Review: Kindergarten Cop 1&2
Blu-ray: Kindergarten Cop 1 (1990) Kindergarten Cop 2 (2016)
While not the best Arnold Schwarzenegger movie (I always default to Predator), Kindergarten Cop certainly raises some genuine laughs, and he does far better in comedy movies than fellow 1980’s action star Sylvester Stallone.
Kimble (Arnie) is a hardened cop whose been after drug dealer Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson) for years, and upon finally tracking him down he discovers that his ex-wife is the only person who can testify against him.
Unfortunately for Kimble she has disappeared and all that he knows is the name of the school where her son is. This leads to Kimble going undercover at the school as a kindergarten cop, and discovering that the classroom can be a tougher place to work than the city streets.
An amalgam of action thriller and comedy, Kindergarten Cop doesn’t hit the heights of either genre, but fares well enough in both to deliver some good action set pieces and a good sprinkling of laughs.
As with all Arnie comedies, the laughs mainly come from his ‘action guy’ persona being played against people and situations that he wouldn’t normally encounter. This leads to some great moments with the kids in the classroom where Kimble can barely contain his frustration at the situation that he is in.
The action ramps up in the final act and director Ivan Reitman keeps the narrative rolling along at a good pace despite its almost 2 hour running time.
Not an Arnie ‘classic’, but well worth multiple viewings.
26 years after Kindergarten Cop was released comes Kindergarten Cop 2, and while not being a direct sequel in any way (it is more of a reboot for this generation), it replicates the basic narrative of the original and its mix of action thriller and comedy moments.
Fellow muscle-bound action star Dolph Lundgren is the lead and plays FBI agent Reed, where once again the plot involves a tough guy lawman having to pose as a kindergarten teacher to recover information to put a bad guy behind bars.
Despite starting with a fairly good action sequence, the rest of the movie doesn’t hit those action highs again, nor anywhere near as good as the action in the original too.
The same goes for the comedy, and while I smiled quite a few times throughout its 100 minute running time, it once again failed to match its predecessor for laughs.
However, despite being nowhere near as good as Arnies outing, I still really enjoyed it. Maybe a case of lowered expectations?
Dolph is engaging onscreen and it was funny to see him play against young children at a school where political correctness is high on the agenda. One favourite scene of mine involves him bringing a peanut butter and jelly sandwich into class for his lunch and suddenly discovering that there is such a thing as peanut allergies. Carnage ensues!
Arnie is always worth buying, and this Kindergarten Cop Blu-ray release from Fabulous Films is a great way to add it to your collection if you don’t already have it.
Kindergarten Cop 2 is also worth buying as a family comedy that you can all watch together. While not as good as the original, I for one will certainly be watching it again at some point in the future.
Review by Dave from discs kindly supplied by Fabulous Films.
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