Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol

Play trailer

Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol

PG

1987

1h 27m

Comedy

Play Trailer

Watchlist

Watchlist

Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

0%

Tomatometer

20 Reviews

38%

Popcornmeter

50,000+ Ratings

Feeling that his squad is not up to snuff, a police commander comes up with an unorthodox plan to hire everyday citizens to work alongside police officers. Unruly Sgt. Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg) is given the job of training the citizens. At first Mahoney does not take the job seriously, but, when he learns that his nemesis, Capt. Harris (G.W. Bailey), is gunning for his commander's job, Mahoney focuses on making the plan work -- and bringing down Harris at the same time.

Watch on Fandango at Home

Buy Now

Critics Consensus

Utterly, completely, thoroughly and astonishingly unfunny, Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol sends a once-innocuous franchise plummeting to agonizing new depths.

Read Critics Reviews

Dave Kehr

Chicago Tribune

Jim Drake is credited with the direction and Gene Quintano with the script, though they'd probably appreciate it if you kept it to yourself.

Rated: 1/4

Oct 22, 2014

Full Review

Kevin Thomas

Los Angeles Times

What's so amazing about the Police Academy movies is that they keep being made even though they stopped being funny after the hilarious original.

Oct 22, 2014

Full Review

Ian Freer

Empire Magazine

Oh dear...oh dear, oh dear...

Rated: 1/5

Aug 3, 2009

Full Review

Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

I mean, on the one hand this is terrible filmmaking. On the other, if a film delivers what its core audience are craving and satisfies them, who are the rest of us to judge?

Rated: 3/10

Mar 18, 2025

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

It’s the same-old same-old, only somehow slightly worse.

Rated: 1.5/4

Nov 25, 2023

Full Review

TV Guide

Director Jim Drake keeps things moving so quickly, one barely has time to notice just how stale the jokes here are.

Rated: 1/4

Aug 3, 2009

Full Review

Read all reviews

r96 s

'Police Academy 4: Citizens on Patrol' is a lousy fourth entry to this franchise. I've not truly liked any of these flicks admittedly, but the last two did do some things well enough that I could see the potential. This one is more akin to the original, it feels aimless. I guess that is to be expected this deep into the series, hopefully it's not a sign of things to come for me across the next three releases. Any 'pluses' that I do have for this is anything I've 'praised' across the prior flicks, which is pretty much just the pleasantly returning cast. Sharon Stone and (a debuting) David Spade make for interesting newcomers. The plot isn't anything close to being fresh, it's basically the last three movies rolled into one; those ones are hardly anything memorable themselves, so that's an obvious problem. I will say that the ending here is at least visually interesting, if still not the real McCoy. Lastly, I know I keep saying it but I seriously don't know how I'm not finding Bobcat Goldthwait's Zed overtly annoying yet. Sure he is a little so, especially as he gets a needless extension of screen time on this occasion, though the character continues to bring a mini smirk or two. Beats me!

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/26/25

Full Review

Luke S

Not the best of the series, yet somehow still has some charm to it. This one certainly proves that police academy can do anything it wants to. Any character from any where can be put in the academy and it can work. The skateboarding was really cool which means the movie deserves more than zero.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/24/25

Full Review

thiago s

Filme mais ou menos, o roteiro é ruim, a história é fraca, as piadas são fracas e desta vez forçam menos cenas do que o 3 filme, o filme parece que não se esforça para ser bom. O filme foi levemente salvo por uma cena dos aviões.

Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars

02/09/25

Full Review

Erik D

Typical formula for a Police Academy movie. Most of the main cast returns. Neat scateboard scenes with an uncredited Tony Hawk. If you liked the 1st 3 movies, then you should like this one as well! Basically the same stuff. Some new pranks though.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

10/03/23

Full Review

Vincent K

I love all Police Academy movies!

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

09/16/23

Full Review

James H

If you liked 1-3 then you should enjoy the fourth installment. I think having G. W. Bailey back in the cast helped the film. I enjoyed Bobcat Goldthwait's character Zed getting some character development. Also, Billie Bird's Mrs. Feldman is a funny character adds to the film.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

08/28/23

Full Review

Read all reviews

Read More

Read Less

POST RATING

WRITE A REVIEW

EDIT REVIEW

Jim Drake

Director

Steve Guttenberg

Sgt. Carey Mahoney

Bubba Smith

Sgt. Moses Hightower

Michael Winslow

Sgt. Larvell Jones

David Graf

Sgt. Eugene Tackleberry

Tim Kazurinsky

Officer Sweetchuck

Police Academy 3: Back in Training

36%

39%

Police Academy 3: Back in Training

Watchlist

Spies Like Us

35%

56%

Spies Like Us

Watchlist

Deal of the Century

10%

19%

Deal of the Century

Watchlist

Oh God! You Devil

36%

39%

Oh God! You Devil

Watchlist

The In-Laws

89%

83%

The In-Laws

Watchlist

Discover more movies and TV shows.

View More

12 Comedy Sequels Nobody Asked For

View more photos

Synopsis

Feeling that his squad is not up to snuff, a police commander comes up with an unorthodox plan to hire everyday citizens to work alongside police officers. Unruly Sgt. Carey Mahoney (Steve Guttenberg) is given the job of training the citizens. At first Mahoney does not take the job seriously, but, when he learns that his nemesis, Capt. Harris (G.W. Bailey), is gunning for his commander's job, Mahoney focuses on making the plan work -- and bringing down Harris at the same time.

Director: Jim Drake
Producer: Paul Maslansky
Screenwriter: Gene Quintano
Production Co: Warner Bros.
Rating: PG
Genre: Comedy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 1, 2009
Box Office (Gross USA): $28.1M
Runtime: 1h 27m

Most Popular at Home Now