The Specs:
As an undercover cop… he’s in a class by himself.
Arnold Schwarzenegger
Penelope Ann Miller (Along Came A Spider, Carlito’s Way, The Relic)
Pamela Reed (Jericho, Junior)
Linda Hunt (“Carnivàle”, Dune, The Relic)
Richard Tyson (Black Hawk Down, Kingpin)
John Kimble is a tough city cop who’s been on the trail of drug dealer Cullen Crisp for years. He finally tracks Crisp down but it seems the only person that can testify against him is his ex-wife. The problem is she’s disappeared and all Kimble knows is the name of the school in Oregon where her son attends. When things don’t quite go to plan, Kimble finds he has to go undercover on his toughest assignment yet – Kindergarten teacher! – IMDB
Hands down, this is Ivan Reitman’s best work along side of Ghostbusters. I remember that I countlessly watched this movie in the mid-90’s but much time has passed since this viewing. Again, Arnie takes a step out of the action role (sort of) and jumps into a new arena. I think it worked successfully. I found myself laughing more than I predicted I would and the movie passed by without a dull or displeased moment. This is also the undisputed “soundbytes of Arnold” in his resume’, if you don’t believe me then Google for a pre-designed Arnie prank caller program and/or Youtube clips of prank phone calls using Ahnold clips. There were many classics in Kindergarten Cop.
Oddly enough, the Kindgarten class was a close second in terms of overall performance. Yes, the jokes and comments were somewhat contained within the six year old mentality but there were still some remarks that surprised me and made me laugh out loud. It was really difficult to tell who, if anyone, was ad-libbing or who was actually using the written dialogue. I’m usually not a fan of child actors in general but this movie boasts an entire class of pint sized entertainers. I’m curious to know if any of them actually made it big, since we’re like fourteen or so years into the future. Although the majority of the cast was and is still unrecognizable, I think the performances were right on. I was reminded of how much Richard Tyson resembles a chunky Val Kilmer so it was funny to see him getting man handled by Arnie because of the imagery.
Also take note that this is the last non-action movie of Arnie’s remaining on the list and how many ranks it climbed over some of his better known projects. That in itself, to me, is giving this one mucho props. There’s just something special about it that refuses to be lifted from memory. This could easily be from the classic dialogue but maybe the uniqueness of the plot as well. Come on, how many undercover cops take on a kindergarten class on film? I’m not coming up with any others. From what I’ve witnessed about this movie, people either love it or hate it, as is the case with most things Schwarzenegger.
The Score:
The soundtrack of the film was mostly forgettable, just typical orchestra stuff. However, having Ahnold dress up as a farmer and strum a guitar while singing Old McDonald redeems any soundtrack in my opinion.
The Fact:
Bill Murray was originally offered the role of John Kimble. Danny DeVito was also considered for the role of John Kimble, but was not given the part due to his height. – IMDB
The Sequence:
Although the one action sequence towards the beginning was awesome, I want to select something else that’s not so typical. The kid’s reaction is priceless.
The Line:
There were so many memorable lines from this film but I’m assuming I’d be branded a heretic if I didn’t deem the following as the quote of the movie:
“Who is your daddy and what does he do?”
The Shot:
“Old McAhhhnold had a farm!”
The Body Count:
One person did bite it right before the credits rolled while another also got smashed repeatedly with a baseball bat. Kind of weird to say that there was a body count in Kindergarten Cop.
The Extra:
Here’s a fairly popular Arnold soundboard site that also contains some of the classic prank calls. As I mentioned earlier, Kindergarten Cop deserves a ton of praise for making most of this possible.
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