
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, November 26, 1994                   TAG: 9412010057
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: MIKE MAYO CORRESPONDENT
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

`LOW DOWN' A BIG-SCREEN TV MOVIE

"Low Down Dirty Shame" is in part a parody of the "blaxploitation" films of the early '70s - "Shaft," "Superfly," etc. - and in part a straightforward action picture. If it's hard to tell which side you're watching at any given moment, so what? This is not the kind of movie anyone is going to take seriously.

Its formula plot contains a little more blood and a lot more profanity than TV allows, but that's all that separates it from a movie-of-the-week.

Shame (writer-director Keenen Ivory Wayans) is a disgraced L.A. cop turned private eye. His business is struggling until a federal agent (Charles S. Dutton) tells him that the drug lord (Andrew Divoff) whose botched arrest caused all his problems isn't really dead. The bad guy has had plastic surgery and is back in town. The only way to find him is through Angela Flowers (Salli Richardson), Shame's old flame.

The big action scenes are set in a swanky hotel, a nightclub and a multilevel mall. They're well choreographed with all the gunfire, shattering glass, explosions and precipitous falls that the genre demands. Imagine "Lethal Weapon" made on a shoestring.

Most of the humor is provided by Jada Pinkett as Peaches, Shame's secretary and would-be partner. Though she's supposed to be sassy and feisty, she's simply irritating in a generally thankless role.

Like so many mid-level movies these days, "Low Down Dirty Shame" is disposable fluff that will be appearing soon in a video store near you.

Low Down Dirty Shame **

A Buena Vista release playing at the Valley View Mall 6 and Salem Valley 8. 100 min. Rated R for violence, strong language.

by CNB