Kindergarten Cop

Kindergarten Cop
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Ivan Reitman
Produced by	Ivan Reitman
Screenplay by	Murray Salem Herschel Weingrod Timothy Harris
Story by	Murray Salem
Starring	Arnold Schwarzenegger Penelope Ann Miller Pamela Reed Linda Hunt Carroll Baker
Music by	Randy Edelman
Cinematography	Michael Chapman
Editing by	Wendy Greene Bricmont Sheldon Kahn
Studio	Imagine Entertainment
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release dates	December 21, 1990
Running time	111 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$15 million
Box office	$201,957,688

Kindergarten Cop is a 1990 American comedy-thriller film directed by Ivan Reitman and starring Arnold Schwarzenegger^[1] as John Kimble, a tough police detective, who must go undercover as a kindergarten teacher to catch drug dealer Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson), before Crisp can get to his ex-wife and son, while along the way he discovers his passion for teaching. Pamela Reed plays his partner Phoebe O'Hara, and Penelope Ann Miller plays Joyce, the teacher who becomes Kimble's love interest. The original music score was composed by Randy Edelman. Schwarzenegger received a salary of $12 million for the film.^[2]

Plot

Detectives John Kimble and Phoebe O'Hara in the classroom

As the film begins Los Angeles Police Detective John Kimble (Schwarzenegger) is tailing illegal drug kingpin Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson) through a Los Angeles shopping mall. Kimble has been after Crisp for four years and although he has arrested him in the past, Crisp has proven nearly impossible to put away. Crisp is at the mall on this particular day to meet with Danny, an informant who recently saw Crisp's ex-wife Rachel (née Myatt) and his son, Cullen Junior, while running drugs for someone else out of state. Crisp responds to Danny's information by shooting him twice and killing him. Kimble follows Crisp to a hair salon and arrests him, but not before Crisp relays word to his mother Eleanor (Carroll Baker) about the news.

Kimble runs into a problem, however, almost immediately. The only witness to the crime is Danny's girlfriend Cindy (Alix Koromzay), who is a junkie and is not particularly willing to identify Crisp even after Detective Phoebe O'Hara (Pamela Reed) makes overtures toward her, going as far to offer to cook her dinner. Kimble has other plans and is able to convince Cindy (Alix Koromzay), who identifies Crisp in a lineup. Crisp is arraigned on a charge of first-degree murder and Kimble tries to get a confession out of him shortly afterward. However, Crisp reminds Kimble that the only witness to the crime is unreliable due to her drug habit and that the case against him is not strong enough to stand.

Knowing this, the Los Angeles Police Department decides to track down Rachel Crisp and her son. However, since there is little to go on other than their whereabouts, Kimble and O'Hara are sent on an undercover mission to Astoria, Oregon where the two were last seen. Kimble and O'Hara are to pose as husband and wife for the trip with O'Hara, a former schoolteacher, substituting for Astoria Elementary School's kindergarten teacher where it is believed that Cullen Crisp, Jr. is a student. Kimble's job is to gather leads that he receives from O'Hara and follow up on them to try to locate Rachel Crisp and $3 million in illicit drug money that she is believed to have stolen from her ex-husband before she left him. Once he does that, the two officers are to offer Rachel Crisp immunity from prosecution for her actions (as, since she has allegedly stolen money, is a fugitive from the law) in exchange for testifying against Cullen Senior. However, as the two are flying to Oregon O'Hara takes ill with a sudden case of gastroenteritis and Kimble, who has zero teaching experience, is forced into O'Hara's role as she is in no condition to perform her duties.

The school principal Miss Schlowski (Linda Hunt) meets with Kimble the next morning and lets him know that she is suspicious of the whole idea of having to see an undercover police officer pose as one of her teachers and warns him not to step out of line or she will blow his cover. Afterward, she introduces the kindergarten class to Kimble, who is unfamiliar and uncomfortable in his surroundings. Things get out of control almost immediately as his class begins to tear apart the room as he has to step out of the room for a brief moment, and Kimble reacts by screaming at the children out of frustration causing them to cry. After being unable to control his class during a fire drill, Kimble finally vents his frustrations to O'Hara about not being happy about doing her job and that the kindergarteners are pushing him around. O'Hara tells her partner that the reason why they are doing that is because they can sense his uneasiness and fear about what he has to do, and that in order to get past that Kimble needs to show them that he is not weak.

The morning after the conversation, Kimble begins to apply his police training to deal with the class and immediately begins to see results to his amazement. Slowly but surely, Kimble wins over the class and finds his job much easier to deal with now that he is no longer scared. Kimble also comes to care deeply for the children, something he did not think he would do. He introduces his pet ferret as the class mascot, reads to the children, and even teaches them the Gettysburg Address.

Kimble's change of heart becomes evident when he learns one of his students, a shy and quiet boy named Zach, is a victim of child abuse. After he confronts the mother (initially believing that Zach is Cullen Crisp Jr. and his mother is Rachel Crisp) and learns of the allegations, he tells her to do something about it or he will press charges. A day or so later, Zach returns to school with a bruise running down his back and Kimble confronts his father directly. After Kimble punches Zach's father in the stomach, a crowd including Miss Schlowski gathers outside. Although Kimble believes he has committed a grave mistake and apparently blown his cover, Miss Schlowski tells him that although she has since found out that Kimble has no teaching experience, through observation of his work she has grown to admire what he does and that he has finally won her favor.

Another student of Kimble's that he grows fond of is Dominic Paulmarie, whose mother Joyce (Penelope Ann Miller) is a teacher in the same school. The two begin to hit it off one night when Kimble and O'Hara, who is now posing as Kimble's sister, accidentally run into them at a restaurant. Through Dominic, he learns that Joyce is a single parent like many others in Astoria and that his father has left them and moved to France. However, Joyce confides in Kimble that she has been lying to Dominic for years and that she has been on the run from her husband for some time. Joyce says that her husband lives in California, was into criminal activity that she was not aware of when she married him, and that he has tried to kidnap Dominic at least once before. Through learning this, Kimble deduces that Joyce is really Rachel Crisp and that Dominic is really the younger Cullen Crisp. However, he is conflicted as to whether or not he should tell Joyce the truth and break apart the case. Events back in Los Angeles, however, force his hand.

Shortly before he was sent to prison, Crisp and his mother had come up with a plan to eliminate the sole witness to the murder. Eleanor procures a batch of cocaine that has been tampered with and pays a drug dealer to sell it to Cindy, who is looking to get high. After ingesting the cocaine Cindy accidentally overdoses on it and dies, and thus the LAPD has no evidence against Crisp. This forces the court to release Crisp from prison shortly thereafter and mother and son begin heading for Oregon. O'Hara and Kimble are told of what has happened to their eyewitness and ordered back to Los Angeles.

Before they do, the two officers are ordered to break their cover and reveal the following information to Joyce: Crisp knows where she is and is almost certain to be headed to Astoria and that if she does not tell them where the money is or what she had done with it and agree to testify against her ex, she and Dominic will be at the mercy of Crisp once he finds them as the police will not provide protection. A horrified Joyce tries to run away with Dominic and blames Kimble for what happened, claiming that he led Crisp to her. She tells him that she never stole any money from Crisp, and the only reason that was even brought up was because Crisp wanted to make Joyce look like an unfit mother and to potentially motivate anyone interested in a reward to try and find her and her son themselves. Kimble tells Joyce that even though he lied to her about nearly everything, he had no choice due to his duties and he truly cares about her and Dominic. Kimble says that he does not want to lose them and he does not want to see Crisp avoid justice for his crimes, which convinces Joyce to stay.

The next morning Kimble brings O'Hara to the school to speak to the class as part of a covert operation to watch out for Crisp. As fate would have it, Crisp is also at the school and is posing as the father of a kindergartener from Phoenix who is considering purchasing a home in Astoria. Miss Schlowski leads Crisp on a tour of the school and he observes his son for the first time in years. Crisp leaves shortly thereafter, only to sneak back in and start a fire in the library. O'Hara informs Kimble of the fire and the class begins to evacuate the school. In the confusion that follows the discovery of the fire, Crisp grabs Dominic as he is trying to leave. His classmates, however, spot Crisp and inform Kimble of what happened. O'Hara leads the kindergarten class out of the school without Dominic, causing a panicked Joyce to go back into the school to find him. O'Hara tries to sneak back into the school to assist Kimble, only to have Eleanor run her over with her car and steal her gun.

After telling Dominic the truth about him, Crisp convinces the boy to trust him and continues to roam the school trying to escape while Kimble is in pursuit. Just outside the school gym locker room, Joyce runs into Crisp and tries to convince him to let their son go. Crisp refuses and punches Joyce in the face, which nearly scares Dominic away. As Crisp attempts to apologize to his son, Kimble sneaks into the locker room. Crisp spots Kimble and immediately takes Dominic as a hostage in order to get Kimble to drop his weapon. Crisp then decides to shoot Kimble, only to have the class ferret that Dominic was holding bite him in the neck. The bite causes Crisp's shot to hit Kimble in the knee instead of the head, and as Kimble falls to the floor he picks his gun back up and shoots Crisp twice, killing him.

As Kimble rises to his feet, Eleanor Crisp comes into the room and shoots Kimble in his shoulder. After she discovers what happened to her son, she advances on a collapsed Kimble in the shower room. Eleanor demands to know the whereabouts of Dominic, and when Kimble does not tell her she fires a warning shot at him. Eleanor presses Kimble again, and after he tells her to "go to hell" she fires a second. Just as she is about to fire the fatal shot O'Hara comes to Kimble's rescue by hitting Eleanor with a baseball bat.

Crisp's mother is arrested, while the unconscious Kimble (much to the sadness of the children) is hospitalized. During Kimble's recovery, O'Hara and her chef fiancé invite him to their wedding. After his recovery, he reunites with his kindergarten class and Joyce, sharing a kiss with her as the film closes.

Cast

• Arnold Schwarzenegger as Detective John Kimble: A tough Austrian born LAPD street cop who's forced to take an undercover assignment as a Kindergarten teacher. The main protagonist.
• Penelope Ann Miller as Joyce Paulmarie / Rachel Myatt Crisp: A teacher whom Kimble falls for but who is also Crisp's ex-wife. Has a young son named Dominic who is in Kimble's kindergarten class.
• Pamela Reed as Detective Phoebe O'Hara: Kimble's partner and a former school teacher who gets food poisoning, forcing him to cover for her on the assignment. She briefly poses as Kimble's sister, "Ursula Kimble".
• Linda Hunt as Miss Schlowski: The school's strict principal. Though initially suspicious of Kimble, she eventually grows to respect him when he assaults Zach's universally-disliked abusive father.
• Richard Tyson as Cullen Crisp, Sr.: A drug kingpin who is obsessed with tracking down his ex-wife and son.
• Carroll Baker as Eleanor Crisp: Crisp's overbearing mother and assistant in his criminal empire who is just as obsessed with seeing her grandson again.
• Christian and Joseph Cousins as Dominic Paulmarie / Cullen Crisp, Jr.: Joyce and Crisp's son who becomes close to Kimble.
• Andrew Dimarco as Zach Sullivan: A shy student in the class and the first one who Kimble suspects is Crisp's son, though he later learns that his mother is still married to his father and they are dealing with domestic violence. As a policeman with a hatred for injustice, Kimble later assaults Zach's father, whom he knows the law cannot touch easily, and berates his mother for her cowardice to protect Zach.
• Cathy Moriarty as Jillian
• Ben Diskin as Sylvester, Jillian's son
• Miko Hughes as Joseph, who enjoys telling people of the anatomical differences between boys and girls which he apparently learned from his father who is a gynecologist.
• Sarah Rose Karr as Emma, one of Kimble's students.
• Richard Portnow as Captain Salazar, Kimble and O'Hara's boss.
• Tom Kurlander as Danny, a drug runner and Crisp's informant, as well as his murder victim.
• Alix Koromzay as Cindy, Danny's drug-addict girlfriend and the only witness to his murder, which helps lead to her demise.
• Bob Nelson as Henry Shoop: O'Hara's fiancee.
• Tom Dugan as Crisp's lawyer
• Emily Eby as Julie
• Odette Yustman as Rosa
• Angela Bassett as Flight Attendant

Brian Bruney was an extra in the film. He was 8 years old at the time.

Bill Murray, Patrick Swayze & Danny DeVito were all approached to play the role of John Kimble.

In addition to the Cousins twins, a second set of identical twins was cast to play part of Kimble's class. The difference was that Tiffany and Krystle Mataras, who later went on to star in Problem Child 2 as the daughters of one of the antagonists, actually played a set of identical twins named Tina and Rina.

Reception

The film received mixed reviews from critics. Rotten Tomatoes gives it a score of 50% based on reviews from 30 critics.^[3] It holds a rating of 61% at Metacritic based on reviews from 15 critics, indicating "[g]enerally favorable reviews".^[4]

Reviewer Caryn James of The New York Times has said, "Like Twins, which was also directed by Ivan Reitman, nothing in Kindergarten Cop is as funny as the idea of it."^[5] In Kim Newman's review for Empire he said "with a heart of purest mush, Kindergarten Cop still manages to be generally entertaining" and gave the film 3 stars out of 5.^[6] In a review for EW.com, it was said at the time of release that "the movie never quite gels" and "Kindergarten Cop is not going to generate quite the mega-hit business their producers are counting on", and gave the movie a 'C' grade.^[7] Roger Ebert said "Kindergarten Cop is made up of two parts that shouldn't fit, but somehow they do, making a slick entertainment out of the improbable, the impossible and Arnold Schwarzenegger" and awarded the film three stars.^[8]

In 2012, as an April Fool's Day joke, it was announced that Kindergarten Cop was selected for a release on DVD and Blu-ray Disc as part of the Criterion Collection, a video-distribution company dedicated to the release of "important classic and contemporary films." It was said to be selected as important in part because of its genre-revisionist use of both the policier and family comedy genres in the same film. ^[9]

Box office

Despite the mixed reviews, the movie was a box office success, making over $200 million worldwide.^[10]

Filming locations

Exterior scenes at "Astoria Elementary School" were filmed at John Jacob Astor Elementary School, located at 3550 Franklin Ave. in Astoria, Oregon.^[11]

At Astoria, Universal Studios hired local artists to paint murals on the walls, provided new playground equipment, fenced the playground, and laid a new lawn and hedges around the school building. Most of the filming was completed after school was out in June 1990,^[12] therefore many of the students and staff were able to be in the movie as extras.^[13] Students' artwork was also used. Teachers and neighbors, as well as students, were used in filming; viewers see Astor School's custodian, "Mr. John" raising the flag for an early morning scene.^{[citation needed]} Of note, Schwarzenegger's contract required that a private studio (for daily workouts and weightlifting) be provided for the actor and his personal staff; a suitable studio was located but when an agreement could not be reached, the actor threatened to pull out of the production. An Astoria business owner stepped in and donated unused commercial space deemed suitable and the shoot went on.

Also filmed in or near Astoria:

• John and Phoebe stayed at the Bayview Motel, 783 W. Marine Drive, Astoria. The vintage lodging facility "played itself" in the film.
• Scenes involving John and Phoebe walking to dinner, and Crisp and his mother shopping, were filmed on Commercial Street in downtown Astoria.
• The exterior portions of the restaurant scene were filmed outside the Seafare Restaurant at the Red Lion Inn, 400 Industry St., in Astoria.
• Scenes at Joyce and Dominic's house (interior and exterior) were filmed at a private residence located at 414 Exchange St., Astoria.
• Highway scenes were filmed on U.S. 26 east of Seaside, Oregon, 20 miles from Astoria.
• The school picnic was filmed at Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach, Oregon, 25 miles south of Astoria.

Information on Astoria-area locations are courtesy of the Astoria & Warrenton Area Chamber of Commerce.^[14]

Interior school scenes were shot at Universal Studios in Hollywood.^[11] The film's opening scene was filmed at the Westfield MainPlace in Santa Ana, California and South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa, CA.^[11]

Soundtrack

Kindergarten Cop: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
Film score (Digital download / Audio CD) by Randy Edelman
Released	August 31, 1993
Label	Varese Sarabande

Tracklist

1. Astoria School Theme [1:06]
2. Children's Montage [3:21]
3. Love Theme (Joyce) [2:30]
4. Stalking Crisp [3:40]
5. Dominic's Theme/A Rough Day [1:54]
6. The Line Up/Fireside Chat [2:57]
7. Rain Ride [1:55]
8. The Kindergarten Cop [1:27]
9. Poor Cindy/Gettysburg Address [2:06]
10. A Dinner Invitation [0:47]
11. Love Theme Reprise [1:25]
12. A Magic Place [2:54]
13. Kimball Reveals the Truth [1:45]
14. The Tower/Everything Is OK [2:29]
15. Fire at the School [5:38]
16. Closing [2:14]

See also

• List of American films of 1990

References

External links

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Kindergarten Cop

• Kindergarten Cop at the Internet Movie Database
• Kindergarten Cop at allmovie
• Kindergarten Cop at Box Office Mojo
• Kindergarten Cop at Rotten Tomatoes