After watching Steve Guttenberg in The Chicken Chronicles a few days ago, I was in the mood to see my all-time favorite Guttenberg film, Police Academy. Thanks to the wonders of satellite TV and DVR, I soon had it in my queue.

This is one of the seminal films of my youth. It's the first time I remember seeing boobs in a movie and finding them attractive. I watched the film over and over, till I found the much better 80's comedy, Revenge of the Nerds, which then became my go-to movie if I wanted to see some boobs.

It had been at least 10 years since I'd seen the original film. The sequels, most of which I'm ashamed to admit to have seeing, have become jumbled in my mind, and I could barely remember what actually happened in the original. It held up fairly well, the first hour or so is pretty funny. Guttenberg does his charismatic-wise-ass thing, the other characters are a mish-mash of funny; Tackleberry as the gun-nut, Lt. Harris tortured by the nimwits around him and of course Michael Winslow with his famous noise-making mouth; before they all became way-over-played. It was amazing to see how young Kim Cattrall was in this, I grew used to her weathered look in Sex and the City.

The film wasn't nearly as sexy as I remembered, there are a couple of quick boob shots, nothing lasting over five seconds. It's amazing how our young mind perceives things. The last thirty minutes is pretty much a waste, some lame plot about the city being over-run by a riot and the academy students saving the day. Overall not a bad 80's comedy, if it hadn't had 10 sequels it might have been more highly regarded.

Before Porky's was a huge success and the 1980's were full of teenage sex comedies, there was 1977's The Chicken Chronicles. Steve Guttenberg stars in his first major role; right from the start you can see some of the charisma that made him a major star for much of the 80's.

The film pretty much set the standard for the teen-sex comedy plot. It's about a virgin trying to lose it with one of the hottest girls in school. It's fairly tame compared to the films that followed; with minimal swearing and no nudity, but they aren't shy about the use of marijuana. You could probably call it one of the first pot comedies as well; it proceeded Up In Smoke by a year.


The film is fairly funny, nothing gut busting; but of course I've seen most of these jokes a thousand times, it probably felt fresh at the time. Guttenberg does a good job carrying the film, he's in almost every scene. His buddy played by Branscombe Richmond, is good as his partner-in-crime. But Gino Baffo, who was only in three films in his career, steals the show as his wise-ass little brother. The film climaxes at the big end of the school year party, and Guttenberg of course ends up with the "plain looking" girl that he's been friends with throughout the film.


Update: You can now watch the entire film on YouTube