Kindergarten Cop (1990)

User Rating:

5.8/10   

Director:

Ivan Reitman

Writers (WGA):

Murray Salem (story)
Murray Salem (screenplay) ...

Release Date:

21 December 1990 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Thriller

Tagline:

An undercover cop in a class by himself.

Plot:

A tough cop is given his most difficult assignment: masquerade as a a kindergarten teacher in order to find a drug dealer.

Plot Keywords:

Teacher | School | Undercover | Kindergarten | Oregon

Awards:

4 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

Arnold Schwarzenegger	...	Detective John Kimble
Penelope Ann Miller	...	Joyce Palmieri / Rachel Crisp
Pamela Reed	...	Detective Phoebe O'Hara
Linda Hunt	...	Miss Schlowski
Richard Tyson	...	Cullen Crisp, Sr.
Carroll Baker	...	Eleanor Crisp
Cathy Moriarty	...	Sylvester's Mother
Joseph Cousins	...	Dominic Palmieri / Cullen Crisp, Jr.
Christian Cousins	...	Dominic Palmieri / Cullen Crisp, Jr.
Park Overall	...	Samantha's Mother
Jayne Brook	...	Zach's Mother
Richard Portnow	...	Captain Salazar
Tom Kurlander	...	Danny
Alix Koromzay	...	Cindy
Betty Lou Henson	...	Keisha's Mother

Runtime:

111 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English | Spanish

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.33 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

Iceland:12 | Iceland:L (cut) | Spain:T | South Korea:12 | Argentina:13 | Australia:M | Chile:14 | Finland:K-14 | Germany:12 | Norway:15 | Peru:14 | Singapore:PG | Sweden:15 | UK:12 (theatrical release) (cut) | UK:15 (video rating) | USA:PG-13 (Certificate #30860) | Brazil:Livre

Filming Locations:

Astoria, Oregon, USA

Company:

Imagine Entertainment

Trivia:

Kimble swears in German as he carries his colleague into the house. ("Das macht mich stinksauer! Jetzt bin ich sauer!", which means "That makes me pissed as hell! Now I am pissed!").

Goofs:

Factual errors: John and Phoebe travel on an MD-80 aircraft. There are five seats per row in these planes, but the set was constructed with six.

Quotes:

Detective John Kimble: [banging on fire bell] Yes, this is fire drill! Come on!
Detective John Kimble: [looks down at stopwatch] Aww! This is terrible!

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Your Studio and You (1995)

Soundtrack:

The Party Starts Now!

This movie should be so bad, and yet...

So I'm watching KINDERGARTEN COP in a bit of a stupor because the remote control is too far for me to reach when I suddenly realize something amazing: This movie is fantastic. In the calculus of Hollywood dreck, KINDERGARTEN COP doesn't add up. Take 1 muscle-bound action hero, a dozen too-cute kids and a plot so contrived it makes an episode of any television sit-com look downright plausible and you should have a mess fit only for release straight to video in Third World nations--do not pass "Go" (or your local metroplex) or collect $200. In fact, I would love to meet both the person who pitched this idea and the studio head who gave it the green light:

Pitchman: "Imagine MARY POPPINS without the namby-pamby animation and music and twice the butt-kicking! Oh, and instead of Dick Van Dyke faking a British accent we'll have Arnold Schwarzenegger faking intelligible dialog!" Studio Exec: "I love it! Here's umpteen million dollars to get it made!"

And the freakin' movie works! It really does. The script is filled with some great lines (My favorite, of course: "It's not a tumor!"), sweet characters and some low-key acting from the principles that keeps the story from becoming maudlin. This is one of maybe three movies I can think of that I would be comfortable watching with my parents, minor relatives or beer-drinking buddies. (Coincidentally, another one of the three is GHOSTBUSTERS, also an Ivan Reitman flick.) It has bloodless action, quotable lines and an ending that is satisfying. It just shouldn't exist. Maybe the fact that it does exist proves the William Goldman line about Hollywood: "Nobody knows nothing."

Take some advice from your Uncle Guy: If you're stuck with the kids or a date you don't know and you need to sit at home and watch a movie, put in KINDERGARTEN COP. You won't be disappointed, and you just might like it. And this advice comes from a big curmudgeon.