The '90s In Action! - 'Kindergarten Cop' (1990)

This movie is considered a classic in Arnold Schwarzenegger’s filmography, but it may also be one of his oddest additions as well. The movie aims to blend Schwarzenegger’s status as a leading action star of the ‘80s and ‘90s with his more comedic efforts such as “Twins”, another movie directed by Ivan Reitman of “Ghostbusters” fame.

The confusing tone of the movie can be summed up with its opening sequence. The movie has the film’s lead, Detective John Kimble, tracking down the movie’s primary antagonist, Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson). While the tone suggests that this is a serious movie, some of the credits are drawn in with crayon and that cuts into the supposed tension we’re supposed to be feeling.

The good news is that this is my biggest criticism of the movie! The flick is actually a pretty decent action comedy that gets more right than it gets wrong with the aforementioned uneven tone. I had only seen this film maybe once when it initially came out, so this was a pretty fresh viewing for me.

Schwarzenegger has his hands full with both villains and kids in 'Kindergarten Cop'!

For those who haven’t seen the movie yet, the film sees Kimble trying to track down the wife and child of Cullen so that he can pull them back in to testify against the diabolical father and put him away for good. The only problem is that they are told that the wife also stole over $3 million from Crisp and if she turns herself in, they’ll give her immunity for her testimony.

Initially, Kimble’s partner Phoebe O’Hara (Pamela Reed) is going to go undercover as a kindergarten teacher in order to find out which kid it is Cullen’s. Unfortunately, O’Hara falls ill with a bad stomach flu and it is Kimble that has to go undercover as the teacher. He quickly finds out that the kids that he must look after may be more dangerous than the criminals he usually pursues.

The movie is a PG-13 affair that has some pretty decent action sequences and one hell of a creepy villain. Tyson definitely chews the scenery a bit with his creepy fascination with his kid and his even creepier relationship with his mother, Eleanor Crisp (Carroll Baker).

The movie also proved once again that Schwarzenegger is actually a pretty good comedic actor. This is because he’s not afraid to make himself look like a fool for the sake of a good laugh. He could have chosen to make himself look “cool” in every scene, but some of the best comedy in the movie comes from when the rough and tough Kimble is taken down by a bunch of kids.

At the end of the day, the movie is not the best Schwarzenegger movie out there, but it is also far from his worst. It proved to be another great collaboration between Schwarzenegger and Reitman and by the film’s climactic third act, it also proved to be a pretty good action film as well.