therealkylemcelravy This hilarious comedy from the producing team of Golan-Globus is probably the best, but sadly obscure film to come out from the Cannon label, even for a movie to come out in 1986.David Landsberg stars as Donald Wilson, a nebbish nerd whose obsession with crime novels forces him to lose a string of jobs after one comic mishap after another. One day, he notices a sign on a phone booth advertising to be a detective. The agency responsible is Miller Detective Agency run by Paul Miller (Lorin Dreyfuss, older brother of Richard), a slick high-roller whose business is in financial trouble because Paul has owed money to a lot of people and some will stop at nothing to get it. Donald enrolls into Paul's so- called "class" and learns lock picking, firearms, and even writing checks and paying money to Paul for owing purposes. One day, they stumble across a kidnapping plot involving a young couple, Carlo and Catherina madly in love that's hampered by the rivalry of two Italian mafia families, the Zanettis and the Lombardis. The Lombardi patriarch assign brutish hit-man Bruno (exploitation favorite George Eastman to kidnap Catherina, who is in New York visiting her cousin, Mario. Donald and Paul go to the house she's in on a whim as part of a fake dog newspaper ad. Catherina gives Donald a valuable pennant, but Bruno notices this and chases him and Paul out of the house. They decide to take the pennant back to Mario, who's boarded a plane back home to Italy. They then find themselves in the country and must put an end to the 200 year old feud between the families and reunite Carlo and Catherina.Landsberg and Dreyfuss, who also wrote the screenplay, have terrific chemistry together and the film contains a lot of funny slapstick gags, many of which Bruno gets the brunt of. It also includes a wild car chase through the streets of Rome, when a movie set and a city market get obliterated, as well as a daring foot chase in the Leaning Tower of Piza. Even Donald gets to drive a Ferrari that ends in a bad crash.The two guys would write and star in another film the following year, DUTCH TREAT, that sadly wasn't as well-received as this one.

tripleess2003 This is one of the best comedy movies of all time that i have seen, up there with the likes of History of the world, Space balls, The naked gun series & the police academy series. The movie is so fast paced & so incredibly funny that there are very few words to describe it. One scene is better than the other, what with the copier machine scene to the mannequin scene, the Grey poodle fufu to the car chase in Italy. Who can forget the scene from the museum & the leaning tower of Pisa chase. Also the lines "They don't make monks like they used to" & "This is America, we live on bad checks." There is simply nothing you cannot like about this movie.....except that it is not available in a DVD format.

EuroNYC7 My brother and I first saw this outrageously-funny comedy back in Summer of 1987 which we rented from a Mom-and-Pop video rental (pre-Blockbuster days). Let me tell you, we continuously rented the video and watched it EVERY SINGLE day with the same hilarious results! Alas, I finally found the movie on E-bay and received it only last week!! David Landsberg and Lorin Dreyfuss really bought down the house with their wacky performances. In my opinion, at least half the so-called "funny films" today can, in no way, shape or form, match this hysterical, hiccup-inducing, over-the-hill comedy! Two bumblers, one an honest simpleton who keeps getting fired from every job in NYC because he' s so caught up in detective novels, and the other, a sleazier and witty but somewhat incompetent con-artist who reels him into his shady, fire-trap, nickel-and-dime 'Detective School', suddenly get caught up in international intrigue involving a beautiful woman, 'Old World' traditions and the Italian Mafia, traveling from New York to beautiful Rome and running into all types of comedic obstacles and situations. They start off by posing as tourists with Japanese names after lifting the boarding passes from two unsuspecting Japanese passengers, to foul play aboard an Italy-bound airliner, to the hi-jinx in a Rome museum, masquerading as monks in the Vatican to the nerve-shaking Ferrari escapade....never a dull moment!! They sure don' t make them like that anymore! If you are down in the dumps, I strongly recommend this dosage of massively hysterical humor.

Ben Foster My best friend and I have seen this movie well over one hundred times. We have it memorized, line by line. We act out scenes from the movie, and rate each other's performance. We don't even refer to it by the full title of "Detective School Dropouts" anymore -- long ago we abbreviated it to "DSDO."My favorite scene has to be when Paul and Donald steal the Ferrari:Paul: "slow down!!" Donald: "I can't!" Paul: "would you open your eyes and watch out for those sheep?!"It's really a pity that Landsberg and Dreyfuss haven't made more movies together, because they had such a hilarious synergy in this one. The scene where Wilson is dressed up in a wedding gown while trying to fend off the unsuspecting Bruno, had me on the floor in tears. Bruno's constant injuries (the knives!!) are a source of much humor. Suffice it to say that this is one hilarious film with some "zany" slapstick humor. It is definitely worth renting, if you can find it. I give this movie a perfect 10!