User Reviews

Walk of shame is not exactly an original sort of comedy. A recent phenomenon (one I don't quite understand) is the raunchy 'let's get drunk and do stupid things and go on wild adventures' genre. Folks have gone nuts for things like The Hangover, Hot Tub Time Machine and Bridesmaids—and so Walk of Shame is certainly not unique in the least. However, despite being a nasty, raunchy and occasionally offensive film, it did manage to make me laugh and is a bit better than the films I just mentioned (although, since I don't like the genre, it really isn't saying much). I am not proud of myself for enjoying this film but I did.

Elizabeth Banks stars as Meghan, a not supremely talented news anchor in Los Angeles who is in the running for a big network anchor position. However, she's learned she ALMOST got it but the network execs chose someone else. To help her get over her disappointment, her two trashy friends take her out for a night on the town—to get her drunk and to forget about her problems. Does the idea sound familiar?! Well, this turns into a one-night stand with a bartender (James Marsden) and at this point I was really NOT impressed. So far, I'd seen a lot of boorish behavior and none of it was very funny. However, it DID get better. When Meghan awakens from this revelry, she finds she's in his apartment—and she has no idea exactly where this is. To make things a LOT worse, when she quickly leaves, she finds her car has been towed….and it has her purse and phone in it. And…she's wearing her friend's yellow dress…and it is a VERY slutty looking dress. So, she's stranded in a part of town she's unfamiliar with, she has no money, no i.d. and is dressed like a 'professional woman'. Well…no problem. She'll just hail a cab, get her car and pay the cabbie and go home. However, the cabbie takes her to a horrible part of town and refuses to drive her further because she cannot pay—and threatens to shoot her! She escapes…and a long series of crazy events take place. How crazy? See the film.

I think the reason this film worked for me was that although it was offensive (needlessly offensive at times), the characters and situations Meghan found herself in were very funny. Of all of these, I think I enjoyed her meeting up with three nice crack-heads, Hulk, Pookie (I LOVED Pookie!!) and Scrilla. But there were many more crazy people and situations that made me chuckle—and they came almost non-stop. I also appreciated how again and again, little things throughout the film came back during the course of the film. So, a seemingly innocent occurrence later becomes a HUGE and totally unexpected disaster due to clever writing.

Now my review is NOT saying the film is without problems. The writing, while clever, is very crude—and it's a shame as this easily could have been a film you could let your kids see. I think it's simply the filmmakers trying to keep up with the raunchy levels we've seen recently. However, a similar picture where one little bad decision leads to similar funny situations is Date Night—and it managed to be a film for all ages and audiences. The bottom line is that this is NOT a film for you to watch with your kids, your mother or your pastor! And, if you will easily be offended, by all means watch Date Night or some other movie instead. But it is, even with its problems, worth seeing.

In Los Angeles, the journalist Meghan Miles (Elizabeth Banks) is disputing the anchor position of a TV network with another candidate. Megan is a calm woman from Texas that has just broken with her boyfriend. Her friends Rose (Gillian Jacobs) and Denise (Sarah Wright) come to her house to celebrate her new job, but she learns that the other candidate has won the position. However her friends convince her to go to a night-club to drink to forget the deception and she wears a sexy yellow dress. She gets drunk and a stranger called Gordon (James Marsden) offers to drive her home, but she prefers to go to his apartment and they have one night stand. When she wakes up, she finds a message in her cellular from a friend telling that she had been selected for the anchor position and her friend advises her to rest since her audition will be on the next day. Meghan leaves Gordon's apartment and finds that her car has been towed away with her purse. Further, the door of the building is locked and she does not know the number of the apartment where Gordon lives. So she decides to take a cab to retrieve her car, but the driver is a foreigner and misunderstands the tow place and she ends alone without money in the red zone downtown LA. Meghan sees a police car but the officers are douchebag and believe she is a prostitute. Meghan stumbles with drug dealers that try to help her but she only gets in trouble during the long night.

"Walk of Shame" is one of the funniest comedies recently released. The gorgeous and sexy Elizabeth Banks is a great comedian and she is fantastic in the role of a woman that only wants to take her car back. The story recalls the storyline of "After Hours" and is a great entertainment for a Friday evening after working for one week. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "A Minha Casa Caiu" ("My House Felt Down" – literally, but meaning "my life is destroyed")

I'm sure you've all experienced that feeling where you hear about a film and are convinced that there is nothing it could possibly offer, not even after watching the trailer. Do you know the feeling though when you're positivity surprised? It doesn't happen too often right? Well this film is a perfect example of that. It's rear but it happens. The first bad omen was the director: Steven Brill, who was known thus far for directing 2 Adam Sandler films, that let's admit were just plain bad. Mr. Deeds was horrible and Little Nicky would still have been the same even without a director. Oh and he wrote the scripts. It's been 7 years since he's made a film so he's had time to work on a good film. The other bad omen was that the studio, probably for monetary reasons only opened the film in select theaters and sent it straight to VOD… Knowing the people playing in the film, this could only mean one thing… they didn't trust in its success and if they didn't why would we right? Let's talk a bit about the story… Megan Miles the news anchor for KZL is up for a big promotion to go national. She goes to the interview where she does well and she has a good chance at the job so all seems to be going well for our little star… well no. She gets home to find that her fiancée has packed up his stuff (half the furniture in the apartment) and moved out and her agent calls to tell her she didn't get the job either. Her friends arrive to pull her from her pity party and get her to go out drinking with them. On a whim she decides to get rip roaring drunk and ends up going home with the bartender. The always cute James Marsden. When she wakes up in the wee hours of the morning while trying to book it from the strangers apartment, she can't find her phone so she uses his to listen to her messages and finds out she may still have a chance at the job if she can do today's news cast without a hitch. Of course this isn't as easy as it sounds 'cause to be lost in quote un quote hood of Los Angeles with no car, no phone and no money and get downtown to the studio is not easy but all the more funny. Walk of Shame isn't a new concept. We've seen films like this before but that's not a bad thing. Hollywood right now is chocked full with the spirit of remakes right now. Despite that this film really works cause the devil is in the details. It works for two reasons. The actors and especially Elisabeth Banks and the well written script, but I still have to say none of them are perfect. Some of the actors like the girlfriends are downright annoying and the script has some plot holes but all in all its pretty entertaining.

The biggest problem is that the films arc is a downward slope. From the first news segments to Megan's first escape from the cops we are drawn in and laughing and keep doing so as we meet her new friends in the hood… but somewhere around the middle of the film the humor starts to dry up and we reach totally drought by the end of the film. Even if the story wasn't the most original it only really caused a problem at the end of the film, where it was just really typical, but by then I was at least entertained for a while. It was a surprisingly okay, even if not a to original comedy. It was definitely a positive experience to finally see a film without fart or shitting in sinks and bathtubs jokes, without Melissa McCarthy and Adam Sandler. I think this type of comedy is better, while being a lot less disgusting. I was surprisingly entertained so I give it a 7/10. https://www.youtube.com/user/silverscreenreviews1

I admit that there were parts where it was pretty funny, particularly when she was lost and trying to find her way back and by watching the trailer, it does look really promising and really funny. However having watched the film, there were parts that felt really standard and monotone at times. And just pretty predictable. Plus, it was also quite cringe-worthy, maybe it was just me but I felt that a lot of the scenes were pretty cheesy.

I understand that it's hard to come up with completely unpredictable plots, but I feel that the story cut too much from here to there. Like one event would end, then it would die down for awhile, then pick back up again. Maybe it was that movement of events, moving from funny to calm and then repeating again and again, that I disliked.

However, I do love Elizabeth Banks as an actress. She really makes her character come to life and I feel that the supporting cast was barely needed. Well obviously they were needed, and they did add some comedic effect to the film, but it was mainly Banks who did a fantastic job. And as much as I love James Marsden, his character was so shallow and useless that I kind of dislike him in this. OK, I get that he was needed to be that one night stand guy, but it was just so…eye roll worthy when they got together.

And then there's the ending. No offense to anyone (seriously) but I've noticed this kind of Western mentality where they believe that it is their right to not have anything bad happen to them. It just feels like complaining to me, when at the end she goes on about what happened that day and how she's not ashamed. Like OK, whatever. Maybe I'm too heartless, but I felt that the ending made the movie a lot less enjoyable as a whole.

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I had hoped Liz Banks after Zack and Miri, would turn in another comic gem.But Walk of Shame is another film where the obvious solution somehow eludes the protagonist and just becomes infuriating with its mind numbing stupidity.

An absurd attempt at modern day slapstick, here we have a TV anchor, a person who is supposed to be an expert in communication and yet she can't tell anyone, even moronic cops that she needs help, she needs a ride. She can't even call her TV station newsroom...she wanders night and day through L.A. trying to find her car that has been towed away, when she should simply trying to get home or to work.

And how long should that take? She begins her journey in early morning and it's afternoon and she never seems get anywhere. I hate to say this because I think Banks is a super hot looking actress, with a great personality. But this was a bad choice of a contrived script. Oh, and James Marsden is wasted in an unrewarding support role.

Oh, and one other thing, as a news anchor Banks needs some coaching. Her voice is too light and lacks authority.

Meghan (Elizabeth Banks) is our Jenny McCarthy Barbie doll who reads the news. She is down on her luck, so her girlfriends dress her up and take her out for a good time. Through a series of circumstances, Meaghan, finds herself in LA in the wrong part of town. Her asking for help is seen as solicitation for prostitution as she constantly ends up at the wrong place at the wrong time.

The film had some light moments, but as a comedy it falls flat. There is a lack of originality and delivery. Elizabeth Banks is easy on the eye, but comedy is not her strong suit. The groans far outweigh the laughs. The humor maturity level is aimed at a PG-13 audience, but too many f-bombs make it an "R." I think most of us could have composed a funnier "Walk of Shame."