Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989)

Number six and the plots keep getting simpler each time round. This time its a gang that are on a crime spree and its up to our boys n girls in blue to save the day. Naturally someone is behind this whole operation so be prepared for a truly ball bustin' twist...nah not really.

Yet again I am amazed at the continuity of these films and the fact all of the cast are still present and correct...bar Guttenberg who went AWOL after number four. This time round we have all the regular officers plus Fackler makes a welcome return and Nick Lassard is still here replacing Mahoney.

First time ever we actually have a PA film where there aren't any training sequences, this time its all about the main team going up against a trio of super criminals. The criminals are actually quite good too I might add, totally cliched of course but they are meant to be equals for three of the main PA characters. One guy is a huge bald fat biker looking dude, his strength is errr...strength, so he goes up against Hightower. Then we have a slim athletic guy who is good at martial arts and gymnastics, guess who he goes up against. And finally a smooth well dressed ladies man type who is a sharp shooter and dead eye with guns...yep, Tackleberry.

This film relies more on bumbling cops n robbers type of stuff, Harris and Proctor getting set up and constantly missing the chance to make a simple arrest. Not so many pranks, nudity or rudeness, just simple childish Pink Panther styled buffoonery but more idiotic and predictable if that's possible.

Kenneth Mars tries to liven up the film with his cartoonish Mayor character but it falls flat. You can see they are trying to capture the madness he brought to 'Young Frankenstein' but it just doesn't work, too stupid and not funny. I did like Gerrit Graham as the aptly named Ace (the sharp shooter criminal) and the little showdown between the three criminals and three officers, the best bit in the film really. Bailey does well again as Harris but the few pranks are way too infantile this time.

Over all its not a bad film really, its still better than number four and about on par with number five. I do like the darkly lit, noir-ish visuals they attempt in this one, clearly going for that Bogart-like detective quality in places. The whole thing is actually more akin to a typical pulp comic book adaptation, along the lines of Dick Tracy or 'The Shadow'...albeit a very dumb simplified version. So kudos for that approach, not great by any means but a fair effort bearing in mind this is the sixth film.

5/10