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.
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