A Low Down Dirty Shame(1994)

Submitted by Tornado Dragon

SHORT VERSION:
Shame eventually tracks Angela down to a storage locker and finds that she hid a coffin in there that is carrying $20 million in drug money that she stole from Mendoza, which is the reason why he is after her. Meanwhile, Mendoza and Sonny kidnap Peaches, and Mendoza calls up Shame afterwards and lets him know about this. The two sides agree to meet in two hours at a presently-closed shopping mall that Mendoza owns, where Mendoza will trade Peaches for both Angela and the money. After Shame informs Angela that Mendoza has Peaches, she tries to seduce him into running away with her and the cash and to just call the cops and let them deal with Mendoza, but Shame tells her that he is not ditching Peaches for anyone or anything, so she can either help him put an end to this matter or take her chances on her own. Angela concedes, but she makes him promise her that he will kill Mendoza.

In the big showdown, Shame manages to outsmart Mendoza and Sonny and get Peaches safely away from them, then he kills or incapacitates Mendoza’s henchmen, the corrupt mall security, and a bunch of mercenaries that Sonny brought along for insurance. Sonny finds both Angela and the money, but Angela shoots and kills him. When Peaches gets recaptured by Mendoza, Shame comes in and saves her, then sends her off and gets into a one-on-one fight with Mendoza. He kicks Mendoza’s butt, but then Angela suddenly shows up and fatally shoots Mendoza in the heart. Angela then prepares to kill Shame, knowing that he won’t let her keep the money, but Peaches returns and knocks her senseless with minimal effort.

The cops are called in, and Angela is handcuffed and taken away. Lt. Nunez chastises Shame for the destruction that has been caused to the mall during the whole battle and tells him that he will be taking full credit for all of it, and Shame replies that he will indeed take full credit – for the fatal capture of Mendoza, finding a mole in the DEA, ensuring the return of a federal witness, and recovering $15 million in drug money. Nunez backs down after hearing this and tells Shame and Peaches to leave before he changes his mind. After Nunez walks off, Peaches asks Shame why he didn’t say $20 million, and he replies that he is keeping $5 million on the grounds that he is entitled to a 10% fee for being hired by a government official (Sonny), along with a 15% finder’s fee for finding the money. He soon kisses Peaches to close out the movie.

LONG VERSION:
After Shame (Keenen Ivory Wayans) tracks Angela (Salli Richardson) down to her apartment building, he forces his way into her apartment and keeps her under his watchful eye while he telephones the DEA and gets Sonny (Charles S. Dutton) on the line. He tells Sonny that he has Angela and then gives him the address of the apartment, and Sonny replies that he will be right over. However, since Sonny is on Mendoza’s (Andrew Divoff) payroll, he relays this news to Mendoza’s right-hand man Luis (Gary Cervantes), and he in turn informs Mendoza, who orders him to kill Shame and bring Angela to him. Meanwhile, Shame and Angela converse, and he finds out from her that the DEA has been keeping her in protective custody for the past six months, and she would’ve testified against Mendoza a long time ago had somebody not tipped him off and allowed him to get away before the Justice Department moved in. After hearing this, Shame quickly realizes that Sonny is in cahoots with Mendoza, so he tells Angela that they are the victims of a setup and they need to leave now. Luis and his men make their arrival soon after, but Shame and Angela manage to escape them.

Shame drops Angela off at Peaches’ (Jada Pinkett) house and tells her to not let Angela out of her sight while he tends to some business. The next time we see him, he has shaved his head and face, put on a stylish suit and jacket, and has gotten his best car and weapons out. Later, Angela antagonizes Peaches by informing her that Shame has not mentioned her to her at all and then implies that Shame is still in love with her, prompting Peaches to tell Angela that she is nothing but a gold-digging skank, and then she warns her that, if she hurts Shame again, she had better watch her back. After Angela fires back by indirectly calling her a dog and saying that she will “put her to sleep” if she makes the wrong move, Peaches challenges her to a fight right then and there. However, Angela tells her that she has no intention of wasting any energy on her, so Peaches orders her to leave. She does so, and Peaches realizes that Shame will chastise her for letting Angela just walk on out, so she decides to go after her. However, upon opening the door, she finds Lt. Nunez (Gregory Sierra) standing outside.

Shame finds and kidnaps Luis, then takes him to a seemingly vacant building and tells him that he wants Mendoza. When Luis won’t volunteer any information, Shame gives up and tells him he is free to go, then walks away. However, it turns out that this was all just a trick to make Luis look around the building for an exit and walk into a neo-Nazi meeting taking place in another room. The racist mob roughs him up a bit before he is able to get out of the building and onto the streets, but they chase after him with every intention of finishing the beatdown. As Luis flees, Shame drives up alongside him and asks him about Mendoza’s whereabouts again, so Luis yells that he owns the La Isla de Salsa nightclub in Hollywood and that he is supposed to meet him there later. Shame immediately goes over there, leaving Luis to the mercy of the mob. Shortly after Shame meets with Mendoza, they pull their guns on each other, and Mendoza takes his own girlfriend hostage in an effort to make a getaway. Peaches’ roommate Wayman (Corwin Hawkins) – having recognized Shame – then appears and gets Shame’s attention, and sensing that this might give him the opening he needs to escape, Mendoza aims his gun at Wayman and fires. Shame saves Wayman from the bullet by tackling him, but Mendoza gets outside and speeds off in his car before Shame can catch up with him. Shame then returns to Peaches’ place to find Nunez there and Angela missing, and Nunez tells him that he is in deep trouble and he is taking him in. Peaches demands to know from Shame why he never told Angela about her before accusing him of still having residual affections for Angela, especially considering his now-stylish appearance, but Shame tells her that he doesn’t have time to argue with her about this. Shame then hands Nunez a recent photo of Mendoza and informs him that he is back in Los Angeles with a new face, then tells him to take the necessary precautions to keep him from skipping town again as well as put Peaches in protective custody for 24 hours, then he heads back out the door.

Shame tracks Angela down to a storage facility, and after confronting her inside one of the lockers, she opens a coffin that she had stored there and finds that it contains $20 million of Mendoza’s drug money. He takes her and the cash to a motel, where he finds out from her that Mendoza smuggled the money into the country in that very coffin, and she stole it from him in order to start a new life for herself and turned him in to the authorities, which is why he wants her dead. They then get to talking about their past relationship, which leads to them making out. Meanwhile, Mendoza and Sonny find out where Peaches is being held and manage to kidnap her despite her putting up a good fight, then Mendoza calls Shame’s cell phone while he is still early into his makeout session with Angela and lets him know that he has Peaches. The two sides agree to meet in two hours at a presently-closed shopping mall that Mendoza owns so they can make a trade of Peaches for both Angela and the $20 million, but Shame tells Mendoza to tell Sonny to come along for this. After Shame hangs up, he informs Angela that Mendoza has Peaches, and she responds by trying to seduce him into running away with her and the money and to just call the cops and let them deal with Mendoza. Shame replies that he will not ditch Peaches for anyone or anything, and he tells her that she can either trust him and help him put an end to this matter or she can take her chances on her own. Angela concedes, but she makes Shame promise her that he will kill Mendoza.

Mendoza comes to the shopping mall not only with his henchmen and the corrupt mall security, but also with military-trained mercenaries that Sonny has brought in that will storm the place and blow away Shame if they aren’t out in ten minutes. Shortly after Shame – with Angela waiting behind him – meets Mendoza, Sonny, Peaches, and two of Mendoza’s goons at opposite ends of a set of escalators, Shame chides Sonny for selling out all of the other detectives in their task force to work for Mendoza. Sonny says that he was offered a substantial bribe from Mendoza, and he told the other detectives that he was willing to split it with them, but they replied that they didn’t want to take it unless Shame wanted to as well. Knowing that Shame would never go along with such a thing, Sonny orchestrated their deaths, and he tells Shame that he left him alive to take the blame for it. Mendoza then demands for his money, but Shame says that the ladies must be traded first, so Mendoza sends Peaches up one escalator while Shame seemingly sends Angela down the other. However, Mendoza soon finds out that the Angela being sent down is really a mannequin, and Shame uses his eyes to motion to Peaches that he is sneaking a gun down the handrail to her. She grabs hold of it, and together they shoot Mendoza’s goons dead and run off. Mendoza yells to Sonny that he is going after the money and everyone must die, so Sonny radios for the mercenaries to come in.

Shame soon tells Peaches that they have to part ways and instructs her to go wait in his car in the mall’s garage, but before she goes, she tells Shame that she loves him, which he returns. The mercenaries then drop in from the skylight, and Shame gets to work on incapacitating or killing all of them as well as the security guards. A very injured Luis sends attack dogs after him, but Shame neutralizes their aggression by singing a James Brown song to them (Peaches had earlier told him that singing James Brown’s songs to dogs has a pacifying effect on them), and then he manages to turn them on Luis by dumping food waste onto him. Sonny finds Angela along with the suitcases containing the money, but Angela soon takes out a gun hidden in the back of her bra and shoots and kills him. Mendoza recaptures Peaches (who decided to stay behind because she figured that Shame might need her help again), and as he calls for Shame, Shame comes swinging in from behind him on one of the mercenaries’ ropes and knocks Mendoza down. He again tells Peaches to go wait in his car, and after she leaves, he and Mendoza have a one-on-one fight. He beats Mendoza bloody and handcuffs him, but just as he is about to take him away, Angela suddenly appears and fatally shoots Mendoza in the heart. She then aims her gun at Shame and says that she must kill him as well because she knows that he won’t let her keep the stolen money, but Peaches timely returns and initiates a fight between them, and she knocks Angela senseless with minimal effort.

The police and paramedics are called in, and Luis is taken away by the latter while Angela is cuffed and escorted out by the former. A fuming Lt. Nunez comes up to Shame and chides him for the destruction that has been caused to the mall, and he tells him that he will be taking full credit for all of it. Shame agrees that he will indeed take full credit – for the fatal capture of Mendoza, discovering a mole in the DEA, ensuring the safe return of a federal witness, and recovering $15 million in drug money. Nunez backs down after hearing this, and he orders Shame and Peaches to get out of the mall before he changes his mind. After Nunez walks off, Peaches points out to Shame that he didn’t say $20 million, and he tells her that he is keeping $5 million of it on the grounds that he is entitled to a 10% fee for being hired by a government official, along with a 15% finder’s fee for finding the drug money since no one else knew about it. He then tells Peaches that she will still be getting her standard wage, but with perks and bonuses, specifically the start of a romantic relationship with him. They then kiss each other to close out the movie.