How sad is this?

It's complicated... I really like the directing, acting and writing but, there are issues with the way it's shot that I just can't deny. As much as I love the storytelling and the fantastic performance but, there are also certain scenes that didn't need to exist.

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

Although I seem to have had higher expectations than I thought, the movie is super entertaining.

... well actually several of them are. The film is based on a true story of a couple of morgue employees caught running a brothel out of the morgue at night. You have Michael Keaton in his breakout role acting like...well..Michael Keaton, at least pre "Clean and Sober" Michael Keaton, with his smart remarks and cheery yet loser persona. You've got Henry Winkler as a guy who just lets people walk on him to the point that he's engaged to a woman he really doesn't love because she is there, and just takes it when he's moved from his day post at the morgue to the night shift with Keaton's Bill "Blaze" Blazejowski. Winker's character, Chuck, got to this sad state of affairs when he had a nervous breakdown working on Wall Street, even though he is a talented investor. Since then he's decided the best way to get through life is keep his head down and keep a low profile.But then his night shift brings a little sunshine his way in the person of prostitute Belinda (Shelley Long), who is getting home about the time that Chuck does, and they begin to have breakfast together and get to know each other. When Belinda is injured by a client because she doesn't have a pimp, Bill talks Chuck into letting Belinda and her friends work for them, and Chuck agrees to invest the girls' money so they'll have a nest egg.Eventually Chuck and Belinda fall in love, with Chuck assuming Belinda will quit prostitution. Belinda asks the pertinent question - "And do what?". She asks it tearfully, because of course she doesn't like this life, we really never get any background as to how she got here, but future employers would want to know what she was doing with this big blank space on her resume and she knows she has no acceptable answer.The whole situation comes to a head when other pimps don't care for Bill and Chuck cutting in on their territory. And then there is the little matter of undercover cops. I'll let you watch and see how this all works out.This would probably just be a six if it weren't for the important place it holds in film history. It is the first feature film directed by Ron Howard at only age 28, and he did a very able job his first time out. It boosted the careers of both Michael Keaton and Shelley Long, who was less than a month away from beginning her star making role on Cheers. And then there is the film's theme song "That's What Friends are For" that was rerecorded in 1985, became a hit, and whose proceeds went to benefit the American Foundation for AIDS.And what of Henry Winkler who was top billed here? Well, even though he was nominated for awards for this performance, it was pretty much downhill from here professionally. Since 1973 Winkler had built the reputation as the ultimate Eisenhower era alpha male - Fonzie - on the long running TV show "Happy Days". He was a cross between Brando and Elvis. People stepped out of his way when he walked down the street, and he would snap his fingers and several beautiful girls would come running just to be on his arm. A great performance as a man who is a walking doormat through most of the film does not mean that it enlarged his fan base. I'd say watch it for its place in film history for all the reasons I gave. Even if you weren't alive at the time, the film is at least mildly amusing. Also watch out for cameos by Richard Belzer (Munch on Homicide and then Special Victims Unit), Kevin Costner, and of course Clint Howard who I don't think ever got an acting job without big brother's help, with the exception of maybe his part on TV show Gentle Ben.

Chuck Lumley (Henry Winkler) is a pushover. His boss takes away his day job at the NYC morgue and relegates him to the night shift. He eats the food even when the restaurant gets it wrong. A dog keeps chasing him to his apartment. His neurotic fiancée Charlotte Koogle is obsessed with losing weight for their upcoming nuptials. The loud-mouth night shift driver Bill Blazejowski (Michael Keaton) is always scheming to make a few extra bucks including turning the hearse into a limo. His neighbor Belinda Keaton (Shelley Long) is a hooker. Her pimp gets killed and all her friends are left on their own. She befriends Chuck and soon, they're running a prostitution ring out of the city morgue.This early Ron Howard has a little edge. It's irreverent fun. Keaton is pre Mr. Mom. Winkler is against type with the Fonz. Long is new. Everybody's great. It's the first Howard movie that shows his directing potential.

Continuing my plan to watch every Kevin Costner movie in order, I come to Night Shift.Plot In A Paragraph: Chuck (Henry Winkler) is a morgue attendant, who with the help of his new assistant (Michael Keaton) inadvertently becomes a pimp or as they call it "Love Brokers."I think this is a really enjoyable movie, Henry Winkler is fine and Shelly Long is OK, basically she is just her Cheers character, who is now a hooker, but Michael Keaton (In one of his first movie roles) is simply off the wall crazy. It's hard not to have a good time when he is on the screen. KC pops up during a party at the morgue. An early Ron Howard directorial effort, I enjoy this. 7/10

Like STRIPES (1981; see review elsewhere), I was too young to catch this adult comedy – best-known today for being former actor Howard's sophomore directorial effort and for providing Michael Keaton with a star-making role. To be honest, I am rather ambivalent towards Howard's supposed talent as a film-maker: well-suited to light-hearted, life-affirming fare such as this, SPLASH (1984) and COCOON (1985), he has regrettably failed to convince when tackling more serious subjects. Anyway, this was certainly an auspicious beginning: an original, if not exactly credible, premise wherein two morgue attendants (mild-mannered Henry Winkler – Howard's ex-buddy from his HAPPY DAYS TV series – and charismatic Keaton) decide to turn their literally inert shift into a booming call-girl business! Keaton's uncontained exuberance here may have lead to his getting the title role in BEETLEJUICE (1988) but nonetheless comes across as essentially overstated; Winkler though, miles away from his iconic and ultra-confident Fonzie character, is wonderful and he is matched by Shelley Long (of CHEERS fame, hence another established TV performer trying to break into movies) as the call-girl abused by customers (after her pimp is flamboyantly 'executed') who seeks comfort in the arms of neighbor Winkler (himself engaged to a neurotic woman dominated by strict parents). For all the seediness on display (involving partying in morgues, courtroom exhibitionism and exclusive sex clubs), the film proves a generally agreeable and entertaining ride – faltering only on occasion due to overlength (106 minutes). Consequently, there are plentiful felicities throughout (not least an early rendition of the Burt Bacharach/Rod Stewart song "That's What Friends Are For") in the way of situations (notably a running-gag involving Winkler being chased by a hound let loose in the corridors of his apartment building) and dialogue (particularly when, ending up in prison and being accosted by a murder-happy cellmate, Winkler sarcastically thanks Keaton for having made possible his acquaintance with Peter Lorre's son!). Joe Spinell has a small role towards the end as the slimy manager of the swank brothel to which Long relocates after her association with Winkler and Keaton is disrupted: the latter happens to work at the same joint as a towel-boy(!), while the former follows her there on summing up the courage to finally express his love. By the way, a pre-stardom Kevin Costner can be glimpsed during the party-in-the-morgue sequence!