Tuesday, March 30, 2010

Review: Kindergarten Cop (1990)

Director: Ivan Reitman
Starring: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Penelope Ann Miller, Pamela Reed, Joseph/Christian Cousins

Arnold Schwarezenegger is a kindergarten teacher in this movie. Ivan Reitman made him a pregnant woman and a kindergarten teacher; what kind of a sick man is this? But rest assured...Kindergarten Cop is definitely a good movie.

I really had to laugh when this movie opened up. I mean, what do we get? A family of drug dealers killing people in a public mall where everyone can see them, and then talking about their operations in a manicure shop? Check. Arnold teaming up with a woman with an eating disorder who has to stop in the car every five minutes, thus devoting more than necessary time of the film's duration to scenes of her puking and going to the bathroom? Check. Yeah, I was pretty sure I was in for a wild ride.

Oh, and there's a ferret, too!

But the rest of the movie is surprisingly really cool, as it unfolds into a cornucopia of personal crises, deception, crime and...well, teaching kindergarten. The movie juggles its themes well and when one plotline wears down, another one gears right back up. The acting is generally good, even from the kids, and the comedy is actually pretty damn funny. Lots of quotable lines and the movie kept me watching for the entire duration. The only real quip I had is that the movie really doesn't take the grittier themes it has far enough. Come on, guys, go balls-out and give us a better crime story to blend in with the excellently written "kindergarten" story. Don't wuss out.

But yeah. Good film, would watch again.

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