VICE SQUAD

By: BRIAN THOMAS
Review Date: Sunday, March 19, 2006

While a lot of people in Hollywood have been crowing the past few years about how much they love the grindhouse exploitation flicks of the 1970s and early '80s as they churn out 21st century remakes, very few of their projects hit the mark, leaving fans to seek out the original vintage material. VICE SQUAD, produced during the years when low budget exploitation pictures were digging down to new depths of sleazery in order to compete with the new video rental market, is about as hard-edged as they come, a crime thriller with a grunge factor approached only by cable TV cop shows these days.

Princess (Season Hubley of ELVIS and HARDCORE) is a businesswoman by day and Hollywood hooker by night in order to support her young daughter and finance a move to San Diego. When her friend Ginger (future MTV veejay Nina Blackwood) is beaten to death, tough vice cop Tom Walsh (Gary Swanson) convinces Princess to work with him to capture the sadistic pimp that did it. They have little trouble trapping Ramrod (Wings Hauser of SIEGE OF FIREBASE GLORIA), who fights like a mad dog before he's arrested, and Princess and Walsh part friends. But when the psycho escapes from custody, he goes on a rampage set on revenge. While Princess goes about her business of servicing the perverts of Hollywood Boulevard, the vice squad splits up to try to track him or Princess down before Ramrod can get to the woman he knows set him up.

With slim plot material to work with, the filmmakers keep things interesting by keeping Princess and Ramrod moving, giving us a peek at every sick vice that 1982 audiences could handle, from a heavily tattooed arms dealer to an eccentric millionaire who makes her dress up in a wedding gown while he lies in a coffin. Using extensive on location shooting, we get a thorough portrait of L.A.'s underbelly at its worst. Duded up in a baby blue cowboy shirt, wild-eyed Wings Hauser burns through the movie like battery acid, corroding everything he touches as the vicious pimp, creating a thick atmosphere of menace and suspense. He perfectly embodies the creeping corruption staining the urban landscape. He even sings the roadhouse rock theme song "Neon Slime". Hubley at first seems an unlikely fit for a role that would likely go to more of a pin-up type in later films, but it's precisely her believable vulnerability that makes her so good here.

Director Gary Sherman (RAW MEAT) provides an excellent commentrak moderated by David Gregory, going into detail about not only his filming techniques, but also the research that went into this basic amalgamation of true stories. The disc also includes the film's sensationalistic advertising.


Copyright © 2006 Brian Thomas, author of the massive book VideoHound's DRAGON: ASIAN ACTION & CULT FLICKS.
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