Hollywood Vice Squad (1986)

Director:

Penelope Spheeris

Writer:

James J. Docherty (written by)

Release Date:

2 October 1986 (Australia)

Genre:

Action | Comedy | Crime | Drama | Thriller

Tagline:

The most unusual police force in the world

Plot:

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. |

Plot Keywords:

Police | Mother Daughter Relationship | Escort Service | Drag Queen | Sting Operation

Cast

Ronny Cox	...	Captain Jensen
Frank Gorshin	...	Walsh
Leon Isaac Kennedy	...	Hawkins
Trish Van Devere	...	Pauline Stanton
Carrie Fisher	...	Betty Melton
Evan C. Kim	...	Chang (as Evan Kim)
Joey Travolta	...	Stevens
H.B. Haggerty	...	Tank
Cec Verrell	...	Judy
Julius Harris	...	Jesse
Marvin Kaplan	...	Man with doll
Beau Starr	...	Farber
Robert Miano	...	Luchessi
Ben Frank	...	Daley
Tom Everett	...	Miller

Also Known As:

The Boulevard (Canada: English title) (video title)

Runtime:

101 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

Iceland:16 | Australia:R | UK:18 | USA:R

Trivia:

First feature film of Robin Wright Penn.

Movie Connections:

Remake of Hardcore (1979)

a confusing mix of comedy and drama

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.