Astoundingly silly but incredibly popular, Police Academy is the first film in a seemingly endless franchise that takes aim at the men in blue. After a police academy drops all of its entrance requirements, all manner of misfits flood in, hoping to make it onto the force. One of these misfits, a lazy, aimless cadet played by Steve Guttenberg (Cocoon, Three Men and a Baby), was forced to enlist and tries whatever he can to get kicked out. But once he decides to stay, he tries anything and everything to finish his training, even as his drill instructor tries to shove him out. Featuring a wild bunch of strange supporting characters, from a female trainee who speaks below a whisper to a dominatrix instructor to a human sound-effects machine, Police Academy is mindless but fun. --Robert Lane, Amazon.com

Police Assassins combines a mismatched detective buddy movie with Three Stooges-style buffoonery. Making the mixture more unusual still, both detectives are female, Michelle Yeoh (Magnificent Warriors), in only her second film, joining forces with American martial arts legend Cynthia Rothrock (China O'Brien), in her then debut, to track down some missing microfilm. After introducing Yeoh in a direct steal from Dirty Harry the plot stagnates as the microfilm falls into the hands of small-time crooks, Asprin (Hoi Mang), Strepsil (John Sham) and Panadol (action movie producer Hark Tsui). Though their physical comedy is ingeniously choreographed the routine rapidly becomes tiresome, far too little space being given to Yeoh and Rothrock. The latter's 1980s' fashions date the movie and the dubbing is dreadful, though entertainment is to be had from a supporting villain who looks strangely like Groucho Marx on a very bad hair day. For martial arts fans the film nevertheless delivers several excellent fight scenes and an inventive and exciting finale. Collectors should know Police Assassins has also been released as In the Line of Duty 2, Super Cops and Yes, Madam, the last of which is actually the English title on this print. --Gary S Dalkin

Jackie Chan has become a genre unto himself, and watching Police Story, you'll understand why. The plot is minimal: Chan is a hero cop involved in a raid that goes wrong. He's assigned to guard a witness, the kingpin's attractive female secretary (Brigitte Lin). For the rest of the film, Chan's protecting himself from the secretary, from the gangsters out to silence her and from his own jealous girlfriend (Maggie Cheung). But watching Chan for plot is like watching porno for existential themes. While most modern action films steal cues from Westerns, Chan condenses those open mesas into the dense throngs of modern Hong Kong--and tosses in Buster Keaton slapstick. For example, when the opening raid goes haywire, there's an unbelievable car chase through the steep huddle of a hillside shantytown. That's through. No roads, just shacks. Flimsy shacks. As the film progresses, Chan scales a speeding bus using an umbrella, uses cow dung as an excuse to break into some Shaolin moonwalking and transforms an urban shopping mall into a demented gymnasium (think clothes racks, escalators, and lots of plate glass displays). Chan is amazingly versatile both physically and emotionally--and he's a secure enough star-director to let his co-stars shine, too. --Grant Balfour