Hollywood Vice Squad

Without seeing this film and reading the plot outline, I can see that this is clearly a rip-off of Paul Schrader's classic film entitled, "Hardcore" starring George C. Scott from 1979. Check out this plot outline from Hardcore: "A conservative Midwest businessman ventures into the sordid underworld of pornography in California to look for his runaway teenage daughter whom is making porno films in the porno pits of Los Angeles. " Sound familiar?

What a rip off of the Scrhrader/Scott classic. It is funny to note and to Carrie Fisher's delight that there are a few references to Star Wars...watch and see, you won't believe your eyes.

Thriller "Hollywood morality police" - the official remake of the very a good movie, Paul Schrader, "Porn". But it is secondary not only to this reason. Aspiring female director Penelope Sfiris (later shot the cult comedy "Wayne's World") has managed to remove the tape, which like all the fighters 80 at once. There is a policeman and Asian, "Squinting" for karate, and distinct characters, companions, and desperate comedians black policeman, and stupid thugs, and the chase on buses, and shotguns, single shot target to convert clumps. But with all this Sfiris handle properly and could not - it promptly inserted in his "dish" of various ingredients, but it came out not tasty broth, and a mysterious brew with a not very appetizing odor. There's even difficult to identify the main character - until the end of the story viewer and can not understand for whom he feel and who himself identified. In addition, the line pornosemok, the former Schroeder Basically, Sfiris taken away somewhere in the background and looking here (As well as many other things) the fifth wheel of the cart (or accordion on the horns goats). So the only thing in "Hollywood Vice Squad" of interest, are actors. Not because they play well, but just because they are always interesting to watch: The former "Princess Leia" from 'Star Wars' Carrie Fisher, John Travolta's brother Joey, Ronnie Cox of "Total Recall", a famous wrestler HBO Bee Haggerty and future wife, Shona Penn, Robin Wright Beauty in his first Movie parts. In addition, film in a small role of the secretary pornomagnata appears strange being under the name of Goddess Bunny - a young transvestite with cerebral palsy (kinoraritet.ru)

My review was written in March 1986 after a screening on Manhattan's UES.

"Hollywood Vice Squad" is producer Sandy Howard's silly, unfunny spoof followup to his 1982 action hit "Vice Squad". Earlier film worked well as a thriller but the new one is an episodic mishmash that is strictly dullsville.

Main storyline is an elaborate in-oke taking off on Paul Schrader's "Hardcore". Pauline Stanton (Trish Van DeVere) asks the Hollywood police, led by kindly Capt. Jensen (Ronny Cox reprising his "Beverly Hills Cop" role) to help find her runaway daughter Lori (Robin Wright). (Van DeVere's real-life spouse Geroge C. Scot became mired in a similar cesspool of vice in "Hardcore".) Lori has become a hooker working for nasty James Walsh (Frank Gorshin hamming it up) and Jensen assigns several cops, led by Hawk (Leon Isaac Kennedy) to entrap Walsh as a white slaver.

Two dumb subplots also compete for attention. In one, gung-ho cop Betty Melton (Carrie Fisher enacting a "Saturday Night Live" tv skit) heads up a team trying to bust a filmmaker shooting S&M pornography with underage actors. The other has Det. Romero (H. B. Haggerty) trying to use a bookie (Julius W. Harris) to get the goods on N. Y. mob figure Luchessi (Robert Misano).

Not helped by James Docherty's vulgar, unfunny dialog, director Penelope Spheeris muffs the timing of the comedy scenes and fails to integrate exposition & dramatics with the requisite action footage. Slapdash production was filmed last summer, but an extraneous car-stunt sequence jarringly features theater marquees (displaying "Clue" and other pics) filmed much later, around Christmastime.

Tech credits are acceptable, but the musical score, mainly percussion, is a drag.

Quite an uneven and hasty balance of humour and drama totally misses the mark, despite some recognizable faces (Ronny Cox, Leon Isaac Kennedy, Frank Gorshin, Trish Van Deverve and Carrie Fisher) in the cast. The episodic screenplay that covers the Vice-Squad through Hollywood is strung together by various (but very worn out) stories (from the ridiculous (illegal bookies) to the seamy (prostitution, drug abuse), and plain kinky (Bondage pornography)) and an overload of colourful characters. There's too much going though, which makes the film less effective with its unsure mixture. The comic approach it goes for it too hysterical, and cartoony, which this overshadows the depressingly brooding context of the more serious moments. Many sequences (largely the ones trying to make laugh) are really uncalled for, and add nothing but to draw it out. Never does it set itself apart, and would've been better to sticking to one path. The pace is fair, but still lulls about it in patches. Some of the stunt work is relentlessly done, and in that over-the-top style. Penelope Spheeris' direction is busy in nature direction, but untidy and the script is cluttered with infantile and vile dialogues. The location is well presented, but it never really features much presence as it should, or becomes a potent character. Fisher's eager, headstrong performance is the pick of the lot, but it's just too bad her role is quite brief.

From the writer of minor exploitation classic "Vice Squad" comes another sleazy 80s crime flick that boasts the film debut of the future "The Princess Bride" star Robin Wright. "Vice Squad" was about a killer targeting prostitutes, but this sudo sequel focuses on a mother searching the mean streets of Hollywood to find her junkie prostitute teen daughter, Wright. Mom finds out her daughter is involved in porn, drugs and general badness, so she then works with the Hollywood Vice Squad to rescue her. Part of the squad is rookie cop Carrie Fisher, who has to go undercover into this skeezy underworld to find Wright and bust the scumbags responsible. In real life, Fisher had just gotten out of rehab and the insurance company wouldn't give her bonding coverage, so director Penelope Sepheeris ("Suburbia" "Decline of the Western Civilization") cast a close friend of Fisher's for the movie so she could make sure Fisher showed up to work each day. Fisher later satirized the production of "Hollywood Vice Squad" in her novel and screenplay for "Postcards From the Edge." But back to the movie at hand, I did enjoy the sleazy 80s grit of the film, though in terms of storytelling and characters, it's pretty weak. Still, I was definitely entertained and would recommend it for fans of similar grimy 80s action flicks (i.e. "10 to Midnight," "Angel," "Vice Squad," etc.). Ronny "Deliverance" "Robocop" Cox, Frank "The Riddler" Gorshin, Leon Isaac "Penitentiary" Kennedy, Joey "Brother of John" Travolta, and character actors H. B. "70s bald guy actor" Haggerty and Evan C. "Kentucky Fried Movie" "The Dead Pool" Kim also appear in the film.