Taking time out on the action-man front between Total Recall and Terminator 2, Big Arnie now followed up his commercial success in the very bland Twins (yes, believe it or not, Twins was a hit) by re-teaming with director Ivan Reitman for another soft-centred comedy thriller.
This time around he is John Kimble an Austrian somehow working as an hard-nut for the Los Angeles Police Department, who transfers out of his macho man surroundings into a kiddie movie suburbia when he has to go undercover as a kindergarten teacher. Although the first and last thirds are a densely plotted blend of humour and thrills, Kindergarten Cop sags desperately in the middle.
The initial joke of facing the man mountain from The Terminator with the one obstacle he cant possibly overcome a classroom full of six-year-olds fades almost instantly as the Macaulay Culkin-wannabe tykes proudly trot out in succession their personalised cute mannerism and Arnie miraculously but expectedly turns from gruff kid-hater to dewy-eyed super-teacher in the space of an aerobics montage.
With a heart of purest mush, Kindergarten Cop still manages to be generally entertaining, even for folk with an aversion to Aryan body builders or perky pre-teenagers, while some of the jokes are a reminder that Reitman was once a promising comic talent, and the thriller stuff benefits from a stronger-than-usual set of villains and a nicely-judged sidekick performance from Pamela Reed as Schwarzeneggers gourmet colleague.
