Hollywood Vice Squad
How many films from the 1980s can you find starring the original Riddler, Frank Gorshin, plusStar Warsicon Carrie Fisher and a pre-fame Robin Wright (now Robin Wright Penn)? Oh, yeah... and Joey Travolta. A mundane parody of street life and the criminal underworld in Los Angeles,Hollywood Vice Squadfinds parallel stories simultaneously probing the haunts of hookers, child pornographers, and drug dealers. Director Penelope Spheeris (Wayne's World) constructs a tongue-in-cheek homage to John Ford'sThe Searchersin the tale of a mom (Trish Van Devere) who goes looking for her daughter (Wright), a call girl within the stable of an evil crime lord (Gorshin). Meanwhile, several dedicated cops are trying to get the goods on Gorshin's character, and a policewoman (Fisher) intends to bring down a child pornographer. Spheeris, typically, has her eye trained on a vibrant street and pop culture while also having fun with its excesses. Not everything inHollywood Vice Squadhits the mark, but whatever works is attributable to Spheeris's glossy-trashy sensibility.--Tom Keogh