Kindergarten Cop (1990) | Movie Review

This review may contain spoilers.

And what happened, then? Well, in Kindergarten they say – that the Terminator’s small heart grew three sizes that day. And then – the true meaning of childhood came through, and the Terminator found the strength of ten Terminators, plus two!
-Inspired by Dr. Suess’s How the Grinch Stole Christmas

Ah Kindergarten Cop. A 90s classic! I was happy to introduce this one to my girlfriend. The only part she said she had seen was , “It’s not in tuma!”

This movie is complete fun from beginning to end, save for some seriously intense, surprisingly violent moments.

Arnold does great. I loved seeing the evolution of his character from hard-boiled cop to loving kindergarten teacher. His development with the children is wonderful. I love the first shot of them together when the camera pans high above them and then cut to an extremely low angle of Arnold, capturing their perspectives of each other.

The little kids in this movie all do great. Ivan Reitman was able to direct them so well and capture their rambunctious behavior. Also, how an adult who’s never really dealt with kids before is portrayed very well.

Penelope Ann Miller does well. I always enjoy her in movies. Her son, portrayed by the Cousins twins (never knew they were twins, they do so well acting exactly the same!) gives a good performance.

Richard Tyson is super creepy. I would’ve liked a little more back story of him, his mother, and how he and Penelope’s character got together (it’s glossed over so quickly). By the way, he looks like puffy Val Kilmer. My girlfriend thinks he looks like chubby Channing Tatum.

Surprisingly, the story deals with troubling subjects about child abuse, children with divorced parents, children with parents running off with other people, and of course child kidnapping.

It’s important these subjects are brought up and dealt with, although I will say the child abuse subject is resolved in a romanticised way, where Kimbell runs out of the school and punches the guy. Of course, that’s what we all want to do, but there’s no real consequences–they’re played for laughs. In a movie that hits subjects home a lot harder because it’s dealing with children who need that reinforcement to understand, it’s good for the audience to see a masculine man who is firm with children and treats them with care and who is contrasted with a child abusing slime ball who is physically and then lawfully punished. That’s the one time Kimbell breaks his cover because just slugging the guy is what he would do as an cop, but he does learn a lesson, “He’s not worth beating up and it’s not right to display such violence in front of children.” That’s good. I like that.

Balancing comedy with serious issues all culminating in a heart-pounding conclusion, Kindergarten Cop is a great film and receives 8 stars out of 10 with a Strong Recommend.

8 stars