On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are celebrating our very first b-movie bonus episode of the year with a… Well, not a paragon of ‘90s action goodness, per se. More of a middling example of guns going pew-pew in a movie. It’s the Keenen Ivory Wayans film from 1994, A Low Down Dirty Shame.
Not only is this our first b-movie bonus episode, it’s our first four person “roundtable” show. This time, we’re joined by returning guest Johnny SoCal and first-time guest Greg Vander Velde. We’re thrilled to have them both on.
This film is a good example of the sort of generic action movie that was produced during most of the ‘90s. Many of them feel like they were stamped out of a giant roll of films by a large cookie cutter. They’ve got many of the same qualities:
On the plus side, this one has the distinction of hardly having a single white person in the entire cast. That’s a welcome change, and was unfortunately novel back when it was made. I mean, I love me some Terminator 2, Speed, and Mission: Impossible, but diversity was not really a hallmark of this era.
This one is a b-movie for a reason, though. We’ll give it this: it’s got a hell of a lot of heart. It’s apparent that every single actor wanted to make this a great film, and that helps immensely. Where the story may falter, the enthusiasm of its creators makes up for its shortcomings. Keenen Ivory Wayans plays it cool, Salli Richardson-Whitfield keeps you guessing, and Jada Pinkett Smith is just a straight-up bad-ass.
A b-movie it may be, but it’s a worthy addition to our catalog.
(Recorded on January 11, 2021)
Links to Stuff We Mentioned:
A Low Down Dirty Shame trailer - YouTube
Avatar: The Last Airbender - IMDb
A Brief History of Nickelodeon Slime | NickRewind - YouTube
(Jada Pinkett Smith did not, in fact, star as Selina Kyle in this show. Sean could not have been more confidently wrong in this episode.)
