KINDERGARTEN COP

US, 1990, 111 minutes, Colour.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, Pamela Reed, Linda Hunt, Carroll Baker, Cathy Moriarty, Richard Tyson.
Directed by Ivan Reitman.

Kindergarten Cop is an entertaining thriller comedy. It shrewdly combines the police thriller with the family comedy, with children.

The film was produced and directed by Ivan Reitman, director of the Ghostbusters films, Legal Eagles and the pairing of Arnold Schwarzenegger with Danny de Vito in Twins. This time he puts the tough Schwarzenegger with a kindergarten class - to enjoyable effect. Schwarzenegger teamed with De Vito again and with Emma Thompson for Reitman in Junior.

The film begins as a police thriller with Richard Tyson as a wealth drug dealer, egged on by his mother, Carroll Baker. Pamela Reed, in an enjoyable wisecracking performance, is Schwarzenegger's partner - to track down Tyson's wife and child in an Oregon school. Reed is supposed to be the teacher but falls sick and Schwarzenegger has to confront the headmistress, played by Linda Hunt, and face the class. As one reviewer remarked, the children grow to love him, the headmistress loves him, the attractive teacher who turns out to be the fleeing wife loves him - and, ultimately, the audience loves him. The film probably works well because it is clear that Schwarzenegger gets on very well with the children. For those not enjoying the sentiment and the comedy so much, the thriller aspects come to the fore at the end again.

Enjoyable formula film-making.

1. Popularity of Arnold Schwarzenegger? His image? The shift to comedy, sending up his image - and his enjoying it?

2. The blend of police thriller with family comedy and sentiment? The blend and how well does it work?

3. The American city, the shopping mall, the courts? The contrast with the town of Astoria, the coast, homes, the school? Musical score and feel?

4. Arnold Schwarzenegger and his image, using it as a cop, working against it as a teacher and as a romantic lead? Schwarzenegger as big and with the children, interest in his work as a cop, as a teacher? The importance of the humour, situation, one-liners? Schwarzenegger pictured as a romantic figure?

5. The opening, the cop and his appearance and clothes, dark glasses, following Crisp? The chase, the murder of the drug dealer informer, the witness listening? Schwarzenegger on the scene of the crime, cuffing the girl to the corpse? Crisp in the beauty parlour, with his mother, the arrest? The interviewing of Cindy as witness, Phoebe and her attempts to get the information from Cindy? The court sequence, Crisp jailed?

6. The information about the wife and son, meeting Phoebe, sharing information, her propensity for eating? On the plane and her feeling sick, his being irritated by the children? The car ride, her continued sickness, the motel, the plan?

7. Having to go to school, Kimball's encounter with Miss Schlowski, her telling him that she was watching him (and her doing this with her assistant)? Breathing in before the class, his reaction, the precociousness of the children talking about sexuality, about death? Discipline, the children wanting to go to the toilet, his inability to handle the situation, running to Joyce? The children wrecking the room, his telling them to shut up? His exhaustion at the end of the day? Learning how to cope, trying to play games, reading A.A. Milne's poem to them? Using his police training tactics: the whistle and discipline, bringing the ferret and the kids patting it, the fire drill, sport, the training and drilling? Preparation for the recitation of the Gettysburg Address? His concern for the children, telling them stories? The wealthy woman and her son looking at the dresses and having dolls, Dominic and his worldly wisdom, the bashed boy and his mother, the physical attack on his father and threatening to sue? Miss Schlowski and her watching, the fire drill, her comments, the punching of the father - and her support of Kimball? Her praising him as a teacher, a future for him?

8. Kimball as cop, partnership with Phoebe, the detective work in the town, suspicions of Joyce? Yet his attraction to Joyce? At school, the outing with Phoebe pretending to be his Austrian sister, the visit to her home, searching the home, Dominic finding him? The fair and the finding out of the truth? Asking her the truth, her reaction, persuading her to escape, the friendship with Dominic, the explanation of the lasers and the bad people, rescuing Dominic from the tower? Crisp's arrival, menace, the fire, the fire drill? Chasing Crisp throughout the school, the confrontation, the shootings, his mother and her shooting?

9. Joyce as an attractive teacher, audiences suspecting her or not? The talk about the millions stolen? Helping Kimball, Dominic giving him advice as well as criticism? The meals, telling her story, trusting? The mistrust and disappointment, looking for Dominic, the confrontation with her husband, the truth, the final romantic ending?

10. The sketch of Phoebe, her eating, tough, sick? Her impersonation of Ursula and the German accent? Her relationship with Henry, and Kimball stalking the house? At work, detective work, the confrontation with Mrs Crisp, the car, the baseball bat? Henry, a chef, relationship with Phoebe - and bringing the food to Kimball in hospital?

11. Miss Schlowski, tough, nice, suspicious of Kimball, pleased with his attack on the brutal father, the fair, the Gettysburg Address, her affirmation of Kimball?

12. Crisp, self-centred, brutality with the informer, under the influence of his mother, their drug deals, going to prison, present in Kimball's nightmare and shooting him in the classroom? Getting out of jail, brutally wanting to buy the game and bashing the man? Meeting Miss Schlowski, the tour of the school, finding his son? Talking with his mother, the fire, kidnapping Dominic, the brutality with the boy, the chase through the school, the shoot-outs?

13. Mrs Crisp, her dominance, her dominance over her son, pampering him? The drugs and the killing of Cindy? Going to the town, hitting Phoebe with the car, the gun, her arrest?

14. The sketch of the variety of children, kindergarten children, precocious? Joining in the games - `Who's My Father'? The sketch of the parents, the rich woman and her sultry style, gifts for the fair? The brutal father? The frightened mother?

15. Shrewd box-office writing and production - and enjoyable?