KICKBOXING ACADEMY is one of those production-line comedies aimed squarely at the juvenile set, so I was surprised to find it wasn't quite as bad as I expected. That's not to say it's anything worth staying in for any post-80's comedy with the word Academy in the title is bound to be creatively limited but it does, at least, manage to raise the occasional smile something the POLICE ACADEMY movies have failed to do since episode II.
The notional storyline is trite, a rehash of a rehash of a
Two rival kickboxing academies, one managed by a gung-ho survivalist type, the other owned by a sweet blonde, hold a kickboxing contest to decide which will remain in business and which will close. Aside from a mild teen-romance sub-plot, that's about it.
There are very few familiar faces in this movie, and the acting varies from the acceptable to the truly horrendous, but it does possess a generally cheerful disposition, and, although he's not always successful, director Richard Gabai at least tries to keep things interesting with a variety of tricks. And, just as it's all beginning to wear a little thin, and the plot is growing increasingly daft, the whole thing is wrapped up in a pleasingly brief running time.