Andre Shame (Keenen Ivory Wayans) is a black private detective formerly of the LAPD, who left the force after failing to crack the case on notorious drug lord Ernesto Mendoza (Andrew Divoff). The investigation of Mendoza's case was a personal one for Shame, because his ex-girlfriend Angela (Salli Richardson) was caught in the middle of a love triangle with the two men. He now works as a private eye, taking on cases for peanuts and barely scraping by. His disapproving secretary Peaches (Jada Pinkett) wants him to get his act together but he's too busy wallowing in self-pity. Just when things are about to collapse, Shame is hired by an officer of the Drug Enforcement Agency to find $20 million dollars in missing drug money. Sonny Rothmiller (Charles S. Dutton), Shame's ex-colleague who is now working for the DEA, tells him that the Mendoza case is being re-opened, and though he has his doubts, Shame decides the case is too intriguing to pass on, and tells Sonny to count him in.
Shame's drug czar adversary, Mendoza, is rumored to be dead but actually alive and well and living with Shame's former sweetheart, Angela. In a movie in which almost everyone is a crude stereotype, Mendoza conforms to the typical Hollywood image of a Latin American drug czar. The situation gets rather complicated when Shame's old flame Angela resurfaces in his life, and he also realizes that some of his allegiances aren't what they seem to be on the surface. The film is partly a comedy, so Shame deflects the charge of three vicious Dobermans by doing a James Brown imitation. From a private dick, Shame abruptly transforms himself into a caricature of the godfather of soul, barking instructions to his backup singers on how to perform "Say It Loud, I'm Black and Proud." Caught up in the spirit, the dogs stop their attack and begin rotating their heads in time with the beat. The movie isn't afraid to offend. One running gag involves an interracial gay couple who are presented as mincing, lisping clowns.
"A Low Down Dirty Shame" is not much more than all the cop movie clichés arranged in an order to make a coherent story. It is funny, entertaining, unpredictable (except for the ending), with realistic action scenes. It's the "Shaft" of the 1990s. The production design is dated because action films have evolved and Wayans often shoots non-action scenes like a TV sitcom, and his light-hearted editing reminds you this is not a totally serious movie. Marcus Miller composed the original music, and Keenen Ivory Wayans wrote the screenplay and directed.
