[3] Arnold Schwarzenegger stars as John Kimble, a tough police detective working undercover as a kindergarten teacher to locate the wife and child of drug dealer Cullen Crisp (Richard Tyson), who are living under assumed identities.

[3] Critical reception was mixed, though Schwarzenegger earned praise for his comedic abilities and willingness to subvert the action-hero image that had defined his career.

Partnered with fellow detective Phoebe O'Hara, Kimble is sent to Astoria, Oregon to identify Rachel and offer her immunity in exchange for testifying against Crisp in court.

O'Hara is tasked with finding Rachel via her son by posing as a newly hired substitute teacher in kindergarten class at Astoria Elementary School.

She is outraged that he misled her, but she reveals that Crisp lied about the stolen money; in order to convince drug dealers to hunt them down.

She shoots Kimble in the shoulder and demands he tell her where her grandson is, but at the last second, O'Hara appears and knocks Eleanor unconscious with a baseball bat.

[12] The school picnic was filmed at Ecola State Park near Cannon Beach, Oregon, 25 miles (40 km) south of Astoria.

The site's consensus reads, "Arnold Schwarzenegger substitutes his action brio with some refreshingly adept comedic timing, but Kindergarten Cop is too grim for children and too cloying for adults.

[20] Reviewer Caryn James of The New York Times said, "Like Twins, which was also directed by Ivan Reitman, nothing in the film is as funny as the idea of it.

"[21] In Kim Newman's review for Empire, he wrote, "with a heart of purest mush, the film still manages to be generally entertaining" and gave it 3 stars out of 5.

[22] An Entertainment Weekly review at the time of release notes that: "the movie never quite gels and it is not going to generate quite the mega hit business their producers are counting on", giving it a "C" grade.

[23] Roger Ebert said the film: "is made up of two parts that shouldn't fit, but somehow they do, making a slick entertainment out of the improbable, the impossible and Arnold Schwarzenegger" and awarded it three stars.

[27] Several of Schwarzenegger's memorable lines from the film were used in sound boards for prank phone calls that became popular in the early 2000s.