Police Academy 3: Back in Training

Police Academy 3 (1986)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The gang is back and this time they must train some new recruits and if they fail the academy might be shut down for good. Once again, for a fan I think this film still has enough laughs be be mildly entertaining but there's no doubt this is where the series started to slip away. While there aren't as many laughs here as the previous two films the thing manages to stay alive due to the nice characters created by the cast. Guttenberg, Smith, Graf, Winslow and Leslie Easterbrook are back with Bob Goldthwait and Tim Kazurinsky returning from the second film. The movie tries to have a plot with the academy threatened to be shut down but of course this just sets up all the attempted laughs. The best moments of the movie happen as we get a semi-remake of the original film as we see the new recruits going through their training. This film only runs 83-minutes, which certainly wasn't the normal thing in 1986 so that should tell you that the screenplay doesn't go for too much.