1982's 'Night Shift' Makes for a Fun Look Back at a Moment in Time
Michael Keaton's breakout comedic role is worth revisiting, or visiting for the first time if you haven't already.
As a peek behind the curtain here at Nashville Movie Dispatch, I’ll share with you guys that we typically stay several months ahead of schedule on recording The Movie Review Rewind Podcast. We usually do one before we record every episode of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast, and sometimes, we get together on a random day to record several episodes to keep in the chamber for the coming months. Recently, we got together to discuss 1982’s Night Shift.
The movie came up on an episode of The Vick’s Flicks Podcast on which Brandon and I dove into Michael Keaton’s filmography. Neither of us realized that Night Shift was his breakout role. So, we wanted to go back and check out this movie that had slipped through the cracks our entire lives. Keaton’s beginnings as a comedic actor were born out of his charismatic and energetic portrayal of Bill Blazejowski. But, what we didn’t know at the time we decided to chronicle this film was that it was a launching point for the great Ron Howard in his feature film directorial debut.
It also provided an interesting look back at the star of Henry Winkler, how it rose, and how his role as the straight-laced down-on-his-luck grunt like the rest of us was a nice change of pace from what we had seen from him prior. The leading man, Henry Winkler?!?! Who’d have thought. The film is chock full of 80s vibes, from the style, the humor, and of course, the music. You can catch our full analysis of this film upon the release of the podcast in the coming weeks. But, I wanted to mention it in order to give you guys plenty of time to watch it before then.
So, with that said, I would encourage you all to catch up on 1982’s Night Shift ahead of May’s episode of The Movie Review Rewind Podcast. I had to pay $3.99 to rent it because it’s not readily available via streaming platform right now. At one point, it was available on Tubi (Tubi low key rules), but at last check, it’s no longer there. Some of you may have more resourceful means of watching movies, but I’ll leave that up to you. I added it to my physical media collection - is it a 2.5/5 parading as a 3/5 because it’s fun and the 80s vibes are right? Sure. But, I do think the added experience of watching this film through the lens of 43 years having gone by enhances it. It’s a nice addition to the collection, if for no other reason than to look back at the moment in time before some of the people involved in this film would go on to do some great things. That’s worth discussing, and it doesn’t hurt that the film plays well on a Friday night when you can prop your feet up, enjoy a cocktail, and forget about the real world for a bit.