Description: What do you get when you mix T-Birds, Bermuda shorts, bubble-flip dos and incredible dancing? You get Shag, The Movie a comic free-for-all (The New York Times) that Variety calls fun and breezy and you'll call a blast! Carson (Phoebe Cates, Fast Times at Ridgemont High) is all set to marry respectable but boring Harley (Tyrone Power, Jr., Cocoon) until her best friends Melaina (Bridget Fonda, Single White Female), Pudge (Annabeth Gish, MysticPizza), and Luanne (Page Hannah, TV's Fame ) whisk her off for a last-fling beach party where all the girls have the time of their lives! A charming bad boy throws Carson's marriage plans intothe spin cycle. His nerdy sidekick whirls Pudge through some dazzling dance steps. Sultry Melaina learns some sexy moves from an Elvis-like teen idol. And even straight-laced Luanne whips off her horn-rimmed glasses and tosses her innocence to the wind!
Amazon.com: It's not too surprising that Shag flopped on its 1989 release but found a devoted cult following on cable TV and home video. This featherweight comedy looked like a waste of space on the big screen, but it plays very cozily on the tube, where it lends itself to popcorn breaks and pajama parties. (The lousy title must have had something to do with the movie's initial failure, a problem worsened by the film being marketed as Shag: The Movie, a truly dumb idea.) Shag is in the tradition of Spring Break pictures, a thoroughly formulaic stroll through the conventions of the minigenre: beachside romance, a wild party, one tender deflowering, and lots of rock & roll. The time is 1963, as three gal friends trick their soon-to-be-married pal (Phoebe Cates) into one final all-girl fling in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Cates is engaged to a local well-bred stick (Tyrone Power Jr.), but soon she's tempted by a beach boy (Robert Rusler) bound for Yale (mm-hmm). The so-so material is buoyed by lovely Annabeth Gish, as the supposedly pudgy one in the group, and Bridget Fonda, as a prematurely sophisticated sexpot. After a while it's easy enough to relax and enjoy the girls' breezy adventures, which are served up without the soap opera melodrama of the similarly tooled Where the Boys Are. Oh, and Austin Powers notwithstanding, the title refers to the dance, not something else. --Robert Horton
Great Summer Movie If you can't make it to the beach this summer - check out the Shag. Escapism at it's all time best
Fun movie This item arrived quickly and in good condition. This is a good-time movie. The music (on the VHS version) is great.
Love it! I'm in the middle of replacing my VHS tapes with DVD's and had to replace this one right away. My daughter and I love watching these older movies and I was excited to see the great price for this one.
Careful! Be careful to get the correct version (the one w/ the characters riding in a car) of the VCR tape so that you get the period music by the original artists. The DVD doesn't have the original artists, either. Also be careful whom you buy from. The copy of the version that I did want (bought separately) had huge amounts of static, & the seller was very rude about it. At the end, the song that is sung is the old (pre-integration) song of Spartanburg High School. My late sister was killed during her senior year ('66, she died in a car wreck in Nov. of '65)& I hadn't heard that song since. I cried. It was a different song by the time that I was there, '78. Everyone who went to SHS before '70 should have this movie, if only for that. I enjoyed it very much, especially being as a bit of my hometown of Spartanburg was in it, & of course, we all went to Myrtle Beach in my time as well. You might be interested to know that The Pavillion, featured in the movie, was torn down a few years ago. The land remains vacant. It was well maintained (but the city wanted to have beach-front condos made), but the deal fell through. I will never go there again because of that. The plot was very true-to-life of the era. Although I was only 4 when the movie was supposed to have taken place, my sister's friends have verified the details for me. It was also great to see those actors at that point in their careers. If you love east coast beach music, get it for that alone, but the story was also good. A movie that I'm delighted was made.
feel good movie Shag This movie is a favorite of mine. It is a feel good movie. Everytime I watch it I smile through the whole film. I was so happy that I found it on DVD and was able to purchase it.
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