Police Academy: Mission to Moscow
Short description
The seventh Police Academy film sends Commandant Lassard and his officers to Russia, where they join forces with Moscow's police chief to take down Konstantin Konali, a mafia boss who has grown rich from a computer game played around the world. The game carries a hidden program that lets Konali reach into computer systems anywhere, so the visiting Americans and their Russian counterparts must find evidence against him and stop him.
Alan Metter directed, working from a screenplay by Randolph Davis and Michele S. Chodos. George Gaynes returns as Lassard, alongside Michael Winslow, David Graf, Leslie Easterbrook and G.W. Bailey, while Christopher Lee appears as Commandant Rakov. The film was made for about 10 million dollars and runs 83 minutes.
Released in June 1994, it arrived as Metter's third feature, after Girls Just Want to Have Fun and Back to School, and it is the only entry in the series set in Russia. Reception was poor: on IMDb it holds 3.5 out of 10 from around 38,000 votes, and on TMDB 4.6 out of 10 from roughly a thousand votes. A critics' rating of 2.9 out of 10 from eight reviews places it below even those audience scores, a rare case where professional opinion is harsher than the public's.
What's left behind the scenes
- One scene in the film shows the burned-out building of the Russian Supreme Soviet (the White House) after a tank shelling.
- The subway scene was filmed at Novoslobodskaya station on the Circle Line.
- In the office of police chief Alexander Nikolaevich Rakov, the flag of the Russian Federation and a desk flag appear as the flag of the Republic of Srpska.
- As Bubba Smith (1945-2011) wrote in his autobiography, he had already verbally agreed to reprise his role from previous films in the franchise. However, he soon received a tearful call from Ramsay Marion (1947-2021) who informed him that she hadn't been invited to the sequel. Smith knew she was facing financial difficulties (he had recently lent her some money), so he called the filmmakers and asked if Ramsay could be cast, but was told that her character wasn't in the script and it was impossible to write her in. In protest and as a gesture of solidarity with the actress, Smith left the project.
- The final scene was intended to feature 250 Russian law enforcement officers as extras. The country was experiencing widespread food shortages, and 758 officers showed up to the set after hearing rumors that they would be fed for free. Producer Paul Maslansky and several Hungarian chefs working on the set took a small van, drove off, and soon returned with a hot meal for everyone present on location.
- In one interview, actress Leslie Easterbrook and producer Paul Maslansky spoke about the difficulties of filming in Moscow during the coup, when Boris Yeltsin (1931-2007) ordered fire to be opened on the White House and government troops stormed the television center. Outdoor shooting was frequently interrupted by interference from local authorities. In one such instance, Paul Mazursky received permission to film at the airport, but when he arrived with 40 vehicles full of equipment, he was informed that filming was canceled due to the state of emergency. The crew moved to Mosfilm to shoot in the pavilions, and the filming of those scenes had to be postponed. At one point, when the crew drove to Gorky Park for filming, they were told that filming in the park was not permitted that day.
- The club in the "Zhukovka-2" cottage community served as the hideout for the head of the Russian mafia, Konstantin Kanal (during filming, it was a government dacha settlement).
Similar movies
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
