A Low Down Dirty Shame

Having profitably ransacked the '70s blaxploitation genre for the jaunty send-up I'm Gonna Git You Sucka, writer/director/star Wayans comes up with a few clichés of his own in this contemporary action-comedy. Turned out of the LAPD, Andre Shame is a struggling PI whose street wisdom and rough charm win him no new cases - until DEA agent Rothmiller (genre stalwart Dutton) offers him a lucrative covert job, tracking down $20m in drug money from narcotics baron Mendoza (Divoff, courtesy of Scumbags Inc). So far, so hackneyed, but when Shame's perky assistant Peaches (Pinkett) starts overdoing the enthusiastic incompetence in a vain bid to up the humour quotient, and the gumshoe's old flame Angela (Richardson) turns up on Mendoza's arm to add a dash of romantic rivalry, the plot starts running on tramlines.