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4 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
It's Not As Bad As You Think...., 14 July 2003
7/10
Author: domino1003 from East Texas, USA

I worked as an usher when our theater got this film. Since we were a single screen theater, business wasn't good. I actually sat down and watched it and found it quite charming and funny. It's a true fish-out-of-water film, with a romantic twist. Although not in the same league as "Crocodile Dundee," it comes pretty close.

Carlos (Marin) ends up in Australia when he is offered a job. Broke and recently dumped by his girl, he meets Alex, a rich girl (Samms)who makes a deal. Seems that her father is not too keen on her boyfriend Bruce (Vernon Wells). By having Carlos pose as her new love, her father would find him so repulsive that he would let her marry Bruce. Of course, things don't turn out the way Carlos and Alex want.

It's not too bad a film, and the Alan Smithee pseudonym gives the stigma that this film is a stinker. Far from it: it's a sweet and charming film that's worth a look.

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5 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Great entertainment, 1 January 2003
9/10
Author: MEEdmo42 from Goshen, IN, USA

Much better than most of the original movies Cheech Marin was in. This one has heart and sensitivity, with a little comedy thrown in. Love the "very rich" father. One of the better movies Cheech Marin has been in. I enjoy watching it more than once. Another real feel-good movie. The kind with a happy ending, whether it is reality or not.

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4 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
Cheech was appealing, 10 March 2005
Author: vchimpanzee from North Carolina

Carlos arrived in Australia expecting to move into the mansion of a friend. It wasn't exactly what he expected, and while the boxing kangaroo gag got old fast, it didn't happen too many times, and the stunt work was good with the first one.

Carlos needed a job. He got a job performing as the Pakistani Elvis (Wait, can Cheech Marin sing? No, he can't.) but something better came along. A Mexican restaurant that needed a Mexican waiter. The man who ran the place was desperate, and he owed a lot of money.

Alex brought her father to this place (who knows why?) to celebrate his birthday. While they were there, Alex's father told her she could not marry her rugby star boyfriend. When she defied him, the father made a deal. If she would get rid of Bruce, she could marry anyone she wanted. Surely no one could be worse than Bruce.

Oh, I don't know.

Cheech Marin did a great job, especially as the overdone jerk who was supposed to make Alex's father wish it was Bruce she was marrying. But he did just fine when Carlos was just an ordinary and quite appealing guy, and he had a lot to teach Alex about being nice to those who weren't as rich. One memorable scene involved a family stranded by the side of the road.

Cheech also did the Mexican stereotype in his restaurant job, which was entertaining. And Terence Cooper did a capable job as Alex's father. There were some quirky characters in Alex's family which some people might enjoy, thought I didn't care for them. One cousin had an unusual sexual fetish. Another relative despised Mexicans and came across like a Klansman in a Civil Rights documentary.

I liked most of the Latin music in the film. But not the group that did Latin in the style of contemporary American pop.

This sort of film has been done many times, but the lessons about prejudice are important, and this film had much to say about that.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
I liked this movie, 22 June 2003
10/10
Author: departed07 from United States

Not a classic but one of Cheech Marin's early films. There were so many lines that I kept saying for years like "look a kangaroo!" This film should be given a chance to watch with everybody. Don't talk bad about this movie. It'll be a cult classic soon.

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Fun movie for a lazy day or rainy Sunday...., 27 June 1999
Author: Loral Johnson from Seaford, DE USA

This movie shouldn't be taken so seriously. If you're a fan of Cheech Marin, you'll appreciate this film as an excellent example of his acting ability and it showcases his range from "Cheech & Chong" to "Nash Bridges".

Cheech comes off as the typical hispanic role he's played in all the Cheech & Chong movies, but also displays a "I'm not as dumb as you think" side that he shows on Nash Bridges.

The story line is basically his character goes to Australia for work where by chance while working in a Mexican restaurant he meets the daughter of a rich man. She in turn wanting her father to like her current boyfriend, hires Cheech for $5,000 to be her "new" boyfriend that by comparison makes the former boyfriend an excellent choice.

Both Alex (the daughter) and Carlos (Cheech Marin) learn alot about the lifestyles of each other.

This movie is pretty predictable but can be fun at the same time. You will love Cheech singing "Land of 1000 Dances" to all the socialites.

This movie tried to capitalize on all the "down under" crazes that emerged in the late '80s and early '90s.

Just watch it, don't judge it, and it can be a fun movie. You have to appreciate Cheech Marin carrying a cast of "nobodies" on a lame script through a movie that can and will make you laugh out loud at times. And for the romantic, it has a heart warming ending.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Great family movie, vacation movie, date movie, repeat movie, 15 April 2005
10/10
Author: Carrie_the_Oracle from Pasadena, CA

This movie is a "find" that you will always enjoy. Although set in a classic chicano v. anglo (or rather Aussie) frame, anyone that has had a rebellious family member or mismatched lovers will relate to this story, and that should be everyone. Marin is the ELA che who is hired to rub Dad the wrong way by Daddy's baby girl, played by Emma Samm. Her himbo boyfriend can't take a hint, but Marin keeps taking a dive. The Freudian equestrian cousin is the best character in the movie--you'll want to see it again just for this memorable scene.

Well, it's a chick's movie, so you know how it works out, but the comedy set-ups and Emma are so good, and Marin is so realistic, that it works for the guys.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Pure Emma Samms, 9 March 2001
10/10
Author: William C. Uchtman (aesgaard41@hotmail.com) from Hendersonville, TN

I'm a big Emma Samms fan. There is no other actress in my mind who can show such beauty, grace and talent. Next to "Delirious," this movie truly shows off the range of her talent as well as her ability to do comedy as she is being upstaged by Cheech Marin. Wildly let loose with the script, Marin tries to become a "boyfriend from hell," the movie's alternate title, to help Samms show up her father. Instead, he goes from a down-on-his-luck to the hero and Emma changes from a snob to being a bit more wise for her ordeal. The charming plot seems to poke a lot of fun at the rich and is a bit more than a comedy. It rolls to its end as if it were one of Aesop's fables with the villains getting their due and everyone happy in the end. There are a few eccentrics along the way to remind you this is a comedy, Emma's horse-loving cousin being the funniest. This movie is one of the jems in Comedy Central's cavalcade of movies, but it doesn't get quite as much of the respect it deserves.

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A funny second tier comedy, 3 May 2004
7/10
Author: GenFX from United States

This is a favorite movie of mine to watch. Shrimp on the Barbie is a stardard fish out of water with Cheech Marin as a down on his luck Mexican American in Sydney. He then is brought into a scheme by the poiled daughter of a tycoon to fake being her fiance so her ultimately worse pick of a fiance looks better.

There are some logic gaps that defy logic, but between these moments are some funny bits that glue the movie together. It is a low budget comedy, so this is to be expected.

Is it a must see? Probably not. But it also isn't 90 or so minutes that you won't feel like you wasted either.

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0 out of 2 people found the following comment useful :-
This was awful, 14 November 1999
1/10
Author: PALWalrus from Alachua, FL, USA

I cannot think of one redeeming feature about this movie. The acting is wooden, the script unbelievably bad!! If there is a redeeming feature it is the scenery from many shots taken around New Zealand and the brief appearance of some rarely seen New Zealand artists.

If you have a choice between a dentist appointment and watching this film, take the drill every time, even if it means a root canal!!!

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1 out of 5 people found the following comment useful :-
The Shrimp on the Barbie, 1 July 1999
Author: Tim Cox from Marietta, OH

Second rate comedy highlighted only by funny guy Marin as an American picked up by an Australian heiress to rattle her father's cages a little.

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