{"id":2058,"date":"2024-08-05T18:54:11","date_gmt":"2024-08-05T18:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2058"},"modified":"2024-10-14T00:34:55","modified_gmt":"2024-10-14T04:34:55","slug":"a-low-down-dirty-shame","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/05\/a-low-down-dirty-shame\/","title":{"rendered":"A Low Down Dirty Shame"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"A Low Down Dirty Shame <\/strong>(1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, strong language, brief sexuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Keenan Ivory Wayans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Keenan Ivory Wayans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Marcus Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Matthew F. Leonetti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 23, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Keenan Ivory Wayans, Charles S. Dutton, Jada Pinkett, Salli Richardson, Andrew Divoff, Corwin Hawkins, Gary Cervantes, Gregory Sierra, Kim Wayans, Andrew Shaifer, Christopher Spencer, Devin DeVasquez, John Capodice, Craig Ng, Don Diamont, Randy Hall.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $29.3M (US)<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ** \u00bd<\/p>\n

\u00a0I know why A Low Down Dirty Shame <\/strong>didn\u2019t set the box office on fire. Do you? Care to venture a guess? It\u2019s simple, really. It was marketed incorrectly. The trailers tried to sell it as a straight-up comedy when in actuality it\u2019s an action-comedy with the emphasis on action. Audiences went in expecting something along the lines of I\u2019m Gonna Git You Sucka (also written and directed by star Keenan Ivory Wayans) and got something more like The Last Boy Scout minus Bruce Willis instead. It\u2019s an easy mistake, but not one that has to ruin the whole viewing experience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wayans plays the title character Andre Shame, an ex-LAPD cop turned private eye after he got blamed for the deaths of five detectives during a botched drug bust in Mexico. The case still haunts him five years later. It turns out it isn\u2019t done with Shame yet. His former colleague Sonny (Dutton, Alien 3), now a DEA agent, shows up at his office and informs him that the drug lord, Mendoza (Divoff, Toy Soldiers), he thought he killed is still alive. He needs Shame to track down Angela (Richardson, Posse), Mendoza\u2019s ex-girlfriend and the only witness willing to testify against him. It seems she escaped Witness Protection in New York and came to L.A. It\u2019s extra personal for Shame because he was romantically involved with her while he was investigating Mendoza\u2019s operation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0This latest job comes at an opportune time as Shame\u2019s detective agency is about to go under. He\u2019s over his head in unpaid bills. When he gets a case, it typically turns into a costly fiasco due to destructive antics like jumping through a hotel window and crashing through the roof of a limousine in the opening sequence. Like all good PIs, Shame has a feisty girl Friday, a pint-sized sidekick named Peaches (Pinkett, Jason\u2019s Lyric), who\u2019s in love with him. She\u2019d like nothing more than to be part of the action, but her boss won\u2019t let her play with the big boys. Instead, he keeps telling her to bring the car around. In any event, Shame accepts the job as a means of redemption. If he can catch Mendoza, he\u2019ll be able to clear his name of any wrongdoing in the failed bust.<\/p>\n

\u00a0A Low Down Dirty Shame<\/strong> is a reasonably entertaining action-comedy albeit a completely routine one. All of it\u2019s been done before; the disgraced ex-cop, spunky sidekick, merciless drug lord, femme fatale, dirty double-crosser and stolen drug money not to mention the usual chases, fights, stunts and shoot-outs. Shame is like a mix of John Shaft, Axel Foley and John McClane. He kicks ass and wise cracks with the best 80s\/90s action heroes. In one funny scene, he tries to elicit information from one of Mendoza\u2019s associates by tricking him into crashing a meeting of white supremacists. It\u2019s amazing what you can get out of a guy while he\u2019s being chased down the street by 100 angry skinheads.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Pinkett, who\u2019s especially loud and shrill here, has moments of her own. Her best scene is when she assaults the actor who plays a heel on her favorite soap opera for cheating on his woman on the show. She also gets to have a knock-down fight with Angela over Shame\u2019s affections. As the villain Mendoza, Divoff isn\u2019t particularly memorable. Like the rest of the movie, he\u2019s standard issue. Gregory Sierra (Deep Cover) shows up as Shame\u2019s former CO who has to keep reminding him he\u2019s not a cop anymore. Again, standard issue character.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019d like to give a special shout-out to the late Corwin Hawkins as Peaches\u2019 roommate Wayman. He died of AIDS-related pneumonia in August \u201994, just three and a half months before his sole feature film credit hit theaters. It\u2019s too bad, he\u2019s really funny in A Low Down Dirty Shame<\/strong>. In fact, he steals every scene he\u2019s in. It\u2019s sad to think what might have been with Hawkins.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The action is well done. There’s plenty of it too. Unfortunately, it’s part of the problem. It leaves A Low Down Dirty Shame <\/strong>with a sense of unevenness. It\u2019s hard to reconcile the violence with humorous scenes like the one in which Shame manages to stop a pack of vicious guard dogs from tearing him apart by breaking into a James Brown song. I guess what they say about music\u2019s charms is true.<\/p>\n

\u00a0If you want to know what I think of A Low Down Dirty Shame<\/strong>, I\u2019ll tell you. After all, it is my job. I see it as an updated version of a 70s blaxploitation movie with 80s\/90s action movie motifs. I have to admit I got a thrill out of seeing Shame finally get it together and jump into stylish action hero mode. It\u2019s NOT an all-out spoof like I\u2019m Gonna Git You Sucka, but it has its fair share of laughs. Sure, it\u2019s totally predictable. We know who Mendoza\u2019s inside guy is from the start. We know that Angela is no good and will do anything to keep the $20 million she stole from her ex. It doesn\u2019t take a private dick to detect these things. Even if it\u2019s not perfect, A Low Down Dirty Shame<\/strong> is still pretty enjoyable. It\u2019s not Wayans at the top of his game, but it\u2019s far from a loss.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Low Down Dirty Shame (1994)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Hollywood\/Action-Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 100 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (violence, strong language, brief sexuality)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Keenan Ivory Wayans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Keenan Ivory Wayans\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Marcus Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Matthew F. Leonetti\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: November 23, 1994 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Keenan Ivory Wayans, Charles S. Dutton, Jada Pinkett, Salli Richardson, Andrew Divoff, Corwin Hawkins, Gary Cervantes, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2806,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure","category-comedies"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/A-Low-Down-Dirty-Shame-PIC.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2058"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2807,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2058\/revisions\/2807"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2806"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}