Search - Loose Shoes on DVD

"Your old lady's a pig and all she ever does it talk."

cookieman108 | Inside the jar... | 01/22/2007

(3 out of 5 stars)

"In the vein of skit based comedic features such as Kentucky Fried Movie (1977), The Groove Tube (1974), Mr. Mike's Mondo Video (1979), Amazon Women on the Moon (1987), Tunnel Vision (1976), American Raspberry (1977), and That's Adequate (1989), comes Loose Shoes (1980), co-written and directed by Ira Miller, whose main claim to fame appears to be having had bits parts in a number of Mel Brooks features including High Anxiety (1977), History of the World: Part I (1981), and Spaceballs (1987), to name a few. Some of the notable performers appearing are Bill Murray (Meatballs, Caddyshack), Buddy Hackett (It's a Mad Mad Mad Mad World), Howard Hesseman (This Is Spinal Tap), Ed Lauter (Magic), actress turn director Betty Thomas (Private Parts), in a fairly revealing role, Jaye P. Morgan ("The Gong Show"), Sid Haig (Coffy), Avery Schreiber (Galaxina), Ysabel MacCloskey ("Bewitched"), and Walker Edmiston ("Barnaby Jones"), who provided the voice of the creepy Zuni doll featured in the memorable made for TV film Trilogy of Terror (1975).

The film is comprised of skits, some spoofs of popular films, with the writers trying to drawn upon the comedic value of combining two popular films into one. An example would be Billy Jerk Goes to Oz...it's mildly amusing, but know a lot of the references are extremely dated and haven't held up very well (I wonder how many people born after the 1970s will recognize the Billy Jack reference). While this is true of most of the films I mentioned at the beginning, Loose Shoes seems to suffer more than some the others given most of the material referenced is quite old or just somewhat obscure to begin with...some other skits involve spoofs on science fictions films, exploitation features, biographies, musicals, travelogues, public service announcements, and so on. There is a somewhat humorous intermission bit, the kind of thing shown more often in the past, that touts the concession stand as a great place to alleviate that case of the munchies you may have developed from, well, you know...and if you ever wanted to see Avery Schreiber, who resembles a heavyset Gene Shalit, in a red sequined tutu, here's your chance (it's not as erotic as it sounds). There were some references I didn't get at all including the bit with Howard Hesseman as a wartime correspondent in a spoof entitled `Just A Run in the Sun', which I think may have been tied to the film A Walk in the Sun (1945), but I'm not sure given I've never seen the latter. Some of the bits had potential, but would often fizzle out, or just run longer than necessary (the take off of the biker flicks featuring skateboarders was one example of this). There are two worthwhile sequences, the first one entitled `Ma and Pa Take Francis to New York'. The filmmakers took the Ma and Pa characters popular way back in the 1950s with those Ma and Pa Kettle films (Ma and Pa Kettle Back on the Farm, Ma and Pa Kettle on Vacation, Ma and Pa Kettle at Home, etc.), and threw in an obscenity spewing talking pig named Francis (based partly on the Francis the talking mule, who never used such language). Another great bit was the old time musical near the end, which includes a hilariously nasty song. What about Bill Murray, you ask? Well, he appears as a death row prisoner, wearing way too much make-up, in a jail house spoof, one that's not very good considering the lame gags present are as old as the hills. All in all I'd say this might be worth getting if only for the Ma and Pa and the musical spoof segments, as the rest are relatively forgettable. At the very least Loose Shoes doesn't run overly long, all of about 84 minutes, it's inexpensive, and was a heck of a lot funnier than Tunnel Vision (1976), which I just recently saw (and wished I hadn't).

The fullscreen (1.33:1) picture presented on this St. Clair Vision DVD release looks pretty decent, much like that of a slightly worn VHS tape, and the audio comes through well enough. There aren't any extras included, but the skits are broken down into chapters stops so at least you can skip to the funniest bits, if you're so inclined.

Cookieman108

By the way, John Candy's name is prominently displayed on the front of the DVD case, but if he was in this film, it must have been the smallest of parts as I missed him (he's not even listed in the credits, as far as I can tell).
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