TheRetroCritic

Released in 1984, Police Academy was a huge success at the box-office, hence the multiple sequels the film later spawned. Those may have gotten increasingly cartoonish but this first movie was not only funny and charming but it introduced us to one of the catchiest cinematic theme songs ever. The film, about a group of goofy cadets trying to graduate from the Police Academy, getting up to all sorts of shenanigans along the way, was an ensemble joke-a-minute comedy, sort of like a cross between Animal House and The Naked Gun . Steve Guttenberg is Mahoney, the cocky guy threatened with jail and forced to join the Academy after he is arrested for parking an obnoxious customer's car sideways. He decides to instantly become a nuisance in order to guarantee that he is thrown out but G.W. Bailey's slimy Captain Harris has other plans. The main characters include the tall, super-strong Hightower (Bubba Smith), Michael Winslow's sound-effects maestro Larvell Jones, gun nut Eu