This is a movie searching for an audience. Best bet would be the "National Lampoon" crowd. Essentially "The Choirboys" has no plot, and really is nothing more than a series of mostly tasteless skits strung together with the very thin thread of policemen pulling numerous pranks. Nevertheless, some of the nonsense is very funny. You also have a terrific cast pulling off this stuff. To say that the film is different than the usual buddy cop movies would be a real understatement. Think "Animal House" without the fraternity, but with cops behaving badly. Definitely not an endorsement for political correctness, but a throwback to a time when one didn't have to weigh every word for fear of offending someone. - MERK

On paper this should have been excellent . We have Robert Aldrich who made some very intelligent , cynical movies like ATTACK , THE DIRTY DOZEN , TOO LATE THE HERO and ULZANA'S RAID directing a novel by acclaimed author Joseph Wambaugh and featuring amongst others notable actors like Louis Gosset Jnr and James Woods before they became well known . But since it was made on celluloid and not on paper that doesn't appear to count for very much

THE CHOIRBOYS is a mess . There's little plot to speak off and is so cluttered up with characters that it's impossible to understand where the screenplay is going and of the characters themselves they're very unlikable . Since the characters are amoral policeman I thought perhaps someone had the idea of making this as a precursor to HILL STREET BLUES and I guess somewhere along the line that's what the intention was , of an off beat black comedy but the writing , directing and acting is so heavy handed it's like watching a very bad adult version of POLICE ACADEMY with only the sequence of a man taking his pink poodle in the park coming close to raising a smile

Did I start this review by asking what went wrong ? After seeing the movie in its entirety I feel I now have to ask did anything go right ?

Joseph Wambaugh disowned this film-adaptation of his bestseller about department low-lifes within the Los Angeles police force, but the experience probably shamed him anyway--and anyone who gets through the picture will feel shame for him. Half-assed mixture of smut-minded hijinks and 'sobering' cop drama is so sloppily constructed I am amazed director Robert Aldrich didn't remove his name as well. Aldrich, once a filmmaker of merit, seems to have nothing on his agenda here except earning a paycheck (ditto cinematographer Joseph Biroc, who does some of the gloppiest, ugliest work I have ever seen in a major movie). The mostly-male cast members continually smirk and leer throughout (it's difficult to distinguish the characters' loutish behavior from the actual actors themselves--everyone comes off looking pathetic). The low-point of the movie comes when snarling cop Tim McIntire (in a career-ending turn) is hand-cuffed to a tree without his pants and is spotted by a mincing homosexual. McIntire threatens to tear out the guy's liver and break his spleen if he comes near him. Everyone on screen is doubled over with laughter, but the viewer is the butt of the joke. * from ****