Christopher Lee: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

3. Commandant Rakov - Police Academy: Mission To Moscow (1994)

Like the National Lampoon series before it and Austin Powers after it, the Police Academy films are a classic example of a franchise that should have stopped after its first instalment. This, the seventh and final part to date, is rightfully regarded as the low point of the series. Taking just over $100,000 upon its release, it was a commercial flop and panned by critics, with Leonard Maltin commenting: "If the United States and Soviet Union were still at odds, this film would make a great weapon...it could bore people to death." Mission to Moscow takes place after the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union. Commandant Rakov is keen to bring down Mafia boss Konstantin Konali, who is laundering money under the guise of a video game business. Through a series of plot contrivances, Rakov ends up calling in the Police Academy team, who soon begin to cause havoc in Moscow in their foolhardy bid to bring Konali to book. It should come as no surprise that Mission to Moscow is dire. Its jokes are either lazy or non-existent, its direction is lacklustre, the writing is appalling and most of the performers seem embarrassed to be there. Lee's performance, however, is particularly toe-curling, camping it up as a somewhat effeminate Russian soldier and with an accent that comes and goes as it pleases. While the damage is mitigated by the film's commercial failure, it's sad to see a great actor waste his talent so markedly.