I had to take quite a long break before coming back to the ‘Vice Academy’ movies…In part because im still really trying to get my ‘groove’ back in terms of watching movies, but also in part due to the fact that ‘Vice Academy’ as a franchise holds the rather dubious honour of consistently hovering in that dreadful ‘dead zone’ of ‘Good enough that I cant legitimately just turn it off and go do something else. Bad enough that im not happy about the situation’.

‘Vice Academy 3’ was a lumpy and mediocre offering that felt less like a coherent plotted film, and more like a series of ‘skits’ that had been stitched together with some vague connections to the characters involved in the antics. It felt like a lower budget studio film really struggling to justify its position.

Well; ‘Vice Academy Part 4’ is the other side of the ‘bad movie’ event horizon. A film that doesnt feel like a lower budget studio flick. But rather, a film that feels like a moderately budgeted (for 1995) independent production. And with that comes a bit of a change in headspace and mindset. Vice Academy 3 was a small fish in a big pond. Vice Academy 4 is a big fish in a small pond. Which…well; I wont go as far as to say its a step in the right direction. But it certainly made the film a lot more palatable.

By this point the initial premise of ‘Vice Academy’ is WELL and truely out the window, no longer are dealing with a couple of new recruits being placed into soliciting situations, trying to bust pervs with comedy results. Instead, the majority of this film focusses on Miss Deavonshire and recruits Candy and Samantha. As Deavonshire VERY hastily (plot convenience fairy working overtime here) decides to marry one of her colleagues, The Commissioner non the less! Aaaand for comedy effect Candy and Samantha agree to organize and arrange the bachellorette party AND the wedding in full.

And what follows is basically just a nothing burger of a movie, in which Candy and Samantha try and plan a wedding, at which point shenanigans ensue. Oh! and to throw a little spice into the mix Malathian (the villain from Vice Academy 3) turns up again, escapes jail to hunt down her long distance penfriend (and love interest) ‘Anvil’ the two of them hear of Deavonshires wedding plans and threaten to crash the event. and…yeah. its basically just skits again, LONG exposition segments and a finale that does tie everything together (albeit haphazardly) in a way thats inoffensive, but doesnt really do much past that.

As mentioned, what the film has going for it is the fact that it feels like its working in a lower quality field. feeling more like an independent production means I feel a bit more forgiving of the stiffness, the bad comedy and the excessive bikini sequences. Because it doesnt have the studio polish behind it. However; that still doesnt excuse the fact that this is just a kind of dull mixed bag T&A comedy film thats now veered so wildly away from its core premise, that the fact this is supposed to be dealing with cops and bad guys, at this point is kind of inconsequential.

The scripts plodding, mercifully its an hour and 26 with LONG titles and credits, so it has that working to its favour, it may be mid, but at least its brief. Humours subjective, this is positively groan worthy for the most part. But I will admit I do like a bit of groan worthy comedy here and there…this misses more than it hits, but when it hit, I enjoyed it.

The characters all feel a bit homogenised at this point, their key sellable assets all kind of blended into one another with no real definition. Its a bit of a sludge. I imagine that made it easier to experiment with which which actors could read the lines in the most appealing ways…which is hardly the best way to go about things like this.

Other than that we’re kind of mid or lower mid across the board. The wedding plots fine…but kind of all over the place, the directions fine, but theres nothing really jump out here to really make this stand out. The cine is basic and large chunks of it are out of focus which is…just…SO distracting honestly. compositions are basic, but just about do the job, the edits a bit too loose for my liking, but we’re 4 movies into this series now so I do expect a quality dip (even if I dont agree with it)

Performances are all subdued compared the earlier films. Which, in a way im kind of happy about as the performances in part 3 REALLY annoyed me. Here everyones kind of flat and largely letting the scritps situations do the heavy lifting on the yuk-yuks. Noones awful. But noones memorable, they’re all just kind of ‘there’ and doing their thing.

And the soundtrack is largely tracks recycled from Vice Academy 2 and 3…and BELIEVE me…they WILL get their moneys worth out of the ‘soundalike’ synth tracks. SUPER grating and frankly painful at times.

All in all…’Eh.’ Im kind of disheartened in a way that the series has failed to move the dial in any way with me. All the entries i’ve seen up to this point have just kind of been a bit middle of the road and forgettable, and this film. While a marginal improvement over the last one in my opinion, doesnt do nearly enough to make any kind of waves. Another entry that i’ll likely forget within a week of watching, one I cant recommend, and with two entries to go…I just want some ‘flavour’ at this point…for better OR worse.

source https://letterboxd.com/tytdreviews/film/vice-academy-part-4/