Hollywood Vice Squad

1986 "The most unusual police force in the world."
4.7| 1h41m| R| en| More Info
Released: 28 February 1986 Released
Producted By: Sandy Howard Productions
Country: United States of America
Budget: 0
Revenue: 0
Official Website:
Info

A mother goes to Hollywood to find her runaway daughter. She discovers that the girl has become involved in the pornography industry, and goes to the police to get help in finding her.

Genre

Action, Comedy

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Director

Penelope Spheeris

Production Companies

Sandy Howard Productions

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Hollywood Vice Squad Audience Reviews

Evengyny Thanks for the memories!
Jonah Abbott There's no way I can possibly love it entirely but I just think its ridiculously bad, but enjoyable at the same time.
Marva It is an exhilarating, distressing, funny and profound film, with one of the more memorable film scores in years,
Lela The tone of this movie is interesting -- the stakes are both dramatic and high, but it's balanced with a lot of fun, tongue and cheek dialogue.
PeterMitchell-506-564364 Hollywood Vice Squad passes itself off as a comedy, even though it's really a drama. Given it's subject, it could of been a much better drama, as some bits work quite effectively, but I'm talking only a minority of scenes. The film has an interesting cast of actors, some lesser known types, like Evan Kim, and Joey Travolta, John Travolta's lesser known brother. It also stars veteran actor, Frank Gorshin, as a sleazy old pimp, well suited to his features. It also has Carrie Fisher, after her Star Wars days, a cop with potential, wanting to make a difference. Her frustration is only increased when stumbling across a kiddy porn flick being made in one of L.A.s own backyards. Ronny Cox, I guess, is kind of stereotyped here as a caring detective who tells mother (Trish Van Devere) straight out the facts on missing teenagers who go searching for their dreams. This film also has Robin Wright in one of her earlier roles, (years before becoming Mr Penn's better half) as a teen pro and junkie who works for pimp, Gorshin, (again what a sleaze). So it's up to the vice squad who must track her down, the missing teen, suspected as belonging to Gorshin's stable. Evan Kim is an asset to this movie in a parade of bad disguises, while working undercover, the last one, before the curtain comes up, a must see, though I did like the first one with as the eager sex tourist. Leon Issac Kennedy, another one of the squad, has his moments too. He plays cool, great, almost a clone of Lionel Richie. The scene in particular that convinced me mentally of this, was when one of Gorshin's women, a tall long legged hottie, strips for Leon's character, who's masquerading here as an upscale pimp, competing with Gorshin, who finds him a hoot as he does a joke, This scene is my favorite scene, that stands superior to the others, but also not forgetting the one with Ms Wright, in nightwear making out with an older client. One thing that freaked me out about the movie was Gorshin's, shockingly thin and short receptionist. Some scenes in this movie stay with me, one a raid with Fisher's mob crashing another kiddie porn flick, this one has it's youngsters in viking gear, horns and all. But this movie is really laughable, but a lot of fun too. It's a pity in one sense, as this flick showed promise, but on the other scale, it's really entertaining B grade fun, Evan and Leon as it's saving grace.
Lando Free 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.
Hessian499 Hollywood Vice Squad mixes comedy and drama, and has three different story lines, so it changes directions quite often; too quickly in fact for the movie to be really enjoyable. The three story lines involve police efforts to break up prostitution, pornography, and bookmaking; the story involving efforts to break up a pornography ring is probably the best, with Carrie Fisher as a novice yet dedicated officer leading the investigation (Fisher seems like the only member of the cast who doesn't act like she would rather be on the set of some other film). The film switches between the three stories regularly, which makes the action hard to follow, but worse is the fact that it switches from a dramatic to comedy scene just as quickly; it makes the comedy seem less funny and the drama seem less serious. Some of the comedy scenes, while funny, appear to have been put in just to kill time and pad the film.Hollywood Vice Squad is not totally hopeless; as mentioned, there are some really funny scenes, and the music and fashion will make you nostalgic for the mid 1980s. Overall, though, it looks more like a film that was made in a rush, and not very well. All three story lines have happy endings as well, which makes the movie pretty unrealistic compared to the realities of Hollywood. Not the worst film I ever saw, but no Citizen Kane, either.
chinaskee Taken straight from "actual files of the Hollywood Vice Squad",Penelope Spheeris' fourth film tries to be both a comedy and serious drama at the same time,and fails miserably at both.The comedy doesn't work,and all the actors look like they're acting underwater,so the viewer ends up not caring what happens to any of the characters.This movie is like watching a train wreck in progress,without the adrenaline flow.