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.
Need some streaming picks for the month? Here are the buzz-worthy titles you're going to want to mark on your calendar.
Daniel Kaluuya, known for his roles in "Black Mirror" and Get Out, stars in Judas and the Black Messiah. "No Small Parts" takes a look at his rise to fame.
Related lists from IMDb users
Title: Hollywood Vice Squad (1986)
Want to share IMDb's rating on your own site? Use the HTML below.
| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Ronny Cox | ... | Captain Jensen | |
| Frank Gorshin | ... | Walsh | |
| Leon Isaac Kennedy | ... | Hawkins | |
| Trish Van Devere | ... | Pauline Stanton (as Trish Van DeVere) | |
| 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 | |
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 ...
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.