Kindergarten Cop 1990

The title really says it all here. Arnold gets silly as a tough guy cop, undercover in the classroom, who finds his young students twice as terrifying as the pimps and addicts he normally wrangles.

Following closely after Twins, his first lighter role, this represents a further softening of the Governator's image and a broadening of his popular appeal. He still gets to fire big guns, wear intimidating sunglasses, toss chumps around the room - actually, he probably does too much of that stuff - but he also reveals an unexpected gentle side and an effective, self-aware sense of humor. Sure, many of the laughs revolve around how the big guy speaks (anyone who was around in far-off year of 1990 has probably barked "It's not a toomah" in a bad Austrian accent once or twice) but it never comes off as mean-spirited or in poor taste and Schwarzenegger really leans into the stereotype for maximum absurdity points.

Arnold's great with the kids, too, and under the improv-friendly gaze of director Ivan Reitman, they more than hold up their end of the bargain. The best bits are where the youngsters go off-script and ramble, or climb all over the action hero like a jungle gym, or go silent and simply goggle at his reactions. Those moments give the film more staying power than its paper-thin plot really deserves. Granted, it leaves plenty of space for on-set serendipity, but it also takes forever to get started and fails to settle on an appropriate tone. Was this premise really calling for a bullet-riddled climax in the school bathroom?