Vice Academy Part 2

This sequel to the original "Vice Academy" is even duller and more incomprehensible than the first. There *may* be more plot here, but it is told so badly that it doesn't involve you at all, and thus you can't even follow it from scene to scene.

The overarching narrative, if it can be said to have one (it really doesn't) seems to involve a bad girl called Spanish Fly who wants to spike the town's water supply with an aphrodisiac. Linnea Quigley and Ginger Lynn Allen, no longer members of the academy (so why does the word "academy" appear in the title?) apparently have to go undercover as strippers to catch the bad girl. That is allegedly the main story, but they only appear as strippers for about one scene, as does the main antagonist. So what is the rest of the movie? Sketches without punchlines? That's as good as I can get to explaining it.

There is a subplot this time about a misogynistic, hunky male cop who looks more like a stripper in his cop outfit than Quigley and Allen. Indeed, he probably spends more of the movie undressed, at one stage confronted by Quigley in the men's locker room, who rips off his towel, exposing his bare butt to the camera, and his groin to her, so that she can mock his lack of manhood. Later on, he is stripped to his bikini underwear and chained up in a BDSM type scenario, ensuring that this movie will only ever be watched or remembered by fans of humiliation themed fetish porn.

Remember how in the first "Vice Academy" there was a feeling like the cast and crew were having more fun making the movie than you were watching it? Like the whole thing was a private joke on their behalf, like they thought the whole movie was so ridiculous as to be funny without needing any jokes? Being a sequel, there's less of that this time around - it was obviously only made to cash in on the first - but this time there is a joke character in the form of female bodybuilder Teagan playing a character called "BimboCop", who is, indeed, supposed to be a kind of robot, complete with a synthesised voice.

I bet their sides split when they came up with that one.

My review was written in August 1990 after watching the movie on Paramount/Prism video cassette.

Made-for-video sequel reunites B-movie star Linnea and ex-porn star Ginger Lynn in a mild comedy patterned after WB's "Police Academy' series. Paramount's video wing should do well with this well-packaged, painless entry from Prism Entertainment.

"Vice Academy Part 2" limns the duo combating Spanish Fly ((Marina Benvenga), a campy villainess holding the city ransom as she threatens to contaminate the water supply with an aphrodisiac.

Running gag of the two uninhibited heroines (based on their previous films) portraying blushing innocents is overdone. Gargantuan body builder Teagan is fun as a robot named Bimbocop. All three heroines are billed with and without their last names.

Physical comedy is ably handled by Jayne Hamil as the girls' commander while Toni Alessandrini impresses as a stripper. Tech credits are modest.

Like all B movies sequels are unavoidable, but fortunately for once it's an enjoyable sequel. Linnea and Ginger Lynn return to bust more bad guys and stop the evil doers the only way they know how, with their bras, guns, and brains (to bad they can't rely on the latter for much help). The film is missing the spark of the original with loss of characters like Chucky Long and Cherry Pop, but does have some laughs, and it is a good way to kill 80 minutes. Look for B movie queen Melissa Moore in the pre-credit sequence.

"Vice Academy 2" is worth sitting through only for Ginger Lynn Allen: she is cute, she appears in black lingerie, she wears a revealing dress, she performs (along with Linnea Quigley) a strip dance, and she throws one mean right punch. Other than her, the film is so PAINFULLY drawn-out, so insultingly lame, so persistently witless that you simply won't believe it (just one example: what a brilliant idea to create a powerful half-woman/half-robot crime-fighter and then put a switch on its back that anyone can easily move to "worthless" or "overload" mode). If complete lack of talent was a crime, writer-director Rick Sloane would be serving a life sentence. My rating is pretty generous for this one. (*1/2)

The original Vice Academy was a staple of my late night movie watching as a kid thanks to USA Up All Night, but I never got around to see this sequel until last night. It's a perfectly acceptable and occasionally fun sequel with Linnea Quigley and Ginger Lynn Allen still giving it their all and camping it up as Didi and Holly - two new police recruits who don't seem to know how to do anything. They have to keep proving their worth by tracking down and apprehending perps that the regular police force can't, which was, more of less, the same concept as the original film, except this time they've graduated and are a part of the force.

As expected, there's a good deal of T 'n A, but it never comes across as sleazy as it should, because the film mostly focuses on the comedy aspects. It's light, silly, and absolutely ridiculous, but the filmmakers and cast keep things lively and it's very entertaining if you don't forget to turn off your brain and go along for the ride.