A Dirty Shame

I rented this movie on a whim. BIG MISTAKE. I have seen some really awful movies but this one takes the cake. Now mind you I do like slap-stick comedies, this only classifies as complete trash. DO NOT waste your hard earned time or money on this movie. The premise that it is based upon did have at least one comedic leg to stand on but the script was not worth the paper it was printed on. Tracy Ullman should be praying that people forget that she was in it. I would have rated this movie lower than one star but unfortunately that's as low as the scale goes. BEWARE this movie was neither funny, cute, nor even mildly interesting. Just plain dumb rubbish.

"A Dirty Shame" is a John Waters film about a prudish, uptight mid-western woman who, after having concussion in a motor vehicle accident, becomes a raving sex addict. Although I'm a bit of a John Waters fan - "A Dirty Shame" was a pretty big shame and a disappointment. I guess society and comedy has moved on a bit from drag queens eating doggie-do (see Pink Flamingos). Shows and films like South Park, Wonder Showzen and Team America seem to push the envelope in terms of bad taste comedy. "A Dirty Shame" just seems to fall a little short of that "pushing the envelope in bad taste" name. Most of the sexual discussion feels not quite as raunchy as "Sex in the City" or even "Jerry Springer"!! Most things about this movie feels a little on the amateurish side - the acting, the cinematography, the script... However - one plus was the Selma Blair character - although it sort of felt it was a little underused. Overall - A Dirty Shame was a big disappointment. John Waters appears not to be pushing that "bad taste" envelope anymore. Perhaps he needs to return to more kitsch mainstream territory (a la Hairspray).

Well what can I say? Any film that's closing sequence involves someone getting concussed by a falling piece of David Hasselhoffs turd from an aeroplane has got to be terrible - and indeed this is. I have not seen such a bad movie since Batman & Robin. There were 13 people in the screen with me, and 7 of them left after about 15 minutes. I stayed on to give the film a fair chance but it got even worse. Sure, this is not meant to be a serious movie, but it is beyond ridiculous. It's not the dirty content, or even the very crude humour, more the fact that it is just really crap. I strongly advise anyone against going to see this movie.

I rented and watched the R-rated version of John Waters' "A Dirty Shame" today (the NC-17 version wasn't carried at the rental store), and ended up feeling let down and ripped-off. A lot of the language was censored/dubbed (!?! In a John Waters film!?!) to make an R-rated version that looked more like a G version; I think it could be shown on TV as is! The R version is called the "Neuter Version", and Waters authorized this watered-down film. Why? Starring Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, Chris Isaak, and Mink Stole, and with this description on the rental box from Blockuster: "When a head injury awakens Sylvia Stickles' long-dormant sexual urges, the entire town gets caught up in the conflict between decency and depravity", and knowing it's a John Waters film, I figured it would be great! Wrong. It wasn't even funny, except for a few of Ullman's and Blair's moments, and the censoring and dubbing of even the blandest nudity and profanity was completely distracting and annoying. I felt as if I were watching a regular edited-for-TV movie! I hope the NC-17 rated version is better, but I guess the video store won't be carrying it. And since I've been hoodwinked by this ridiculous rental version, I don't plan to go to the trouble and expense to see the NC-17 version. And this disappointing film just makes me want to pull out our copy of 1994's "Serial Mom" and watch over and over the scene with Kathleen Turner letting loose with her hilarious phone call. The only reason this film deserves even one star is because of Tracey Ullman's great no-holds-barred performance, particularly in the scene in which she does the Hokey Pokey in an old folks' home.

I just watched this movie last night with my girlfriend, hoping to find a quirky and eccentric movie about sexual humor that we both might enjoy. I couldn't have been more wrong. As soon as the credits began to roll I turned to my girlfriend and said word for word, "This is the WORST movie I have ever seen in my entire life." I felt so ashamed of myself because I was the one that picked it out at the video store thinking that it would better than the other choice of Without A Paddle. If I had one chance to use a time machine and back in time to change something, this would be it. I would go back, put A Dirty Shame back on the shelf and grab another movie, ANY movie, but this one. The plot is absolutely horrendous, the acting is absolutely appalling, and the ending/message of the movie is absolutely ridiculous. I honestly don't see how others can review this movie with 10 stars unless they were severely hit in the head with a bowling ball. PLEASE, FOR THE LOVE OF GOOD COMEDY, DO NOT SEE THIS MOVIE!!!

Oooh dear, this really isn't very good, is it. Did someone use that old cliché, "return to form"? I think not. I'd heard that "Dirty Shame" was going straight to video in the UK, but it has actually gotten what studios call a "limited theatrical release". This is what sometimes happens when they realise they've got a turkey on their hands, but one that might make a few bucks with a "cult" audience: they slip it out quietly to a handful of cinemas and forget to advertise it. So this latest John Waters movie gets a week on two screens in London and no publicity. And boy can I see why. Sqwark! Yep. You got it. Bernard Matthews Turkey Farms would be proud. Now that Waters has finally hit Broadway mainstream with the hit "Hairspray" show, and can get his movies bankrolled by Time Warner, nobody expects him to still make'em as if they starred Divine, but this one I'm afraid is really feeble. The plot,such as it is, could be considered a (well-deserved, IMO) poke at the "new puritanism" currently running rife in the US. Prudes vs. perceived "perverts", that kind of thing. Plenty of mileage for satire there then! At least, you'd think so. For the first twenty minutes here, whilst the characters are being introduced, the film shows promise, but after that, it's as if Waters changed his mind and decided to ditch any attempt at storyline and just go for gross-out to get some easy laughs. Trouble is, there aren't many. The material is weak, and although the actors do their best, it's just embarrassing. The same situations get recycled over and over as the film confusedly grinds on; there's an incomprehensible religious subplot and the whole last section of the film is one gigantic outdoors rave-up that might be intended to be a homage to the old zombie movies, "Night of the Living Dead" et al, but really just had me checking my watch and wondering if the end was in sight. I'd lost track of what was supposed to be going on at all by the time of the welcome climax (literally) and phew, I thought, now we can all leave. Good points: it's faithfully shot in Baltimore; it uses a lot of real locations and there are cameos from several of the surviving Dreamlanders. There are a few funny lines, and snatches of some good tunes on the soundtrack, and the Candice Stickles daughter character with the inflatable bazoomers (stolen straight out of a Russ Meyer movie) is a fun character. But that's about all I could find to like here. Not recommended. Go see "Female Trouble" again instead. No tacky animated squirrels in that one, either. Beat it, hon.

I want to clear something up right away before all the fans start clicking "no." I am a Waters fan. "Pink Flamingos", "Female Trouble" great B movie cult classics, even Water's himself making cameos here and there ("Seed of Chucky" etc.) So I don't want to be misunderstood as one of those people who just doesn't like anything he does. Blair, Knoxville and Ullman's families should all be instructed to love them less after starring in this dreck. Not only is the movie not on par with the usual atmosphere of Water's past classics, it's just downright stupid, and not even in a turn-your-brain off amusing sort of way. People get knocked in the head and are all of a sudden sex fiends....and not only that, soon the whole town is walking around with head injuries and trying to hump anyone that moves.....(sigh). Blair sleep walks campily through this film as a * with nightmarishly huge * and little else. Why she, after proving that she had obvious talent in other roles, ever agreed to this is beyond me. I can appreciate well known actresses wanting to do a "cult" or "B" movie because of love for a character or franchise (ie: Bridget Fonda's cameo in "Army of Darkness.") But not after reading this script and saying "Let me get this straight, I talk about how good promiscuity is and having huge knockers, and pole dance through the entire thing?" "Where do I sign?!" Ullman was a shocker. Was she hard up for cash? She should stick with the skit shows. Knoxville, well, i'm not real surprised at, it seems to fall into the category of everything else he'd been in up to the time this came out. (He's probably suffered enough head injuries from his "Jackass" days to explain his participation.) Although he's subsequently had some significant and decent roles, go figure. I wish there was more I could tell you about the plot, but there's not. Some group tries to redeem the sexually deviant, only to in the end become them themselves. Great. I was actually angry for wasting my time and rental fee on this trash. I know Waters is known for controversial, trashy movies, but the difference between this and his others is that they're fun. My advice, skip this and dig into your collection for the "Divine" era.

Bad taste in Baltimore. Unfunny sexual shenanigans are an indication of the depths to which popular American films have sunk. It is quite incredible how insanitary activities by unpleasant people are supposed to be entertaining. The general impression from the little of this film I was able to stomach was that morality and good neighborliness had sunk without trace. And why anyone would want to make themselves look ugly through cosmetic surgery is another mystery. It is very sad that people are prepared to act in such rubbish, and even sadder that people will pay to watch it. The fact that residents of the area where this garbage was filmed were happy to take part in it, is an indication of the low esteem in which they hold their community.

Prior to seeing this movie, my answer to the question "What is the worst movie you have ever seen?" would be Teen Wolf Too. However, I can now honestly say that A Dirty Shame is now the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. I wish I could get those 88 miserable minutes of my life back. Every time I heard the tag line "Let's so sexin!", I cringed. What would make talented actors such as Selma Blair and Chris Isaac want to participate in such a joke of a movie. I rented this movie because I saw it advertised in Maxim, and thought it looked funny. I've never been more wrong about anything in my life.

Sylvia (Tracey Ullman) is a sexually frustrated wife, but when she incurs a head injury she becomes a sex addict, through the sexual power of Ray Ray (Johnny Knoxvile). Sylvia's husband (Chris Isaak) is a flake and her daughter Caprice (Selma Blair) is a sex addict with the largest breast you have ever seen. Through Sylvia's sexual revelation, she realizes there are sex addicts everywhere in her neighborhood. Though her mother Big Ethel is against all this sexuality that is running rampant; starting a group to counter act. This is the first time i have seen a John Walter film, and rightly so. I had to download this film as much like all his other films they aren't released in Australia. This is sick, disgusting and shows many depraved acts - and i fell off my chair from laughing so hard. Masterbating while being choked with a pay phone, sex in public, lesbians, gays, trees and plants that resemble sex organs, and it goes on. Tracey Ullman was so perfect for Sylvia. Johnny Knoxvile as the "Jesus" of the sex addicts and his twelve apostles that are trying to free people to their sexual awakening is so over the top its perfect. Selma Blair takes the cake, being able to show breast that large must have been a big job. Chris Isaak is good as the husband as well. And all the sex addicts are just awesome and show no shame. This holds no bars. There isn't much of a message, only a black and white theme; your either a sex addict or your a neuter. From what i had read all John Walter films target the Middle Americans in Baltimore, and it hits hard here in A Dirty Shame. And of course this film wasn't complete until David Hasselhoff takes a dump in an aeroplane. Do see this film. But you have to leave all morals at the gate and just get on this roller-coaster of filth. And thats what i call sneezing on the cabbage.