Vice Squad

Spoilers!

1982's VICE SQUAD is a good ol' bit of exploitation, directed with just the right edge by Gary Sherman.  It does not seem to have any serious agenda or invitation for deep subtext, though undoubtedly some viewers will find it nonetheless.  Honestly, you can probably derive what you consider to be subtext out of damned near anything.  Likely just a reflection of yourself.  I've concluded that many film reviews are more about the reviewer than the film.  If you know anything about that person - their personality, their beliefs, their politics, you'll see what they tend to focus upon in their reviews. 

That said, ahem, let's get down to the dirty business of this movie.  It's grimy, violent, unpleasant, offensive.  Just oozing with early '80s L.A. atmosphere.  Filled with enjoyably trashy dialogue.  Some grimly funny moments.  Another document of an interesting era.  VICE SQUAD seems fairly authentic, like every frame could really happen.  And sadly, probably has.  But it also plays like a standard 1980s crime thriller, complete with obsessed lawman on the edge single-mindedly pursuing the bad guy.   Here, vice cop Tom Walsh (Gary Swanson) is looking for an ultra psycho pimp who goes by "Ramrod" (Wings Hauser), an appropriate moniker as he delights in sexually mutilating prostitutes.

One is a poor soul named Ginger, played by original MTV veejay Nina Blackwood.  After her grisly demise, Walsh is further stoked to nail the scumbag, and enlists/coerces the help of "Princess" (Season Hubley) another lady of the evening who is baffled by her clients' odd predilictions.  One even has her donning a wedding dress and....eh, see for yourself.  Sherman spends a fair amount of time detailing the soulless trade in between the action and violence of the main plot, and this adds an effective layer to this portrait of Street Life.

Hauser tears it up as the villain, in a performance best described as skillful.  This could've easily been an opportunity to camp it up, go way over the top.  Instead, the actor seems to know how to convey a controlled rage, wild eyed as it is.  Even in his wild confrontations with the main characters.  He's electric, and terrifying.  But never too much.

That could be said of the entire picture.  No scene goes overboard, excepting maybe when an elderly Asian man hands two Mutt and Jeff cops their asses in a motel lobby.  Note also that Walsh says "Make my day" a year before Clint Eastwood made it a catchphrase in the Dirty Harry film SUDDEN IMPACT.