcore criminals and less like a gated community.

But in other news, Harris is in charge of his own precinct now, Tackleberry's got a son, and some old characters like Mrs. Feldman and Fackler are back. I have to admit that I am still confused by feelings of reminiscence for Mahoney, not the least reason for which is that, believe it or not, this is the first genuinely stupid entry in the entire series. Yeah, they're slapstick comedies, but my god, how many decades have people been splitting their sides watching slapstick comedies? You could argue that the slapstick was the first real narrative story-telling that came along in film, and the Police Academies are no different, they just haven't stood up to the test of time so well.

Oh, and they're also hampered by stupid-ass sequels like this one and the next one. And hopefully not part 8 which, at this point, remains theoretical.

So what's going on this time? We have another small group of mind-bogglingly stupid bad guys, which is not a bad thing in itself, but apparently someone took my words too seriously when I originally reviewed Police Academy 5 and said that the movies are essentially kid's movies, because in this installment we get a cartoonish villain that is a bizarre combination of the Wizard of Oz and Dr. Claw from Inspector Gadget. I guess I should be more careful what I say when I review movies.

On the other hand, the first time I ever reviewed Police Academy 5 was about 22 minutes ago, so there is some legitimacy to the theory that it couldn't have affected the thought patterns of screenwriters Neal Israel and Pat Proft, who wrote Police Academy 6 back in the late 80's. But you never know.

But get this, here's the supervillain's scheme – he plans to use his henchmen to raise the crime rate in a certain strategic location in order to drive down property values, then he'll buy up all the property himself, see that the crime rate goes back down and the property values up, and then live like a king off the interest or whatever for the rest of his life. Actually, when you think about it, that's not the dumbest plot pattern. In fact, compared to how moronic the rest of the movie is, it's not that bad. At least they didn't have a villain who tried to outdo even the most outlandish 007 villains and like, you know, hold the sun for ransom or something.

Again, most of the original cast is back, but I still miss Mahoney and Zed, and the screenwriters (yeah, it took more than one to come up with this thing) unfortunately have no idea what to do with the characters that we've come to know and love laughing at. Everyone is undercover and their ridiculous assignments are supposed to generate automatic laughs from us, but worst of all, some of the scenes are such disassociated skits from the plot that the story as a whole falls apart. For example. in one attempt to get into a public place and question the public about the whereabouts of the criminals and whatnot, Jones, Calahan and Hooks go into a bar, where Jones puts on a show for all the barflies doing a brilliant impression of Jimi Hendrix to the delight of the crowd and then they leave without having learned or even trying to learn anything.

But at least it's in keeping with the rest of the movie, which is the first tremendous step down into the depths of idiocy in the entire series. If you thought any of the previous movies were stupid, MAN you're gonna love this one! But I do have to say that, like part 5, there are some moments in this one that I distinctly remember loving to death when I was about ten years old, like the scene where the huge bad guy who looks like a lumberjack comes outside with an ice-cream cone with like eight scoops of ice cream stacked up on it and goes, "Oh BOY!" but then takes one lick, pushing it off where it lands with an audible splat on the pavement and he goes, "Crapola!"

Okay, so it's not funny in writing. Sue me. But show me a ten year old kid who doesn't laugh at that and I'll show you a kid with some developmental problems that far exceed any of the time-wasting nonsense in this movie.

By the way, as I mentioned in my review of part 5, make sure to watch the little reminiscent documentary that you'll find on the DVD, it might be funnier than anything in the whole movie! Check this out, besides glorifying the movie like it's some overlooked Oscar winner, director Peter Bonerz (my god, can you imagine having THAT name in junior high school?) lists off the numerous references and homaaaaaages that can be found within its pristine contents, including everything from Orson Welles to Hitchcock himself!

Sadly, your brain has to be securely in the "off" position in order to enjoy the movie, but it may add to the comedy just to know that some effort was put in to put those references in there!!