Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		1.5
Overall		3.0

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov February 20, 2018

Jerry Paris' "Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment" (1985) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment UK. The supplemental features on the disc include an original trailer for the film as well as an archival featurette with cast and crew interviews. In English, with optional English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Japanese, German SDH, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles for the main feature. Region-Free.

"I've got a problem here. I need to get my hands on some healthy young men."

The second Police Academy film arrived exactly a year after Hugh Wilson’s original film. This time, however, Jerry Paris was behind the camera, working from an original script by David Sheffield and Barry Blausten (Coming to America).

The film brings back only a few of the classic characters after they are officially dispatched by Commandant Lassard (George Gaynes) to help his brother, Police Chief Pete Lassard (Howard Hesseman), get rid of a violent gang that has started terrorizing his city. Since this is their first official mission, each of the rookies is quickly paired with someone more experienced and then the duo is assigned a problematic area to patrol. Tackleberry (David Graf) gets the most attractive partner, a blonde named Kirkland (Colleen Camp), who much to his delight also turns out to be obsessed with guns.

As Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg) and the rest of the rookies go to work to deliver results for Chief Lassard, the overly ambitious doofus Lt. Mauser (Art Metrano) begins sabotaging their efforts so that his boss gets fired and he is offered his job. Even without the doofus, however, the rookies routinely get in a lot of trouble and eventually it begins to look like it is only a matter of time before Chief Lassard is ordered to pack up his personal belongings and go home. In one last and desperate effort to save Chief Lassard and restore the image of the rookies, Mahoney becomes a street punk and after ‘accidentally’ befriending two members of the violent gang proceeds to destroy it from within.

There are certain segments that are quite entraining, like the one where Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow) pulls out his headband and then beats up a couple of gang members while pretending to be Bruce Lee, or the one where the injured store owner accidentally enters the gay bar and immediately lands in the hands of a very hairy tango enthusiast. Unfortunately, there are plenty of other segments with a lot of long and dull exchanges and some seriously overdone and tasteless mayhem (the supermarket trashing is absolutely horrendous).

The biggest weakness of the sequel, however, is its inability to retain that feeling from the first film that the rookies belong together. For example, Tacklberry completely loses his mind after he hooks up with Kirkland and after their date he is basically completely gone. It is also difficult to ignore the fact that both Hightower (Bubba Smith) and Hooks (Marion Ramsey) are totally underused. Instead, plenty of unnecessary attention is given to the eccentric gang members and their frequently grotesque actions which basically push the entire film into parody territory.

When the film was shown on TV apparently there was quite a bit of additional footage that was not used for the theatrical version of the film. The TV version also had an alternate ending. (None of this additional footage is included as bonus on the current Blu-ray release).

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 1.78:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Jerry Paris' Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.

The master that was used to produce this release was probably prepared at the same time when the master for the first Police Academy film was finalized. There are very similar limitations on display. Generally speaking, delineation and clarity gravitate between decent and good, and pretty much the same amount of light black crush can be seen popping up in various places. On this release, however, some of the daylight footage occasionally makes it easier to realize that depth is not optimal (see screencaptures #8 and 9). On the other hand, once again you should not be concerned about any dramatic fluctuations and inconsistencies. The entire release could have been encoded better to help with density and fluidity, but on the positive side there are no traces of troubling digital tinkering. Color balance is good, but a new master will offer and expanded range of nuances. Image stability is very good. (Note: This is a Region-Free Blu-ray release: Therefore, you will be able to play it on your player regardless of your geographical location. For the record, there is no problematic PAL or 1080/50i content preceding the disc's main menu).

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are five standard audio tracks on this Blu-ray release: English: DTS-HD Master Audio 1.0 (48kHz, 24-bit), German: Dolby Digital 1.0, French: Dolby Digital 1.0, Portuguese: Dolby Digital 1.0, and Spanish: Dolby Digital 1.0 (Spain). Optional English SDH, French, German SDH, Japanese, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles are provided for the main feature.

The audio is clean, well-rounded, and nicely balanced. I am fairly certain that it was fully remastered and even if in the future a new 4K master is prepared more than likely there won't be any meaningful improvements. There are no audio dropouts or digital distortions to report in our review.

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

NOTE: All of the supplemental features on this Blu-ray release are perfectly playable on North American Blu-ray players, including the PS3.

• Trailer - original U.S. trailer for Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment. In English, not subtitled. (2 min.).

• Accidental Heroes: The Best of Police Academy - this archival featurette contains clips from interviews with producer Paul Maslansky, and actors Lance Kinsey, Marion Ramsey, and Steve Guttenberg, amongst others. In English, with optional English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese, Danish, Finnish, Norwegian, and Swedish subtitles. (7 min.).

Police Academy 2: Their First Assignment Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

If you enjoyed Hugh Wilson's original Police Academy film, I'd say that there is a pretty good chance that you will find something to like in Jerry Parris' sequel. I think that it is mostly fine, but even when I feel nostalgic I find the overreactions of the guys that play the gangsters pretty annoying. This release is currently available only in this Region-Free seven-disc box set with the rest of the Police Academy films. RECOMMENDED.