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The Shrimp on the Barbie

PG-13 Released Aug 31, 1990 1h 26m Comedy List
Tomatometer 0 Reviews 41% Popcornmeter 500+ Ratings
An Australian heiress (Emma Samms) picks up a wacky American (Cheech Marin) after her father vetoes her burly boyfriend (Vernon Wells).
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The Shrimp on the Barbie

Audience Reviews

View All (33) audience reviews
Audience Member The best movie ever. its so silly and cute and I was not expecting the end. It's a little cringe in some bits but its meant to be soooooo. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 04/19/24 Full Review Audience Member Entertaining. Guy heads out to Australia to make some money when his girl dumps him. He then gets a job being a jerk boyfriend for a woman who wants to get her father to let her marry a real jerk. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 03/13/21 Full Review Audience Member I like "Shrimp on the Barbie." I'm a big Emma Samms fan, and that's pretty much what initially attracted me to see this movie. Made during the big Australia interest in America after "Crocodile Dundee," the movie stars Cheech Marin with Samms as a guy who moves to Australia to start a new life and ends up trying to save a restaurant from going bankrupt. To get the money, he gets hired by Samms to prove her father's hypocrisy against her boyfriends so she can get married. Wildly let loose with the script, Marin tries to become a "boyfriend from hell," the movie's alternate title. Along the way, however, he can't seem shed his down-on-his-luck likable loser image, and even Emma's character changes from a frustrated snob to being a bit more wise for her ordeal. The charming plot seems to poke a lot of fun at the rich, proving it is a bit than a comedy. The storyline 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 the outer rim of Comedy Central's cavalcade of 90s movies, but it doesn't get quite as much of the respect it deserves. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/12/23 Full Review Audience Member This is a funny Movie. Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/07/23 Full Review Audience Member Cute movie! Cheech Marin does a good job on his own in a funny comedy about a mexican guy in Australia trying to make a livning for himself and Emme Sands of General Hospital fame, offers him a deal to being her fake fiance so she can get her father to approve her actual fiance. Not bad really! A bit cheesy but it comes over like a good comedy should. A few laughs and a romance by the end of the movie!!! Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/28/23 Full Review Audience Member A by the book fish out of water story. Cheech Marin and Vernon Wells were both pretty funny and the acting was adequate enough. But there were no surprises and it left something a bit to be desired. Good enough to watch if there is nothing else on. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/17/23 Full Review Read all reviews
The Shrimp on the Barbie

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Cast & Crew

Movie Info

Synopsis An Australian heiress (Emma Samms) picks up a wacky American (Cheech Marin) after her father vetoes her burly boyfriend (Vernon Wells).
Producer
R. Ben Efraim
Production Co
Unity Pictures
Rating
PG-13
Genre
Comedy
Original Language
English
Release Date (Theaters)
Aug 31, 1990, Limited
Release Date (Streaming)
May 23, 2017
Box Office (Gross USA)
$402.1K
Runtime
1h 26m
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