Main Cast: George Gaynes, Michael Winslow, David Graf, Leslie Easterbrook, G.W. Bailey, Christopher Lee, Ron Perlman
Release Year: 1994
Country: US
Run Time: 83 minutes
MPAA Rating: PG
Plot
In a major stumbling block toward better international relations, America's most laughable police officers are sent to Russia to fight crime in this comedy. In Moscow, master criminal Konali (Ron Perlman) has marketed a new computer game that has an unusual hidden feature -- it allows him to bring down any security system controlled by a PC on which the game has been played, with a string of major robberies as the result. Russian Police Commandant Rakov (Christopher Lee) is at his wit's end about how to deal with the crisis, so he asks for help from the U.S. law enforcement community. However, Rakov's American allies turn out to be Lassard (George Gaynes), Harris (G.W. Bailey), and the rest of the crew from the Police Academy (among them Michael Winslow, David Graf, and Leslie Easterbrook). Claire Forlani also appears in a small role as a Russian beauty. This was the seventh and last film in the Police Academy series, following the departure of franchise loyalist Bubba Smith. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Charlie Schlatter - Cadet Kyle Connors; Claire Forlani - Katrina; Richard Israel - Adam Sharp; Gregg Berger - Lieutenant Talinsky; Julius Le Flore - Piano Player; Stuart Nisbet - Anchor Person; Nikolai Pastukhov - Patriarch; Sergei Reusenko - Serge; Maria Vinogradova - Old Lady in Gorky Park; Alexander Peskov - Hitman; Svetlana - Prime Ballerina; Melissa Skoff
Credit
Ilia Amoorsky - Art Director, Suzanne Lore - Associate Producer, Melissa Skoff - Casting, Donald West - Co-producer, Alex Hapsas - First Assistant Director, Alan Metter - Director, Dennis M. Hill - Editor, Suzanne Hines - Editor, Robert Folk - Composer (Music Score), Steve Nelson - Musical Direction/Supervision, Katalin Elek - Makeup, Fred C. Weiler - Production Designer, Ian Jones - Cinematographer, Paul Maslansky - Producer, Leonid Vereschagin - Producer, Randolph Davis - Screenwriter, Darryl Zarubica - Screenwriter, Michele S. Chodos - Screenwriter
Police Academy: Mission to Moscow (a.k.a Police Academy 7) is a 1994 comedy crime film starring George Gaynes, Michael Winslow, David Graf, and Claire Forlani (in her feature film debut). It is the seventh film in the Police Academy series. It was directed by Alan Metter and written by Neal Israel, Pat Proft, Randolph Davis and Michele S. Chodos. The movie made only $126,247 in the U.S., making it the least successful movie in the series and the only movie in the series to make less than a million dollars. Its luck with critics was hardly better; according to film historian Leonard Maltin, "If the United States and Soviet Union were still at odds, this film would make a great weapon...it could bore people to death." Marion Ramsey and Bubba Smith, who played Laverne Hooks and Moses Hightower respectively in the preceding six films, did not appear in this one.
Russian mafia boss Konstantine Konali (Russian: Константин Конали) is laundering money under the guise of a legitimate business.
The business is a highly addictive video game that allows him to bring down almost any security system controlled by a computer on which the game has been played, with a string of major robberies as the result.
Desperate to nail Konali, Russian Commandant Alexandrei Nikolaivich Rakov (Russian: Александр Николаевич Раков, Christopher Lee) sends for help from America. Rakov decides to bring in someone he met at a police convention -- Commandant Eric Lassard (George Gaynes).
Lassard briefs his team about the mission in Russia, then they head to Moscow. Along with Lassard in Moscow are Sergeant Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow), Sergeant Eugene Tackleberry (David Graf), Captain Debbie Callahan (Leslie Easterbrook), Cadet Kyle Connors (Charlie Schlatter), and Captain Thaddeus Harris (G. W. Bailey).
As they plan to nail Konali, he has cooked up a new scheme -- create an even more addictive form of the Game, a version that can bring down absolutely any computer security system in the world, including the systems that protect the databases that belong to world powers.
Filming of Police Academy 7 took place in Russia in the fall of 1993. According to the behind-the-scenes featurette Underneath the Mission, included on the DVD release, this was one of the first American-produced comedy films to be allowed to film in Russia itself, with scenes filmed involving the Bolshoi Ballet, and on Red Square. Production was temporarily halted due to the October 1993 constitutional crisis and the damaged Russian White House is clearly visible in one scene. Despite the conflict, production was allowed to resume with one of the first scenes after the conflict being filmed at Moscow's airport. According to an interview with Michael Winslow, in the Underneath the Mission featurette, the scene where he performs bike tricks involved him wearing a wireless microphone in order to pick up his comedic sound effects. Unknown to the production crew, the frequency used by the microphone was the same as that used by the military, resulting in officials descending upon the film crew (though the incident ended on friendly terms, says Paul Maslansky).[2]
