Amazon.com video review:
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
