Combat Academy

Two high-school friends, Max Mendelsson and Perry Barnett, go too far with a string of pranks and destructive jokes. A judge sentences them to a year at a military academy, hoping the discipline will straighten them out. Max, the louder and more disruptive of the pair, has no intention of staying and sets out to get himself and Perry thrown out, while the school's officers respond with extra punishment rather than expulsion. Perry, meanwhile, begins to change after meeting a girl there.

Combat Academy is a 1986 American comedy made for television, directed by Neal Israel from a screenplay by Paul W. Shapiro and produced by Robert M. Sertner. It was Israel's fourth feature, following Americathon, Bachelor Party and Moving Violations, and it arrived while he was working steadily in screen comedy. Keith Gordon and Wallace Langham play the two leads, with Dana Hill, Tina Caspary, Elya Baskin and George Clooney, as Major Biff Woods, among the supporting cast.

The film runs 96 minutes and was produced by NBC with Frank von Zerneck Films and Lynch/Biller Productions. Audience ratings are modest: on IMDb it holds 5.3 out of 10 from about 1,300 votes, and on TMDB 5.4 out of 10 from a much smaller pool of 34 votes. The two figures are close, indicating a limited but fairly consistent response from the viewers who have seen it.