Ben Larson
Well, you certainly don't know what to expect with John Waters, but this was just one sex joke after another. I never saw so many bears in one place as there were in this movie. There were ever perversions that I had never heard of - I wonder if they made them up. Poor Selma Blair had to walk around with the biggest breasts I have ever saw. Holy back pain, Batman!Even the infamous Patricia Hearst played a sex addict.All-in-all, it was pretty silly, but it did drive home a message of tolerance.
preppy-3
Depressed puritanical housewife Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) with a nice but horny husband (Chris Isaak) and a HUGE breasted kid (Selma Blair) is hit on the head one day. It immediately turns her into a raving sex addict and she finds there's a whole group of people like her led by Ray Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville).First off I should mention I saw the 84 minute R rated cut and not the 89 minute NC-17 one. Some of the cuts were obvious as were the voice overdubs but I don't think it changed the movie a lot. What I saw was a typically strange John Waters film with plenty of good moments but it didn't totally work. The main problem is the script is all over the place! The first half of the movie is coherent but the film totally derails during the second half. Complications come on fast and furious and it all ends up not making a lot of sense. The movie is chockful of dialogue discussing frank sexual acts and some incredibly unsubtle imagery. Some of it works but, more often than not, it just doesn't hit its mark. A cameo by David Hasselhoff particularly makes no sense and isn't funny at all. Also the pacing here is atrocious--but that's not uncommon in a Water film. Acting really helps this one. Ullman is fearless here considering some of her very sexually explicit lines and costumes. Blair deserves a lot of credit for wearing these HUGE breasts and making the character sympathetic and believable. Isaak is given little to do but he's good. Best of all is Knoxville who has a real difficult role to play--and pulls it off. So, it has its moments but not enough of them. I can only give this a 5.
nixskits
The bard of Baltimore has made a career out of championing the outsider who can't or won't conform to what is considered normal. Over forty plus years, Waters gave us some of the craziest pictures to come out of the so called underground and stake a place in the popular imagination. Now, he's like the kindly, if strange Uncle figure to the world's alienated youth who find a kinship with his interests in serial murderers, body modification, the changing gender roles in society and making films his way, becoming one of the few true auteurs of cinema."A Dirty Shame" gets off to a kooky start with a scenario based on the apparently real facts about some head injury survivors developing a stronger sex drive, post accident. Tracy Ullman has her greatest US role as "Sylvia", a somewhat dowdy lady who gets to shock the whole city with her transformation from prudish to wild. Her husband (Chris Isaak) and very large breasted daughter (Selma Blair) are taken aback by the new Sylvia, who's "got the itch" and runs around Baltimore looking for someone who can scratch it!This disc has just as much wonderful behind the scenes detail, with many chapters (all worth watching) about everything from the real nature of unusual sex practises (now the proverbial cat out of the bag, thanks to the internet) to how Waters gets help with his soundtrack selections. "A Dirty Shame" is no grand thesis on religion and carnality. It's a wild comic ride through familiar territory for fans, this time with an NC-17 rating instead of the old Waters' standard of X (I've never liked this "NC-17" thing, to me it's like something the matronly woman in those old underwear ads would stamp on defective men's briefs!). The biggest shock nowadays would be if an elder statesman on bad taste like Waters made a totally family friendly movie and earned a truly shocking "G".
soltera5000
I don't know I like John Waters movies a lot, I have to listen to my bf telling me how crap they are I like them because they are different and entertaining but I just thought this one wasn't good at all, mostly because the 60's and 70's gave to Waters movie something else that we don't have this days, maybe the music, the clothes, all the retro elements to make this movie more cheesy than they already are. so No I didn't enjoy this movie, only at some points that it was truly stupid and funny but besides that I think its a dirty shame to watch it. And I know Im gonna be criticized by all Waters fans but I really don't think this movie was good...
AD
