General · EdgepediaOctober 3, 20265 min read

Police Academy 6: City Under Siege

Police Academy 6: City Under Siege is a 1989 American comedy film, the sixth installment of the Police Academy franchise, directed by Peter Bonerz and starring Bubba Smith, David Graf, and Michael Winslow as police officers pursuing a gang of robbers in the fictional Wilson Heights district¹. It was released by Warner Bros. on 10 March 1989, runs 84 minutes, and carries a PG rating¹. Critics received it poorly: it holds a 0% Tomatometer on Rotten Tomatoes from 9 reviews and a Metascore of 16 on Metacritic²^•³.

Key fact	Detail
Release	10 March 1989 (United States), Warner Bros., PG, 84 minutes¹
Director / writer	Peter Bonerz; screenplay by Stephen J. Curwick; producer Paul Maslansky¹
Budget	$12 million, $1 million less than the previous installment¹
Box office	$11,567,217 gross in the US and Canada; opening weekend $4,032,480 at 1,627 theaters⁴
Critical reception	0% Tomatometer (9 reviews); Metascore 16, with 6 of 8 reviews negative²^•³
Franchise position	Sixth of seven theatrical Police Academy films (1984–1994)¹

Spoilers

Plot

A string of high-stakes robberies committed by the same three crooks has hit businesses in the city's Wilson Heights neighborhood, and business in the district is suffering. Officials suspect a leak within the local police precinct, so the Governor sends in a team led by Commandant Eric Lassard (George Gaynes) to stop the gang, over the dismay of Captain Thaddeus Harris (G.W. Bailey), who runs the precinct and dislikes the arriving officers⁵. The team consists of Nick Lassard (Matt McCoy), Moses Hightower (Bubba Smith), Eugene Tackleberry (David Graf), Larvell Jones (Michael Winslow), Debbie Callahan (Leslie Easterbrook), Laverne Hooks (Marion Ramsey), and Douglas Fackler (Bruce Mahler)⁵. The stakes rise when Commandant Lassard is accused of being the mastermind behind the robberies, and the team must clear his name⁵. Rotten Tomatoes summarizes the premise as clownish police officers on the lookout for "a three-ring circus of thieves"².

Place in the franchise

The film was the sixth of seven theatrical entries in the series, following Police Academy (1984) through Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach (1988); a seventh installment, Police Academy 7: Mission to Russia, was released in 1994¹. The franchise also spanned an animated television series of sixty-five episodes in 1988–1989 and a syndicated live-action series, Police Academy: The Series, of twenty-six episodes in 1997–1998¹.

Production

The project was announced in September 1987 under the title Police Academy 6: Operation Glasnost, with producer Paul Maslansky intending to shoot in the Soviet Union; he was unable to convince Warner Bros. to allow it, and the film was shot in Los Angeles instead¹. Principal photography began on 24 October 1988, with some filming at The Burbank Studios¹. The budget was $12 million, $1 million less than the fifth film's¹.

Marion Ramsey, Leslie Easterbrook, Lance Kinsey, George Gaynes, Michael Winslow, Bubba Smith, George R. Robertson, and David Graf reprised their roles from Police Academy 5: Assignment Miami Beach¹. Steve Guttenberg and Bobcat Goldthwait, leads of the earlier films, had left the series after the fourth installment⁶. The crew included cinematographer Charles Rosher, Jr., editor Hubert C. De La Bouillerie, production designer Tho E. Azzari, and composer Robert Folk¹^•³.

Box office

The film opened at $4.0 million from 1,627 theaters, ranking second for the weekend behind Lean on Me⁷. That opening was down nearly 35% from the equivalent opening weekend of Police Academy 5 a year earlier, prompting the Los Angeles Times to ask whether the series, which had by then grossed half a billion dollars internationally, was losing audience appeal⁷. Total gross in the United States and Canada was $11,567,217, against the $12 million budget⁴. The Numbers records the opening weekend as 34.9% of the total gross, with a 100% domestic share, meaning the film earned essentially nothing outside the United States and Canada⁸.

Reception

Critical response was overwhelmingly negative. On Rotten Tomatoes all 9 surveyed reviews are rotten, averaging 2.60/10, while 25,000+ audience ratings give it 29%². Metacritic's Metascore is 16, based on 8 reviews of which 6 were negative and 2 mixed³.

Recurring criticisms. Reviewers targeted the recycled humor. The New York Times' Richard Bernstein granted that there were some witty moments, such as Proctor (Lance Kinsey) washing a window with a squeaky rubber squeegee while Harris (G.W. Bailey) eavesdropped through it with a stethoscope, but wrote that most of the film, "from the flying billiard balls to the exploding cigars," showed things seen before³. Variety noted that director Bonerz and writer Curwick both came from television sitcoms, and that the film seemed to cry out for a laugh track³. The Washington Post's Richard Harrington wrote that the humor "vacillates between the soporific and the moronic"³, and the Los Angeles Times' Chris Willman called the 84 minutes "an endless living death"³.

A few critics found positives. TV Guide praised Charles Rosher, Jr.'s cinematography and Robert Folk's soundtrack as high production values wasted on a slow-paced, silly film³. Time Out called the film "surely the nadir of the rehash genre" but singled out one moment, a rap whose dubbed backing music runs in a different time signature from the vocals, as the only arresting moment in the film⁹.

References

Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026