Three different teams of Hollywood Vice Squad officers work on three separate cases involving illegal betting run by the Mob, a sleazy BDSM porn director and a ruthless old gangster who runs a teenage prostitution ring. Officers Chang and Stevens work the streets busting hookers. Chang's favorite m.o. is turning into an exaggerated caricature of a stereotypical Asian tourist to gain the girls' trust and then bust them. Things take a serious turn when one of the girls turns out to be a dangerous man in drag who puts a knife to Chang's throat and forces him to take a ride with him, forcing Stevens to engage in hot pursuit. Officer Betty Melton is a rookie who wants to prove herself but her superiors, officers Chavez and Miller, won't let her. When she accidentally witnesses a sleazy backyard BDSM porn shoot involving what seems to be an underage actor, Betty turns to Captain Jensen in hopes of finally getting a case to investigate by herself, but Jensen orders Chavez and Miller to grow up and help her. Officer Daley and hulking officer Tank investigate a proud elderly African-American bookie named Jesse who takes illegal bets for a mobster called Luchessi. They need Jesse's cooperation to get Luchessi but can they guarantee Jesse's safety in return? Meanwhile, Pauline Stanton, a desperate mother who arrived in Hollywood to find her beautiful innocent runaway teenage daughter Lori, asks Jensen for help. His men suspect that the girl is alive and may be turning tricks for Walsh, a ruthless old gangster who seduces teenage girls with promise of fame and stardom only to turn them into his junkie prostitutes. Worse yet, once he has no more use for them they usually end up dead from "accidental" overdose. Jensen gives the case to his top undercover officers Hawkins and Judy. Hawkins pretends to be the new player in town with Judy as his main squeeze to get Walsh and his right hand man Farber to literally sell him Lori. After another hot pursuit involving a rampaging man on PCP who stole a bus full of passengers, Chang and Stevens join Hawkins as backup. However, Walsh also has a backup, his equally ruthless madam Veronica and psychotic shotgun-loving goon Daniello. A mother goes to Hollywood to find her runaway daughter. The Vice Squad discovers that a dangerous gangster has turned the girl into one of his junkie teen prostitutes. The Squad also investigates illegal betting and a BDSM pornographer. 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?<br/><br/>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.
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295 weeks ago