Interesteg What makes it different from others?

Matrixiole Simple and well acted, it has tension enough to knot the stomach.

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

DipitySkillful an ambitious but ultimately ineffective debut endeavor.

sol1218 ***SPOILERS*** Worth seeing only for the off the wall and over the top performance of Wings Hauser as the crazed and psychotic street pimp aptly called Ramrod who chews up the carpet or celluloid in every scene he's in. In Fact we hear Hauser screaming at the top of his lungs the movie's theme song "Neon Slime" together with the opening credits that puts you right in the mood, in it's ear splitting and cat shrieking sounds, for watching the movie.It's All-American mom and successful businesswoman by day and high paid street hooker by night Princess, Season Hubley, who ends up crossing swords with Ramrod who beat to death her friend and fellow street hooker Ginger, Nina Blackwood, after accusing her of holding out $500.00, that she made turning tricks on the street, on him. Princess after being busted agrees to work undercover for the L.A vice squad to get the goods on Ramrod by getting a job as one of the hookers in his stable. Caught soliciting Princess for cash Ramrod is arrested and about to be sent downtown to be booked. That's when the two Keystone Kops Mendez & Kowalski, Pepe Serna & Joseph Di Giroloma, that have him in their custody take their eyes off him and end up getting clobbered by Ramrod who's now determined to get even with Princess for setting him up.Not knowing that Ramrod escaped and is out looking for her Princess goes about her work as a hooker or lady of the night entraining customers which includes this old weirdo, Hugo Stanger, who like Dracula likes to sleep in a coffin and have her turn him on by waking him up while dressed only in her bra & panties together with a skimpy wedding outfit! This experience had a shocked Princess almost quit her job as a street hooker and go back to closing big business deals and doing housework and make up what she's lost in not turning tricks by playing the horses, and winning at it, at Hollywood Park and Santa Anita!***SPOILERS*** Ramrod who spends almost the entire movie looking for Princess in order to pay her back for what she did to him finally gets his hands on her and takes Princess, kicking and screaming, to his secret hideout at a deserted building in downtown L.A. Taking his time in doing Princess in by trying to slowly torture her to death gives Vice Squad honcho Tom Walsh, Gary Swanson, and his boys Mendez & Kowalski, who after having Ramrod break his nose looks like he's wearing a 1930's football helmet, all the time they needed to track the by now completely out of control psycho down. Still it took a whole lot of shooting blasting driving and running to finally put Ramrod's reign of terror to an end along with him. Still long after Ramrod finally became history were forced to suffer through Ramrod or Wings Hauser's ear and nerve wrecking splitting singing voice as the films ending credits roll up the screen.

Andrew Towne Although I am tired of sex and violence in movies, there are times when a movie can incorporate them and still be intelligent and memorable.This is one of those movies.It is obvious that all who were involved in its production had a clear vision and executed it perfectly.The atmosphere just oozes menace and sleaze, but there are blackly humorous episodes -- such as when an aging, wealthy pervert invites a prostitute to officiate at his "funeral" in a classically ostentatious Hollywood estate complete with church pipe organ music.Such details are what make this movie, and some of them are so bizarre that -- as in life -- they must be true because no one could have thought them up.And yet they were thought up.So this movie ends up vindicating the power of imagination, as the best art must do. Okay, I'm going a bit overboard here, calling this movie "art," but let's just say it's very artful and leave it at that.I sense the influence of Stanley Kubrick in the way the movie was directed: a succession of set pieces, almost as if one were in the audience facing a stage.Now after saying all of these nice things, let me warn the potential viewer that this is indeed a brutal, disturbing and depressing movie insofar as the subject matter is concerned.It will give some people nightmares. And it will satisfy the lusts and violent desires of others.And as far as the violence goes, it is scary precisely because we know that these things really do happen to people.

TOMASBBloodhound Vice Squad seemed to have all the right ingredients for being a truly memorable thriller. Something seems to have gone wrong, however, and the film never really takes off like you expect it to. The story centers around the Hollywood Vice Squad attempting to arrest a dangerous pimp by using a classy working girl as bait to lure him into confessing about another prostitute's murder. The film has plenty of interesting characters, but it doesn't always develop them as much as you'd hope. The film also misfires in the sense that it makes the cops the focus of the story. Either the pimp or the main hooker should have gotten top billing.The fact is it's the lead detective who gets top billing. The actor who plays him hardly has any screen presence. The thing you'll remember most about him is his maroon Members Only jacket! Season Hubley is very good as "Princess". She's a high end call girl who is forced to help the Vice Squad nail a nasty redneck pimp known as "Ramrod". Ha ha!!! Wings Houser gives a nice performance as the dangerous hustler who dresses like an urban cowboy and drives a huge Ford Bronco around Hollywood. For a character as interesting as this, they should have given him much more screen time! The scenes he has are by far the most memorable. Most of the film deals with Ramrod tracking Princess down after he escapes from police custody after she sets him up.SPOILERS AHEAD:The film has its strengths. The sleazy side of Hollywood Blvd is wonderfully filmed by legendary cinematographer John Alcott. The acting is generally passable if not very good. The film knows its an exploitation pic, and it never gets pretentious or overbearing. There are more than a few problems with this film, though. First of all, the film meanders a bit too much. It almost looks like a project where they all went out and started filming before the script was even finished. Some scenes, like one in a mansion, are well done yet they almost don't seem to belong in the final cut. Some scenes just don't play realistically. Take the scene of Ginger's death. Notice how everyone is standing around her, and nobody even tries to revive her when she flat lines! Hello! They're in a hospital! There are doctors all around! Wouldn't they at least try to save her?? The conclusion is poorly constructed, as well. There is an army of cops waiting to storm a warehouse where Ramrod is torturing Princess. They seem to take forever to get into position, and all this does is give the man more time to torment her. The whole scene just rings false. Also, the resolution would have been much more satisfying if Princess had been the one to finally kill Ramrod off. The cop just isn't an interesting enough character to take that honor.Go ahead and try this film if you stumble across a copy. Don't be surprised if you think you could have written a better script, though. 5 of 10 stars. Oh, and props to Wings Hauser for singing the neat song during both the beginning and ending credits!The Hound.

Scarecrow-88 The sleazy side of LA street life on the Sunset strip with psychotic killer pimp Ramrod(Wings Hauser)set up by hooker Princess(Season Hubley)in cooperation with the police after he had cut up her best friend Ginger. After escaping police, Ramrod will search the strip(..with no reservations about using violence as a means for extracting Princess' whereabouts from those he questions)for Princess with one goal in mind and that's repeating what he did with Ginger on her. It's up to Tom Walsh(Gary Swanson)and the Vice squad to find Ramrod before he gets to her.The ugly, nasty side of prostitution is exposed in this thriller with Hauser effectively scary as the sicko, matched by Hubley as one tough, foul-mouthed broad. Mostly profane and unpleasant, but also fast-paced and suspenseful.