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PLEASE NOTE: Michael D's is currently in READ ONLY MODE. Anything submitted will simply not be written to the database.
Lots of stuff is still broken, but at least reviews can now be looked up and read.
Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987)

Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol (1987)

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Released 10-Nov-2004

Cover Art

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Details At A Glance

General Extras
Category Comedy Main Menu Audio
Featurette-Remembering A Lofty Investigation
Additional Footage
Theatrical Trailer
Rating Rated M
Year Of Production 1987
Running Time 83:42
RSDL / Flipper No/No Cast & Crew
Start Up Menu
Region Coding 2,4,5 Directed By Jim Drake
Studio
Distributor

Warner Home Video
Starring Steve Guttenberg
Bubba Smith
Michael Winslow
David Graf
Tim Kazurinsky
Sharon Stone
Leslie Easterbrook
Marion Ramsey
Lance Kinsey
G.W. Bailey
Bob Goldthwait
George Gaynes
David McGrath
Case ?
RPI Box Music Robert Folk
Brian Wilson
Rick Boston


Video Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame Full Frame English Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
French Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Italian Dolby Digital 1.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio None
16x9 Enhancement No
Video Format 576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio 1.85:1 Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures No
Subtitles English
French
Italian
German
Spanish
Dutch
Arabic
Bulgarian
Romanian
English for the Hearing Impaired
Italian for the Hearing Impaired
Smoking No
Annoying Product Placement No
Action In or After Credits No

NOTE: The Profanity Filter is ON. Turn it off here.

Plot Synopsis

    A new endeavour is undertaken by Commandant Lassard to make the streets safer. He introduces a program whereby the public collaborates with the police to make citizens' arrests when there is no law enforcement official present. These people, requiring special police training, are inducted into the Citizens on Patrol program. These citizens undergo similar training sessions to police cadets, yet at the end of the day they are still just citizens.

    It was Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol that began the downfall of the series. This is when jokes started to be reused on a frequent basis, as well as being badly timed. It is no surprise to see that several of the main cast made this the last Academy entry in their portfolios. Steve Guttenburg and Bobcat Goldthwait should have quit one movie earlier.

    Believe it or not, Tony Hawk got fired from this production for being too tall! There are scenes based around a group of skateboarders skating through a shopping centre, with police recruits chasing after them. Since Hawk was not suitable, he was replaced by Just Shoot Me's David Spade. This is Spade's first acting role, one which would lead him to Saturday Night Live fame. He later teamed up with Chris Foley for a series of films.

    Who can honestly say that they have seen a Police Academy movie and never laughed once? I know I have laughed for just about every one (once again, Mission to Moscow is excluded as I have yet to view it). Mind you, I was under the age of 10 when I was laughing at them. These days, I can see the humour, but the laughs just don't come out.

Don't wish to see plot synopses in the future? Change your configuration.

Transfer Quality

Video

    After three movies with great transfers, I knew it couldn't last. What we have here is a transfer in an open matte aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is obviously not 16x9 enhanced. What a disappointment. Why is this movie's transfer not consistent with the previous three releases?

    Colours are quite vibrant here. Just looking at the luscious green grass and blue sky present on this disc gives one the idea that either the filming techniques have improved, or the negative was kept in better condition. If it was kept in better condition, the question arises again - where is the 16x9 widescreen enhanced transfer?

    The image sharpness is similar to the standards set with the previous releases in this series.

    There is an abundance of film artefacts, with a large amount of dirt and scratches popping up all over. They can be seen right from when the Warner Bros. logo appears at the start of the movie through to when the image fades and the end credits appear.

    Subtitles are offered in English, French, Italian, German, Spanish, Dutch, Arabic, Bulgarian, Romanian, English for the Hearing Impaired and Italian for the Hearing Impaired.

    This disc is formatted single layer, so there is no layer change issue.

Video Ratings Summary
Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    Sounding like a broken record, we once again have Dolby Digital 1.0 monaural soundtracks in English, French and Italian. All are a basic 192 Kb/s, not that an improved bitrate would help the sound.

    Sound is in sync the majority of the time, with some obvious ADR, as well as Michael Winslow's (Jones) imitation of Asian movie dubs which looks like bad ADR.

    Music for this movie comes from score composer Robert Folk. Along with the scores for this and the rest of the Police Academy Series, Folk has also composed scores for Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls and Kung Pow: Enter the Fist.

    The sound is adequate for what the movie is. There is no surround or LFE activity to be found.

Audio Ratings Summary
Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Extras

Featurette - Remembering a Lofty Investigation - 8:28

    Definitely getting less interesting, this featurette has the most cast participation with the least interesting discussions. Still, it's good to see some of the cast back together after so many years.

Additional Footage - 13:59

    This extra features almost 14 minutes worth of scenes deleted from the theatrical version which were included in several television versions of the film. The video quality here is even more shocking than the feature presentation, with these deleted scenes in even worse condition than the feature. I would have given the movie another half star if these scenes were reinserted, as the quality of humour is slightly better. They also help explain certain scenes later on in the movie.

Theatrical Trailer - 1:20

    The standard theatrical trailer included with just about every DVD released these days.

R4 vs R1

NOTE: To view non-R4 releases, your equipment needs to be multi-zone compatible and usually also NTSC compatible.

    Nothing to compare. The DVD of this film is essentially the same around the world.

Summary

    You have to either love them or hate them. With Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol, I don't think a love of the series can save this disaster. The worst of the series is over...or is it yet to come?

Ratings (out of 5)

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall

© Aiden O'Brien (Here are the results from my biopsy.)
Wednesday, April 27, 2005
Review Equipment
DVDSONY DVP-NS575P, using Component output
DisplayPanasonic TX-76PW60. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL). This display device is 16x9 capable.
Audio DecoderBuilt in to amplifier/receiver. Calibrated with Digital Video Essentials (PAL).
AmplificationOnkyo TX-SR500E
SpeakersJensen SPX-9 Front, Jensen SPX-13 Centre, Jensen SPX-5 Rear, Jensen SPX-17 Sub

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