Police Academy: Mission to Moscow

"Just when we thought the Cold War was over, leave it to these guys to heat it up again."

1994 1h 23m EN

💀

4.6

SKIP

🥫

ROTTEN

😬

METACRITIC

⭐

3.5

IMDB

★4.6TMDB · 1,010🥫0%Rotten Tomatoes●11Metacritic★3.5IMDB · 38,015

ComedyCrime

Synopsis

Spoiler shield

The Russians seek help in dealing with the Mafia from the veterans of the Police Academy. They head off to Moscow, in order to find evidence against Konstantin Konali, who marketed a computer game that everyone in the world is playing.

“Just when we thought the Cold War was over, leave it to these guys to heat it up again.”

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Cast

George Gaynes
Commandant Lassard
Michael Winslow
Jones
David Graf
Tackleberry
Leslie Easterbrook
Callahan
G.W. Bailey
Captain Harris
Christopher Lee
Commandant Rakov
Ron Perlman
Konstantine Konali
Claire Forlani
Katrina

Credits

Behind the camera

Director: Alan Metter
Writers: Randolph Davis, Michele S. Chodos
Languages: English
Countries: United States of America

Want more? Switch to Cinephile mode in the header for DP, composer, budget, box office, production companies, keywords, and release history.

Did you know?

Fun facts 🍿

1 / 8

RUNTIME

Did you know

83 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.

MoodPlayr · trivia#01

2 / 8

MONEY

Did you know

Earned back only 1% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.

MoodPlayr · trivia#02

3 / 8

ERA

Did you know

32 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.

MoodPlayr · trivia#03

4 / 8

CINEMA

Did you know

Part of the "Police Academy Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.

MoodPlayr · trivia#04

5 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Directed by Alan Metter, shot by Ian Jones. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.

MoodPlayr · trivia#05

6 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Original score by Robert Folk. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.

MoodPlayr · trivia#06

7 / 8

DIRECTOR

Did you know

Editor Dennis M. Hill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.

MoodPlayr · trivia#07

8 / 8

AWARDS

Did you know

George Gaynes and Michael Winslow and David Graf carry the top of the cast.

MoodPlayr · trivia#08

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Alan Metter directs. Ian Jones behind the camera. Robert Folk scores. Dennis M. Hill cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. A commercial under-performer on release. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

183 minutes exactly — the "classic feature" runtime most directors aim for.
2Earned back only 1% of its budget on initial theatrical — a commercial disappointment on release.
332 years old — old enough to be someone's favourite childhood film.
4Part of the "Police Academy Collection" — so the characters or world continue elsewhere.
5Directed by Alan Metter, shot by Ian Jones. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
6Original score by Robert Folk. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
7Editor Dennis M. Hill shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
8George Gaynes and Michael Winslow and David Graf carry the top of the cast.
9Marketing tagline: "Just when we thought the Cold War was over, leave it to these guys to heat it up again.".
10IMDB entry: tt0110857 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.
11Released under 15 different titles around the world.

The technical file

Cinematography: Ian Jones
Original score: Robert Folk
Editing: Dennis M. Hill
Production design: Frederic C. Weiler
Makeup / hair: Katalin Elek
Sound: James G. Williams
Stunt coordinator: Julius LeFlore
Runtime: 83 min · 1h 23m
Aspect ratio (typical): 1.37:1 (Academy)
Status: Released
Budget: $10,000,000
Box office: $126,247
Return: 1% of budget
Original language: EN
Certification (US): PG
IMDB: Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (1994)
Rotten Tomatoes: 0% 🥫 Rotten
Metacritic: 11/100
IMDB rating: 3.5/10 · 38,015 votes
MPAA: PG

Part of

Police Academy Collection

A series of American comedy films, the first six of which were made in the 1980s. The seventh and to date last installment, Mission to Moscow, was released in 1994. The series opened with Police Academy (1984) which started with the premise that a new mayor had announced a policy requiring the police department to accept all willing recruits. The movie followed a group of misfit recruits in their attempts to prove themselves capable of being police officers. The main character, Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg), was a repeat offender who was forced to join the police academy as punishment.

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Alan Metter

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Community reviews

What people are saying

Potential Kermode2017-02-11
★ 1/10
See a boiled egg fly through the air from one mans mouth to another mans mouth and then back again - all in Technicolor! Comedy - negligible. Interest factor - negligible. Original cast members - negligible. Audiences watching it in the theatres in 1994 - negligible. Box office gross - negligible. Farting noises - absolutely. Cartoon sound effects - absolutely. Disinterested/embarrassed performances - absolutely. Enthusiastic Russian actors who believe they are performing in a masterpiece - absolutely. After watching this movie I had forgotten how to smile. I saw somebody else laughing and I had to ask them what they were doing with their face and what the unusual sound meant.
Filipe Manuel Neto2022-10-20
★ 1/10
An unnecessary film. Sometimes it seems producers have a hard time understanding when a movie shouldn't be made. The “Police Academy” franchise should have ended in the sixth film, and even then it would be ending up pretty worn out. This film, made several years later, was an effort that was simply needless and certainly leaves no one with good memories. After seeing the movie, I was really sorry that the franchise ended with such a bad movie. It was something that, for me, should have been avoided. “Police Academy” was one of the most interesting and successful comic franchises of the 80s, and there are still many people who have fond memories of these films today. I myself, as a child, saw them several times on television. The script is perfectly idiotic and a simple excuse to take some of the characters in the film to post-Soviet Russia, where they must help the local police to fight a big mobster who is turning into an oligarch (one of many that, as we know, emerged from the ashes of the communist regime, fat with shady deals in which the Russian people ended up losing). It's an unhappy, poor script made by incapable people. Humor, on the other hand, is completely absent. I don't laugh for a single minute. The cast, which until now had been relatively stable (with the absence of several actors starting from the fourth film), had completely collapsed, and most actors refused to be part of this project. George Gaynes is back, but his character, Commander Lassard, looks simply like an old man with Alzheimer's (with all due respect to anyone suffering from this serious illness, don't get me wrong). Gaynes is not funny, and his performance here is disgraceful. Michael Winslow also tries to make some of the jokes he's already used to us, taking advantage of his vocal skills... but he doesn't have the material or time and what he does has no freshness or novelty. Sir Christopher Lee makes a brief appearance in the film, and as far as I can understand, he did so as a favor to the producer. Friendship is a beautiful thing, and also professional courtesy, but I bet Lee won't want to be remembered for this movie (and he certainly won't, he's done better things, as we know). Who ends up standing out in some way is Ron Perlman. The actor, who we know for other, much more dignified works, tried to be funny and give some dignity to his character. Meritorious, respectable, but unworthy of the actor he is. The rest of the cast is not worth mentioning. Are there any redeeming qualities in this film? To be honest, I don't think so..., but even so, I feel obliged to make a small caveat: I liked the fact that they did a lot of the filming in the real city of Moscow and that they used real Russian extras and Russian speakers. This gives the film a certain authenticity that deserves to be highlighted, and which is most lacking nowadays, where any piece of green or blue screen replaces a real set and saves a few dollars on the production budget. However, it must have taken courage and some dose of madness to try to make a film in the midst of the political and military upheavals Russia was experiencing in those years.
r96sk2025-03-28
★ 5/10
<em>'Police Academy: Mission to Moscow'</em> brings this franchise - as it stands - to a close. It's not good, but it's not the worst of the series in my opinion; not that it's far off being so, more the case that I 'enjoyed' it a tiny bit more than the sixth entry. The cast feels bare-bones, at least in terms of the original bunch of characters. Bubba Smith dropped out for this, which is a loss, so only Michael Winslow, David Graf and George Gaynes stayed to complete the run of appearing in all seven films. It's actually away from them that you find the interesting performers, as Christopher Lee and Ron Perlman turn up. The former doesn't feature heavily, though the latter does and is alright I guess; as noted already, he is better than last time out's attempt. On the cast, the film has a crafted sequence at the end where it gives special mention to the key performers... via horse riding, no less. Given the obvious cuts to 'hide' the stunt performers, I'm surprised they went to so much effort for a short moment like that - must've had budget left over! I'm rather glad to have completed this franchise. Despite that and that none of these flicks scored positively, I actually didn't mind watching them. I might be being generous, but honestly they are relatively simple to watch; the filmmakers had the common sense to limit 'em to 80-90 minutes, which most certainly helps!