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Kindergarten Cop

Kindergarten Cop

Comedy · 1990

Hard-edged cop John Kimble gets more than he bargained for when he goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher to get the goods on a brutal drug lord while at the same time protecting the man's young son. Pitted against a class of boisterous moppets whose antics try his patience and test his mettle, Kimble may have met his match … in more ways than one.

Movie details

Kindergarten Cop

“Go ahead, YOU tell him you didn't do your homework.”

1990 Comedy 1h 51m

Critical arithmetic

One number, for now.

TMDB

6.1 / 10

Community rating

Hard-edged cop John Kimble gets more than he bargained for when he goes undercover as a kindergarten teacher to get the goods on a brutal drug lord while at the same time protecting the man's young son. Pitted against a class of boisterous moppets whose antics try his patience and test his mettle, Kimble may have met his match … in more ways than one.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Kindergarten Cop?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Earl Montgomery, a bombastic police academy reject, and Hank Rafferty, a disgraced, mild-mannered cop, can't seem to escape each other. They met on opposite sides of the law during a routine traffic stop that escalated out of control; now as lowly security guards they're thrown together to bust a smuggling operation.

Dragnet

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Action · 1987

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Ride Along

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Action · 2014

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Ivan Reitman

Written by

Murray Salem · Timothy Harris · Herschel Weingrod

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Arnold Schwarzenegger

Kimble

Penelope Ann Miller

Penelope Ann Miller

Joyce

Pamela Reed

Pamela Reed

Phoebe

Linda Hunt

Linda Hunt

Miss Schlowski

Richard Tyson

Richard Tyson

Crisp

Carroll Baker

Carroll Baker

Eleanor Crisp

J

Joseph Cousins

Dominic

Court is in session

Put Kindergarten Cop on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Popcorn Loyalist

“It owes the canon nothing.”

The movie pursues immediacy and audience pleasure without begging institutions to certify its worth.

The prosecution The Big-Idea Head

“Easy pleasure, short half-life.”

It moves efficiently through the moment but offers little reason to keep arguing once the credits end.