Vice Academy

Well at least the girls are cuties. And....that's about it, as far as the positive things that can be said about "Vice Academy" are concerned. The story is almost offensively stupid (come on, academy trainees sent out on their own to bust real criminals?), and most of the jokes are labored and unfunny. The humor is below-"Police Adademy", hit-to-the-groin level. This gives the impression that the film was aimed at kids, but it's too raunchy for kids; at the same time it's not raunchy enough for adults - there is maybe 1 minute of nudity in total. It's a film without an audience. In one of her first non-porn roles, Ginger Lynn Allen does show some charm, and should have had more screen time. (*)

IT'S STUPID! IT SHOULD NOT HAVE BEEN MADE!

In order to graduate from a law enforcement school known as the Vice Academy each of the students are required to arrest a certain number of criminals prior to a set date. One of them, "Holly Wells" (Ginger Lynn) has a huge advantage because her father just happens to be the Chief of Police and gives her all of the resources available to him to be used at her convenience. Unfortunately, she is hardly discreet about it and cheerfully boasts about her successes to everyone else in the classroom. This especially annoys three of her less-fortunate classmates named "Didi" (Linnea Quigley), "Shawnee" (Karen Russell) and "Dwayne" (Ken Abraham) who are having great difficulty trying to pass. So with essentially nothing to lose the three of them concoct a plan to apprehend a notorious prostitution ring which has managed to defeat the entire police force to date. Now rather than reveal any more I will just say that this was a crude, low-budget comedy which contained a ridiculous plot and less-than-stellar acting. Yet even with these drawbacks it still managed to be somewhat entertaining all the same. I honestly cannot explain why but I thought some of the scenes were quite amusing. That said, I have rated this movie accordingly. Average.

My review was written in March 1989 after watching the movie on Prism video cassette.

It takes a quickie, direct-to-video pic like "Vice Academy" to make the latter day "Police Academy" series look good.

Former porn star Ginger Lynn Allen teams up with current softcore star Linnea Quigley as warring police cadets studying to join the L. A. vice squad. Pic limns their unfunny (nor for lack of trying) misadventures as prostitutes, porn stars, etc., to entrap unsuspecting sleazeballs.

The two blonde leads are nice to look at, while newcomer Karen Russell amply fills the tease genre gap left by her namesake Betsy Russell. Filmmaker Rick Sloane's most daring motif is spoofing another ex-porn starlet Traci Lords, but effort is generally puerile.

Maybe the most ridiculous movie I've ever been privy to. I admit, I have a weakness for movies with 'Academy' in the title; Combat Academy is a particular favourite. This, however, takes the proverbial cake. It's surreal: the acting(atrocious), the dialogue(and lack thereof), the plot(a porn movie) and cheap production values that would have Johnny LaRue turning in his grave. Basically it's 90 minutes of attractive ladies running around a city trying to arrest hookers, drug dealers and porn stars. Porn queen Ginger Lynn Allen's talent(as minute as they might be) are totally wasted. It's Police Academy minus Steve Guttenberg and a budget multiplied by poor actresses who'd do anything to take their clothes off to make money. My only hope is that no one made anything above scale for this flick... the actresses should have paid the producer to be in it. If you're looking for some excellent vapid entertainment, nice shots of bosom and some laughs, rent it. If you want anything else, I'd look elsewhere.