Police Academy (1984) and its many sequels

"Of all the guys who I thought were gonna make it, Hightower was the one. I mean, if all the cops looked like him there'd be no crime at all."
As a desperate solution to the increasing and violent crime waves which have turned the city into a lawless war zone and left the citizens completely helpless, the police force along with their new mayor realizes that in order to compete against such an chaotic and unpredictable opponent, they are in serious need for some new blood. Which is good news for everybody who ever dreamed about joining the force but never really stood much of a chance of succeeding because of the high standards, and who now finally have a chance of joining in with the academy and to become an officer of the law.

One of the most successful and famous franchises to come out of the 1980s, and one that along with the James Bond movies are almost guaranteed to at least once or twice a year, get a rerun of the entire series on TV. Well, at least we do here in norway, which is something that has been going on for as long as I can remember. 
I loved watching these films as a kid. Where we got to see the underdogs, outcasts, losers and the victims finally get a fair chance of proving themselves worthy as equals and to get even (and sometimes a bit more) with the jocks, bullies and the "winners" of society, and while the series might have outrun its welcome by the end of the 80s, I still find something funny or enjoyable with the not so good sequels.

The first film I saw was actually Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985) on VHS and I always thought it included Gerry Rafferty and Baker Street as it had that kind of similar, big sounding saxophone melody which often would "assault" the viewer whenever Zed (Bobcat Goldthwait) and his mean crew would appear on screen.
Then of course, I saw the rest and I was a fan from day one. 
I even remember some small parts of, I think it might be a cartoon show (or maybe it was a live action sitcom) that went on TV for a short while, but have never seen or cared to re-watch it since the early 90s.

The Police Academy franchise and its popularity in some ways remind me a lot of the beloved scandinavian comedy franchise named: Olsen Banden (The Olsen Gang). A danish film franchise which also had a norwegian version (by the same name) and that was heavily influenced by the danish original, and then later on in the 1980s there would also be a swedish version called the Jönssonligan (Jönsson Gang).
Ok, they are not identical, one is about cops the other about "criminals" and very clumsy ones too, but here in norway the critics always seemed to think of both these comedy series as lowbrow comedy, that was beneath them, and no matter how hard the reviewers tried to lash out and destroy the films as "simple minded", "stupid" and "braindead" cinema, most people did not care, as they could not get enough of this kind of entertainment.
I think some even rated the first Police Academy with zero stars (I wonder what kind of treatment the last one, Mission to Moscow would have gotten from some of the more nasty critics of the first one).

Anyway, I had a go at the entire series not so long ago and I remember that very little had changed when it comes to how I viewed and rated them, where as the first one is an all time 1980s comedy classic, and the three sequels which came afterwards was maybe not as solid/funny but still I enjoyed the hell out of them, (some of that might be down to nostalgia or all the fine looking ladies which appeared) and while the films became maybe more and more "watered down" or dumbed down as the 80s came to an end, they still provided with lots of feel-good atmosphere and some hilarious moments, maybe not as frequent as before but enough to keep me satisfied.
The last one however, well, it is not "the worst movie of all time" material (or so I think) but as with Crocodile Dundee 3 (2001) and Vegas Vacation (1997), films from similar and very popular 80s series, the seventh (and for now) last Police Academy movie were released in 1994 and sadly was extremely poor and released far too long after the others and where no longer the nostalgia or the 80s feel could save it, and where about 90 percent of the jokes failed big time, but I guess someone in Hollywood still thought they could milk the last drops out of the once almost unstoppable money cow, and it failed, big time.

However, since 2001 the rumours of an possible chapter eight has been rumoured, where I think in summer of 2004 or 2005 it got so much attention in some newspaper/media, that it felt like something was actually happening, but I guess the only way of a new Police Academy movie now, is through a remake, which could be done well, if it lands in the right hands but I fear it will end up suffering the same fate as the classic Ghostbusters movies (not the 2016 one).

It been a while since the last time I rated the entire series but here we go:

01. Police Academy (1984)
02. Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment (1985)
03. Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987)
04. Police Academy 3: Back in Training (1986)
05. Police Academy 6: City Under Siege (1989)
06. Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988)
07. Police Academy 7: Mission to Moscow (1994)