Night Shift

Not particularly funny and criminally lacking in tits. I'd say Michael Keaton stole the movie if there was anything worth stealing.

The mixture of sex and morgues is always going to warrant my attention but this failed to live up to the hopes I had projected for it. Tough to blame me with great leads, good supporting cast, a workable comedic premise. After my fervent defense of Nightwatch and my irredeemable acceptance of Graveyard Shift I was really hoping Night Shift would become the link for another one of my intolerable recommendations.

Wanted to like it, and got pumped by the very 80s opening of the film, but, in the end, I did not really like it. Rather the opposite, actually.

Ladies and gentlemen, MICHAEL KEATON!!!! He's absolutely brilliant in this one, folks. He IS Night Shift. Also, I've always had a crush on Shelley Long and well this delivered. Henry Winkler is good too and I definitely loved how 80s it was, so it has that going for it. Michael Keaton Michael Keaton Michael Keaton. How the hell have I not seen Beetlejuice yet? Damn.

Didn't laugh, mostly cringed.

Winkler is a milquetoast morgue worker who is convinced by wildman Keaton to become a pimp. It's a strangely subdued comedy given its premise--it's almost too grounded in reality--and Howard's direction is pedestrian and lacks energy. There also aren't enough jokes for a comedy, but the performers pull it over the line as they are near impossible to dislike. Keaton is his usual dynamic self, and Long, despite being arguably miscast, is effortlessly charming and has a surprisingly great figure.

Keaton is a pimp. Say no more.

Has amusing moments, and is quite fun. But not a good film overall.

GUILTY PLEASURE...THIS MOVIE CRACKS ME UP

84.000

Fairly amusing.

72.000

The occasional funny exchange does not make up for a confusing, scattershot series of events that doesn't lead anywhere new. This movie really needed to be a confident, heightened farce, when in reality the farcical moments it does contain don't fit the rest of the tone.

Not a great movie, but it is a super interesting look at the stars before they were stars. While Henry Winkler was well known as Fonzie (he plays a complete opposite character here), this was Michael Keaton's first big movie, and Shelly Long was also a relatively unknown, just getting started in Cheers. Add in a first lead directorial debut for Ron Howard and a completely unknown Kevin Costner playing a young frat boy, you wind up with something kind of special.

This movie is dated but it still has many funny scenes. The 3 leads do a great job with their roles, especially Michael Keaton in his first major movie performance. The script isn't perfect but it is funny. Overall I would recommend this comedy.