Kindergarten Cop (1990) on Netflix
PG-1319901h 51mActionComedyCrime
The case against drug lord Cullen Crisp needs testimony from the ex-wife who vanished with his son. Detective John Kimble follows her to Oregon, where he poses as a kindergarten teacher.
- Netflix3.3/5
- IMDb6.3/10177,783 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes54%
Trailer
Plot summary
John Kimble works narcotics in Los Angeles and has chased Cullen Crisp for years. When Crisp is arrested for a man's murder, the case rests on the word of his ex-wife Rachel, who disappeared with their young son. Kimble and his partner Phoebe O'Hara travel to Astoria, Oregon, to find her. John and Phoebe do not know what Rachel or her son looks like, and they expect to find the boy among the kindergartners at the local elementary school. The plan is for O'Hara, a former schoolteacher, to observe the class. She falls seriously ill, and Kimble takes the classroom instead, though he has never taught and has little patience for young children. Principal Ingrid Schlowski doubts he belongs there. Kimble also meets Joyce Palmeri, a teacher whose son Dominic sits in his class.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Kindergarten Cop (1990)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- Bill Murray and Patrick Swayze were approached first to play Kimble, and Danny DeVito was considered until Ivan Reitman decided DeVito's height would make him seem less believable in the part. The role went instead to DeVito's Twins costar, Arnold Schwarzenegger.
- Reitman and casting director Michael Chinich auditioned more than 2,000 children for the roles of the pupils. Elijah Wood was among those who auditioned unsuccessfully.
- As an April Fools' Day prank in 2012, the film was announced as a coming release in The Criterion Collection, the distributor devoted to "important classic and contemporary films", supposedly for its genre-revisionist mixing of policier and family comedy. It did reach Blu-ray on 1 July 2014, though not from Criterion.
- Parts of Astoria Elementary School, a location from the film, were used as reference for Midwich Elementary School in the video game Silent Hill.
- During an April 2021 interview on Jimmy Kimmel Live!, Schwarzenegger said the idea behind his children's series Superhero Kindergarten came from his desire "to do a sequel to Kindergarten Cop".
- The Philippines got its own version in 1996: the action comedy Ang Titser Kong Pogi, literally "My Handsome Teacher", is a remake of Kindergarten Cop with Bong Revilla in a title role.
