Vice Girls (1996)

Don't Believe the Hype

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

Fun premise, good actors, bad writing. This film seemed to have potential at the beginning but it quickly devolves into a trite action film. Ultimately it's very boring.

"Vice Girls" opens very promisingly, as vice cop Lana Clarkson chases two thugs on foot, catches up to them, they kick her gun out of her hands, so she proceeds to kick both of their asses in a matter of seconds with a couple of well-placed punches! Unfortunately, I have to report that this is pretty much the ONLY action scene in this entire film (unless you want to count a very brief catfight between the other two cops). What could have been a fun little romp with three strong and sexy women (the towering Clarkson is undeniably the most famous one, but my favorite is actually Liat Goodson) is spoiled by a distasteful plot (serial killer, snuff films, etc.), and some long, shapeless sequences that seem to go nowhere (especially the big party). Oh well, at least "Vice Girls" is still superior to the hard-to-sit-through "Vice Academy" films, so I'll give it ** out of 4.

Lana Clarkson is Jan Cooper a recently promoted but freshly off the wagon drunk of a cop. She finds herself paired with two other vice girl cops to catch the people who murdered Jan's homeless friends. The acting is atrocious, the plot overly silly, and the 'action' insipid. This film makes "Vice Academy" look like "Vice Squad". Even the plentiful nudity can't save this sorry little film from the trash heaps of celluloid history. ONLY for overly enthusiastic fans of the late Lana Clarkson, everyone else just move along, there's nothing to see here. There I've just saved you your valuable time and money.My Grade: F

Easily one of those "it's so bad it's good" low budget straight to video and cable films that appears to have been filmed in a matter of a few days. Coinoisseurs of "B" films (in this case, "C") should definitely take a gander at this effort because of the cheap sets and because it's one of the last roles for an underused but strong and beautiful actress. Story is about a serial killer who has been killing teenage runaways and video taping the actual act of murder to make snuff films. Jan Cooper (Lana Clarkson) is a veteran cop with a bad attitude but she has an even more serious problem with her drinking and she likes to conduct her police work out of a bar called "Sweeties". She's assigned a new partner in Edith Block (Liat Goodson) and is also aided by Officer Mindy Turner (Kimberly Roberts) and the three of them go undercover to try and catch the killer.*****SPOILER ALERT***** Jan is more personally involved in this case than others because her younger sister Polly (Caroline Keenan) has left home because of her drinking and now Jan fears for her safety. They force porn shop owner Wolfgang (Peter Spellos aka Gordon Baer) and his nerdy assistant Quentin (Richard Gabai) to help them and the trail leads to porn king Tralaine (A. Michael Baldwin) but the aspiring filmmaker and killer turns out to be someone right under their noses!This was cheaply made by Richard Gabai (I guess you can call it directing) who plays Quentin in the film and the extreme low budget is actually a reason to check this out. Exploitation king Jim Wynorski is one of the producers and I'm sure he lent a hand in cutting corners and sneaking around S.A.G. rules to get this film completed. As I watched this a few things came to mind like the budget was so small they didn't build another set for the police station which is why business is always conducted in the bar. Goodson is supposed to be a cop from San Francisco but her all too obvious English accent is never explained. Keenan is playing a character that is supposed to be 15 but in reality she's around 30! The script is written by A. Michael Baldwin (the Phantasm films) who plays Tralaine and he has Clarkson practically dragging a guy into the bathroom at the bar and handcuffing him before she performs oral. One of the highlights of the film comes when Goodson has to wear a "Bra-Cam" that has lenses in the nipples and when she does her little dance she has to point them at the suspect to get a clear picture on the monitor. The overall script appears to be an abundance of in-jokes with the names of some of the characters sounding suspicious like Quentin the wannabe filmmaker (as in Tarantino) and Tralaine who overacts like the character in the Star Trek episode. Let's face it though, one can't be curious about viewing one of Lana Clarkson's last roles before her untimely death and I do believe that she's well cast in this cheap little outing. Her physicality's carry her well because at 6 feet tall she has the appearance of a tough gal who can kick some ass and of course she looks absolutely gorgeous naked although here she's only topless twice. The lack of any kind of a budget hinders this film to the point that it's completely laughable made even worse by a script with comedic situations and juvenile dialog but I do think if your a fan of ultra-low budget junk you'll find some sort of entertainment value from the casting of the incredibly sexy girls to watching Clarkson who reminds everyone that she was indeed an actress of immeasurable presence.

I couldn't have said it better than the guy before me...But who's Tortelini? I didn't notice that character. Richard Gabai was both funny and compelling as Arnold Hilowotz aka Quentin, and A. Michael Baldwin had me on the floor with his nutty portrayal of Tralaine, the porn director. It's true, only Liat Goodson was a good, sexy a vice cop; but, the movie delivers on so many other levels, it just doesn't matter.