A Dirty Shame | 
| Director: John Waters
Actors: Tracey Ullman, Johnny Knoxville, Selma Blair, Chris Isaak, Suzanne Shepherd
Category: DVD
Buy New: $20.72
New (3) Used (2) from $16.79
Rating:  89 reviews
Sales Rank: 174528
Format: Ntsc
Language: English (Original Language)
Rating: NC-17
Region: 1
UPC: 065935207900
EAN: 0065935207900
ASIN: B0009E27EY
Theatrical Release Date: September 24, 2004
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Amazon.com
When prissy, prickly Sylvia Stickles (Tracey Ullman) suffers a head injury during a traffic altercation, she's, er, revived by self-appointed sexual missionary Ray-Ray Perkins (Johnny Knoxville) and is transformed into an insatiable, take-no-prisoners sex maniac. Yes, it's a John Waters film. Yes, it's filthy. No, it's not as hilarious and sustained as you'd like it to be. It works for a while, though: Ullman, never a stingy comedienne, does everything Waters dares her to do without hesitation; words cannot describe the perversely sporting delight with which she mounts a water bottle during a round of "The Hokey Pokey" at an old folks' home. And there's some fun to be had when Sylvia's emancipation leads her Baltimore 'burb to new heights of ecstasy, freeing her large-breasted daughter Caprice (Selma Blair) while horrifying husband Vaughn (Chris Isaak) and her hardline mother Big Ethel (Suzanne Shepherd, hysterical) in the process. It's also packed with the standard cameos, the most satisfying of which is good old Patty Hearst at a Sex Addicts Anonymous encounter. But, for all the nasty, necessary glee, the movie feels inescapably been-there-done-that, and you can't help but wish this was 1972 and Divine was on hand to prowl for dog droppings. The most shocking thing about A Dirty Shame is how desperate and tiresome its anarchy becomes.--Steve Wiecking
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| Customer Reviews: Read 84 more reviews...
 Halarious video May 4, 2009
Robert R. Berry
My favorite John Waters flick. I hope he continues to gross out the masses for years to come.
 I ordered the wrong one... May 4, 2009
Victor Manno (Ft. Laud. Florida)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
I'm a John Waters fan. I was unaware that the R rated version is called the "neuter" version because it has been censored. (Cut scenes and some foul words replaced with more "acceptable" ones.) Now I have to purchase the NC-17 Version to get the true John Waters experience. LOOK CLOSELY AT THE PICTURE, THE R RATED VERSION SAYS "NEUTER VERSION" ON IT!
To add insult to injury, IT WAS MORE EXPENSIVE!
Best John Waters film in a while April 7, 2009
Kortick (Providence, RI USA)
'A Dirty Shame' is a movie that fans of the old style John Waters will enjoy. It is by no means a 'Pink Flamingos' or 'Desperate Living', but it is most certainly NOT 'Hairspray'. It is full of great charecters and the writing is sharp. Also it is good to see Mink Stole have a good size role and the new cast (Johnny Knoxville ect.) all are great. Tracy Ulman was meant to be in a John Waters film. It is good to know that John Waters can still put some unique things on film.
I Now Have A Concussion January 2, 2009
D. Mikels (Skunk Holler)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
This was my first foray into the lunacy that was (and is) John Waters. (As an aside, if I were to associate a face with the word, "anarchy", it would be the smug, pencil-mustached mug of Waters.) Overall, I give the movie three stars; Tracey Ullman annoys me, and the painful "Ultimate Act" everyone on Baltimore's dysfunctional Harford Road partakes of was lame. On the other hand, Waters's irreverent portrayal of a neighborhood war between the prudes (the "neuters") and the sex addicts has its deliciously wicked moments. Incidentally (as Waters readily admits in the extras), just about every perversion, fetish, and deviation are aptly represented in A DIRTY SHAME.
Ullman plays unhappy Sylvia Stickles, a sex-hating housewife forced to lock up her nympho, mammary-enhanced, daughter Caprice (Selma Blair) to keep her out of the biker bars. A chance head injury transforms Sylvia from frigid to free love--and also brings her to the attention of "sexual healer" Ray-Ray (Johnny Knoxville's facial expressions are hysterical). Accordingly, Sylvia is introduced to Ray-Ray's merry band of deviants, the local neuters are horrified, and chaos reigns supreme.
From what I understand, it's the John Waters way.
As another aside, by far the best lines are systematically given to Suzanne Shepherd, who plays Ullman's mother Big Ethel. ("My daughter's normal. She hates sex!") Yet as I said before, all the goofiness rang somewhat hollow--definitely lame--until I watched this edition's extra features. The documentary about the making of this film boosts my rating to four stars. It's a hoot--from the antics of Waters himself, to interviews with the cast and crew. Definitely worth a viewing, and it's A DIRTY SHAME the feature itself wasn't as entertaining.
--D. Mikels, Author, The Reckoning
Not Nearly as Shocking or Funny as the Film thinks it is October 3, 2008
Anastasia Beaverhausen (California)
1 out of 4 found this review helpful
Waters seems to have crawled out of a thirty plus year fall out shelter. Hello! Nothing is shocking anymore. Sexual libertine types such as Waters won the cultural war. Someone answering the door naked? That's the best he could come up with? Wake up, in a Britney Spear world, the "neuters" are the new rebels.
Waters never quite mastered satire and his films only worked as camp. Clearly this embarrassment shows he has outlived his useful life as a film maker. At least admit you are mainstream horn dogs now, Waters types, or rebel for the sake of rebeling and join the neuters, or just get a life and stop trying to P.O. the bourgeoisie.
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