POLICE ACADEMY 5

title: POLICE ACADEMY 5: ASSIGNMENT MIAMI BEACH
year: 1988
cast: Bubba Smith, Michael Winslow, G.W. Baily, Lance Kinsey
rating: **1/2

With the departure of franchise star Steve Guttenberg, it seems the other characters would take the lead. Nothing doing. Instead there's a busy subplot (what Hitchock called a "McGuffin") of diamond thieves in Florida, where the lovable cops have assembled to celebrated Lassar's retirement; while G.W. Baily and scene-stealing sidekick Lance Kinsey strive to, once again, screw things up. Doughy-eyed Matt McCoy is a weak replacement for Guttenberg, but the main problem is that Bubba Smith, David Graf, Leslie Easterbrook, Marion Ramsey, and Michael Winslow get lost in the shuffle. As for the last two POLICE ACADEMY films, they're not worth mentioning, much less, reviewing.