Appreciation: Ivan Reitman was the genial maestro of American movie comedy

A few weeks ago, during one of those late nights when YouTube becomes a rabbit hole for the sleep-deprived, I found myself seeking out random clips from, of all things, “Kindergarten Cop.” That 1990 action-comedy directed by Ivan Reitman, who died this weekend at 75, is not what I’d call a personal favorite, though I couldn’t deny its oddly persistent hold on my memory. Like Reitman’s other hit efforts to mine the softer side of Austria’s most famously hard body — including “Twins”, in which Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito played separated-at-birth siblings, and “Junior”, which reteamed both actors as the masterminds behind the world’s first human male pregnancy — “Kindergarten Cop” is something of a triumph of high concept over uneven execution. Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie “Kindergarten Cop.” At their most memorable, Reitman’s comedies all but erase the line between goofy slapdashery and polished craft. Arnold Schwartzenegger, left, and Danny DeVito with director Ivan Reitman on the set of the movie “Junior.” No wonder that his own comedies so often celebrated disruptive, anarchic impulses, particularly within cherished American traditions and institutions: a teen summer camp in “Meatballs”, the U.S. military in “Stripes” and the White House in perhaps his finest accomplishment, “Dave”. Dan Aykroyd, left, Bill Murray and Harold Ramis in Ivan Reitman’s “Ghostbusters.” A lower-key version of that rallying cry seems to permeate so many of Reitman’s comedies, with their sweetly goofy what-me-worry vibes.