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Badmovies.org Forum  |  Movies  |  Good Movies  |  Shakes the Clown (1991) « previous next »
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Author Topic: Shakes the Clown (1991)  (Read 4969 times)
Derf
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« on: February 25, 2008, 04:55:09 PM »

I was almost leery of watching this movie again, afraid that my tastes would have changed since I first saw it years ago. Then, I thought it was weird but funny. I still do.

Bobcat Goldthwait plays Shakes, an alcoholic birthday party clown. We first see him passed out on the floor of Florence Henderson's apartment (Mrs. Brady she ain't in this role!) after a one night stand. He leaves her wanting more (he's her first clown), and heads out to a birthday party, stopping along the way at a filling station restroom to clean up and apply his makeup. The story follows him as he loses out on a TV show to Binky the Clown (Tom Kenny), a coke-head bully clown who has no rapport with kids and who is hated/feared by the clown community. Julie Brown co-stars as Judy, a waitress at the clown bar Shakes and his buddies (Adam Sandler and Blake Clark) frequent. She is also Shakes's girlfriend, although she knows she should dump him, and she is well on her way to becoming a pro bowler. Her co-worker, Lucy (Kathy Griffin) is taking gourmet cooking classes at Palukaville Community College in hopes of becoming one of Palukaville's premiere chefs. While Shakes tries to win Judy's heart back after he misses one of her tournaments because he was drunk and screwing Mrs. Brady, his buddies and his boss, Owen Cheese (Paul Dooley) try to force him to stop drinking. One night, he is passed out in the back room of the bar. Binky and his cronies meet some rodeo clowns, who bring along some cocaine, and they have a drug party next to Shakes. Mr. Cheese walks in on them and Binky kills him with one of Shakes's juggling clubs. The police begin to pursue Shakes. Binky tries to woo Judy, but he slips up and admits killing Mr. Cheese, so he kidnaps her and plans to kill her on his show in a knife-throwing "accident." Shakes, meanwhile, is hiding out in a mime school (clowns and mimes don't get along, so no one would look for him there). When he finds out Judy is missing, he and his friends track down the rodeo clowns and get them to admit that Binky killed Mr. Cheese, so the trio set out to the TV studio to get Binky. Of course they save the day, and Shakes faces the fact that he has a drinking problem. He also has a new TV show, so good fortune finally comes his way.

The acting in this film is really pretty bad overall, but just the fact that it is filled with clowns and is played straight makes it entertaining to me. There are some really good lines, and there are a lot of cameos in some unexpected spots: Robin Williams runs the mime school, Florence Henderson is a floozy, Sidney Lassick is the "retiring" TV show host Peppy the Clown, and there are numerous appearances by Goldthwait's Police Academy co-stars, as well as a large number of character actors who play clowns in the bar. It's fun just to try to figure out just who some of these people are under all that make-up.

I'm not a particularly big fan of Bobcat Goldthwait, and Julie Brown is hit and miss, but this movie works for me. It's original and funny in some very dark ways. It's also just bizarre, which is a big plus in my book. Maybe if Goldthwait had been able to do more stuff like this, I'd be a bigger fan, but then again, he'd probably have faded into even more obscurity than he did otherwise; this movie was a pretty big flop. IMDB says it cost about $1.4 million to make, and only made about $115,000 at the box office.

Still, I thought it was very fun.
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« Reply #1 on: February 26, 2008, 08:46:26 PM »

It seems this has been on my list to see forever.  I passed it up originally because the critics savaged it (even the ones who usually like "cult" films), and Bobcat's track record didn't exactly inspire confidence. 

One reason I wanted to see it is because it reminds me of Nick Bakay's old "Evil Clown" comics (NSFW).



I bet this series was an inspiration for Goldwaith too.
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Derf
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« Reply #2 on: February 26, 2008, 10:04:32 PM »

I can't swear that anyone else would like this movie, but I do. One reviewer on Amazon said something about the humor style being ahead of its time, and that we are only now catching up to the style of the movie, so it is gaining a cult following. That could be at least partially true. I can see why people would hate the movie, what with it being full of clowns and such, but to me, it's just darned entertaining. I'm very picky about comedies and about "cult" movies, whatever that actually means, and this one works for me. Your results may vary, but if you've got a subscription to Netflix or something like that, it can't hurt to give it a shot. Go on, rent it! You know you want to.
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« Reply #3 on: February 27, 2008, 01:39:14 AM »

It strikes me as very 90's. A lot of these seedy underground movies were popping up, like The Dark Backward or Motorama or Rubin and Ed--exactly the kind of movies I was looking for at the time. I certainly enjoyed it when it came out.

I think there's a central paradox to Shakes the Clown. It doesn't seem like a good enough movie to stand up to viewing without a few drinks. Conversely, though, the film is filled with some of the most brain-scraping hangover scenes put to film, which makes it hard to watch while drinking. No wonder it does not find an audience.

I do like Bobcat Goldthwait, especially after he toned down the spasticism of his original act. I think you're right in wondering what he could have done if anybody else was ever willing to put money into his work again. Too dark and strange to be mainstream, not artsy enough to be the alternative. Once again, my kind of movies.
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« Reply #4 on: February 27, 2008, 02:28:37 AM »

It seems this has been on my list to see forever.  I passed it up originally because the critics savaged it (even the ones who usually like "cult" films), and Bobcat's track record didn't exactly inspire confidence. 

One reason I wanted to see it is because it reminds me of Nick Bakay's old "Evil Clown" comics (NSFW).



I bet this series was an inspiration for Goldwaith too.


That looks kick ass! Ill have to hunt those down! How many issues is there of that?
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Derf
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« Reply #5 on: February 27, 2008, 08:29:40 AM »

It strikes me as very 90's. A lot of these seedy underground movies were popping up, like The Dark Backward or Motorama or Rubin and Ed--exactly the kind of movies I was looking for at the time. I certainly enjoyed it when it came out.

I think there's a central paradox to Shakes the Clown. It doesn't seem like a good enough movie to stand up to viewing without a few drinks. Conversely, though, the film is filled with some of the most brain-scraping hangover scenes put to film, which makes it hard to watch while drinking. No wonder it does not find an audience.

I do like Bobcat Goldthwait, especially after he toned down the spasticism of his original act. I think you're right in wondering what he could have done if anybody else was ever willing to put money into his work again. Too dark and strange to be mainstream, not artsy enough to be the alternative. Once again, my kind of movies.

Funny you should mention The Dark Backward, because I just watched that again, too. I enjoyed that one the first time I watched it; now, not so much. It has its moments, but it comes across now to me as more grotesque than entertaining. Bill Paxton's character is kind of fun to watch, though he goes a bit overboard to get the crassness of his character across--if you recall much about the movie, licking the corpse's breasts was pushing it, but eating the rotting chicken out of Judd Nelson's refrigerator was, to me, too much. I haven't seen Motorama or Rubin and Ed; I may have to look them up.

As for the drinking while watching Shakes, I can't say anything; I've never been a drinker. I can't stand the smell of alcohol, much less the taste of it. That trait has probably saved me from being an alcoholic, as it does run in my family. I will agree, though, that the drunk and DT scenes do get quite graphic. Unfortunately, Goldthwait's acting ability wasn't quite good enough to make it as poignant as it could have been.

I liked some of Goldthwait's stand-up routines. Yes, he was spastic, but there was often an underlying intelligence that usually went unnoticed, and that's what I picked up on. He was much more sophisticated than he got credit for because of the more slapstick aspects of his act.
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« Reply #6 on: February 27, 2008, 01:23:29 PM »

Yeah, The Dark Backward doesn't hold up that well. Motorama was recently released on DVD, but I haven't seen it again yet. It will probably hold up better than Backward, but we'll see.

Rubin and Ed is almost impossible to find, at least for cheap. It's got another weird performance by Crispin Glover, although I'm not sure it's got much more to offer than that. It is, however, where I got the quote under my profile picture.
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« Reply #7 on: February 27, 2008, 02:32:12 PM »

I have never seen "Shakes", in large part because what I watch is 99% of the time in tandem with wife Dixie, and she despises clowns -- Never seen "Killer Klwonz" for the same reason --
What I HAVE seen is "Reuben and Ed", though not in a while -- Man, if quirky, no-category films are your forte, this is one golden thang!
The cat waterskis.  Howard Hessman (Dr. Johnny Fever) and Crispin Glover have mutual needs forced upon them (Avoiding spoilers) so that they have to team up.  The cat dies and they take it to the desert for a burial out of Salvador Dali.  Hessman is pursued by invisible car vandals -- one of the charms of the film is that this loose vandalism thread is never bothered to be tied up!  Dixie and I laughed a lot & found it all perfectly charming, in a complete gross-out way -- What does Crispin drink in the desert to survive?  You cannot guess unless you see the film.  No, it is not an obvious bodily fluid, but something liquid even grosser than you can imagine.
peter ewwww/denny ill at the memory
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« Reply #8 on: February 27, 2008, 03:40:12 PM »


That looks kick ass! Ill have to hunt those down! How many issues is there of that?

I don't think they were ever published individually, but they may have been.  They were inserts in National Lampoon issues from about 1986-90.  I don't know what happened to all my old copies, so I can't say exactly what issue numbers.  The magazine was edgy and funny during that period, so a back issue or two might be interesting to you.   
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« Reply #9 on: February 28, 2008, 11:19:51 PM »

I've seen Shakes at least 3 times I find it painfully enjoyable. It's one of those movies you either like or you don't, as much the case with many B grade films. I have the DVD and keep it in the collection it's one of those I can watch again,

You can stream it on Netflix if you use them, I saw it the other day while looking for something to watch.
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