Film
Movie theaters, reviews and showtimes in Chicago, plus articles, trailers and more
- Home
- Box Office
- Listings
- Trailers
- Features
Bookmark this page- Edition:
Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Director: Ivan Reitman
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
The trouble with comedy-thrillers is that while they are sometimes funny, they rarely thrill. If Reitman's film gets closer than most to covering the bases, there remain huge gaps in plausibility and a romantic subplot any ten-year-old could tell you is just plain icky. That the film works at all is down to Big Arnie. Far more successfully than in Twins, Reitman cannily exploits and debunks the Schwarzenegger screen persona. The exposition is particularly to the point, establishing him as the meanest cop on the block, a hard man who persuades a reluctant witness to testify by threatening to hang out with her forever. Weighed down by a female partner (the delightfully cheeky Reed) and an unlikely undercover assignment as a kindergarten teacher, Macho Man looks set to become New Man. Faced with the kids from hell, Arnie has never been so helpless or so funny. All too soon, though, the cop is back in charge; the nagging feeling that his high discipline and relentless Phys Ed is creating a class of Überkinder rather blunts the bite of the humour.Author: TCh
Cast & crew
Director: Ivan Reitman
Producer: Ivan Reitman, Brian Grazer
Cast: Arnold Schwarzenegger, Penelope Ann Miller, Pamela Reed, Linda Hunt, Richard Tyson, Carroll Baker full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Duration: 111 mins
Most popular on this site
Features
Gray's anatomy
James Gray wants to push buttons—again.
The next big thing?
Gigantic Releasing tries to rethink indie distribution…without movie theaters.
Red Diva: Lyubov Orlova, First Lady of Soviet Cinema
So you think you can dance, comrade?
Puppet master
Coraline director Henry Selick takes stop-motion animation into 3-D.
Socratic method
Laurent Cantet's approach on the set matches the message of his film.
Wander woman
Kelly Reichardt's Wendy and Lucy puts a Bush-era spin on the road movie.
Oscars
Read our interviews with the nominees, our reviews of the nominated films and more.
What do you think?
Post your review now