Vice Academy
Vice Academy was a series of six feature films, which aired on the USA Network throughout the 1990s, particularly on USA's Up All Night. It was created by director Rick Sloane of Hobgoblins fame and the cast included former porn star Ginger Lynn, scream queen Linnea Quigley, Elizabeth Kaitan, and Julia Parton.
| Vice Academy film series | |
|---|---|
 DVD collection of the first three Vice Academy installments | |
| Directed by | Rick Sloane |
| Produced by | Rick Sloane |
| Written by | Rick Sloane |
| Starring | Ginger Lynn Allen Linnea Quigley Elizabeth Kaitan Raelyn Saalman Jay Richardson Jayne Hamil Chad Gabbert Mark Richardson |
| Music by | Alan DerMarderosian |
Release date | 1989-1998 |
Running time | 538 minutes (total) |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
The first Vice Academy film has the distinction of winning USA Networks' B-Movie Awards for Best Picture and being their highest-rated late-night film when it first aired on cable television.
The films were intended as a sexy spoof-on-a-spoof of Charlie's Angels and the popular Police Academy movie series. The first film follows the three main girls as they train at the academy; the later films follow them on their assigned missions.
Vice Academy (1989) has the girls infiltrating a porn operation and a prostitution ring. The villain was Queen Bee, who sported a massive beehive hairdo.
Vice Academy 2 (1990) has the girls battling Spanish Fly, who planned on spiking the city's water supply with a powerful aphrodisiac. Linnea Quigley's character Didi gets a promotion and leaves the film series.
Vice Academy 3 (1991) has an environmental theme as the girls try to capture Malathion, who is intent on crashing an Earth Day Celebration and robbing everyone. Ginger Lynn's character Holly is in prison in this film, shortly after the production ended, she went to jail in real life for tax evasion.[1] It was also her last film in the series. Elizabeth Kaitan joins the cast as Didi's younger sister, Candy. The only film in the series in which Jayne Hamil does not appear as Devonshire, Jordana Capra takes on the role instead.
Vice Academy 4 (1995) features Malathion escaping prison with a mission to destroy the wedding of the Police Commissioner and Miss Devonshire, who had sent her to prison in the previous film.
Vice Academy 5 (1996) has a computer game character, the Virtual Reality Hooker, escape from the computer and wreak havoc in real life. Raelyn Saalman joins the cast as Holly's younger sister, Traci.
Vice Academy 6 (1998) concludes the series with a group of bikini bank robbers who steal all of the academy's money as it is being deposited in the local bank.
Critical reception
Critics were harsh on the films: Sandra Brennan of Allmovie said, "This tale wavers on the fine line between erotic comedy and soft-core porn with a definite leaning toward the latter." Sloane argues against this, saying that there's no sex and only 10 seconds of nudity in the film.
Critic Nathan Shumate commented, "Knowingly insipid to the point of being grotesque... It's a bad, bad, stupid movie, but somehow it fails to grossly offend, mainly because it doesn't try that hard."
Releases
The films were originally released on video by Prism Entertainment, then on individual DVDs by Madacy Entertainment and later in two box sets by Brentwood Communications.
The DVD releases have bonus material such as The Making of Vice Academy, trailers, interviews with the director and stars, and a director's commentary.
References
- "Ginger Lynn shares her past with Charlie Sheen". Los Angeles Times. Mar 8, 2011. Retrieved 24 November 2015.
It didn't help that in 1991, Lynn was convicted in a federal tax-evasion case (she ended up serving 4 1/2 months in prison)