' Snavely Classic: Night Shift' (82)'

'Night Shift' (82) (R) (3 1/2 stars)

Writers: Babaloo Mandel and Lowell Ganz
Director: Ron Howard
Starring: Henry Winkler, Michael Keaton, Shelly Long, Richard Belzer, Kevin Costner, Clint Howard, Bobby DiCicco, Gina Hecht

"Night Shift" was one of the first legitimate big budget Hollywood directing jobs by Ron Howard. You could see that Howard had the potential to be a successful and smart director of crowd pleasing movies. It is a very adult themed movie for Howard and I think it is very funny. It also contains one of the best debut performances I have ever seen by an actor next to Eddie Murphy in "48 Hours". Michael Keaton made such a funny impact in this movie. He just takes the movie over, makes us laugh and also makes us want to follow him anywhere. The movie came out at a time when it seemed every other movie was about prostitution. This movie had a very unique and clever plot as two morgue attendants run a prostitution ring in the city morgue when one of the women complains that they are beat up and handled badly. Billy, played by Keaton, is new and Chuck is the saner and more responsible one. Henry Winkler plays Chuck and at the time Winkler was coming off his performance of the Fonz in "Happy Days". Winkler unfairly received bad notices from the critics for being boring and having no charisma. I couldn't disagree more for I found Winkler a perfect straight man to Keaton and a delightful departure from his tough guy persona as Fonzie. The chemistry is great between Winkler and Keaton and I love their give and take. The third part of the movie belongs to Shelly Long as one of the prostitutes. This is probably Long's only good movie she has been in and she is very sweet, funny and charming. What makes this movie a classic is the magic that Michael Keaton creates in this movie. He has some classic moments and he is always full of energy and on top of his game. When I first saw this movie I knew that Michael Keaton would become one of my favorite actors. At the time to me he was filling the void that was left in me when John Belushi died. "Night Shift" is a lot of fun, funny, vulgar and Micheal Keaton is brilliant. It showed that Howard could direct as he followed this with "Splash" and many more wonderful and classic movies. It also has a very young and funny Kevin Costner in a very small non speaking role. "Night Shift" is one of my favorite comedies of all time.