Every child who was raised post the invention of VCR, post-DVD, post-streaming, developed the same habit, one encouraged by (a) tired and beleaguered parent(s): watching the same dumb, terrible movie, hundreds of times, over, and over, and over. For me and my brother, the movie my parents taped off HBO and left for us, one I count having watch maybe over 100 times before I was 10 years old, was Police Academy 4 (other candidates included Police Academy 3, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles I and II, and Return of the Jedi). On this episode, I’m joined by my brother, Chris Hazen, as we discuss:
this sequel to our 50th, drunken episode;
how absolutely, truly dumb this Police Academy sequel is, in terms of its reliance on skateboarding; ninjas; ’80s stereotypes on gay bars and voodoo;
its before-their-day stars, in their roles (Sharon Stone, David Spade);
and the obnoxiously familiar ways we love this movie as brothers.
Also:
What VHSes we had access to from our father’s cabinet collection;
the power of a movie’s 3rd act on a child who’s only seen a few plots/movies;
the grab-bag logic of connecting this sequel to a highly successful, yearly series;
and why we, as brothers, diverted our identical movie tastes after we hit puberty.
Chris Hazen lives in Newburgh, Indiana.