Save your money for something good and enjoyable

Admirable film.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

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.

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.

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.

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.