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On the podcast this week, Steven and Sean are celebrating our very first b-movie bonus episode of the year with a\\u2026 Well, not a paragon of \\u201890s action goodness, per se. More of a middling example of guns going pew-pew in a movie. It\\u2019s the Keenen Ivory Wayans film from 1994, A Low Down Dirty Shame.

Not only is this our first b-movie bonus episode, it\\u2019s our first four person \\u201croundtable\\u201d show. This time, we\\u2019re joined by returning guest Johnny SoCal and first-time guest Greg Vander Velde. We\\u2019re 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 \\u201890s. Many of them feel like they were stamped out of a giant roll of films by a large cookie cutter. They\\u2019ve got many of the same qualities:

• An entire small nation\\u2019s supply of bullets shot at every single character,
• Troublesome objectification of women (who can still give as good as they take),
• An antagonist that you\\u2019re going to struggle to remember even before the end credits start rolling, and
• Production quality that\\u2019s, well, it\\u2019s fine. It\\u2019s just fine.

On the plus side, this one has the distinction of hardly having a single white person in the entire cast. That\\u2019s 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\\u2019ll give it this: it\\u2019s got a hell of a lot of heart. It\\u2019s 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\\u2019s a worthy addition to our catalog.

(Recorded on January 11, 2021)

Links to Stuff We Mentioned:

A Low Down Dirty Shame - IMDb

A Low Down Dirty Shame trailer - YouTube

Avatar: The Last Airbender - IMDb

The Legend of Korra - IMDb

A Brief History of Nickelodeon Slime | NickRewind - YouTube

Keenen Ivory Wayans - IMDb

Lethal Weapon - IMDb

Lethal Weapon 4 - IMDb

Jada Pinkett Smith - IMDb

Michael Bay - IMDb

Jurassic Park - IMDb

Eat Pray Love - IMDb

Hero's journey - Wikipedia

Catwoman - IMDb

Halle Berry - IMDb

Gotham - IMDb

(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.)

The Matrix Reloaded - IMDb

L\\xe9on: The Professional - IMDb

Samuel L. Jackson