You know you are in trouble when the DVD cover of a movie trailer parody featuring positive quotes from "A Friend in the Family" is funnier than anything in the movie. And by the way, the quotes are about as simplistic as you can imagine and they include howlers such as "Loose Shoes is a Must See" and "Truly Inspired Skits." Yeah, they gave me a smile across my face that lasted half a second. I wish someone had punched me in the face before I even loaded this DVD into the player and reminded me not to bother. Or I wish someone convinced me not to buy it for a dollar at the Dollar Store years ago as it sat here waiting, or daring me, to watch it. I am glad I never saw this in a theater. Anyway, let's get back to the movie.
"Loose Shoes" is a bunch of faux movie trailers strung together and they are of the scatological nature like "Howard the Huge" (a takeoff on Howard Hughes) and a series of short teasers for "That's Sexploitation!" Otherwise we get such preciously awful ones like "Skateboarders From Hell" (which is so horrendously staged that it is hard to figure if they are imitating the bad Drive-In flicks of the 70's or if the filmmakers were clueless); a talking pig that goes on for far too long; a cumbersome trailer featuring Buddy Hackett and a school for teaching children to stop tinkling outside; a takeoff on Chaplin with a Tramp-like character called "The Bum" which somehow equates Jewish with being Communist (Oh, I am doubling over with laughter), and even Bill Murray wearing heavy eyebrow liner as a prisoner which is good for a chuckle or two. Most of these seem more like extended skits rather than trailers and none would have made it on the air on Saturday Night Live back then.
The best segment has a Woody Allen-like parody of his "Play it Again, Sam" film and the actor perfectly captures Woody's mannerisms and inflection. The worst might be "Darktown after Dark" which is cringeworthy at best with a repeated refrain for a big band song and I'll leave it at that. "Loose Shoes" (originally titled "Coming Attractions") has nothing really of value and no real attitude towards the material it parodies. A parody of Billy Jack called Billy Jerk with him going to Oz doesn't exactly scream Ernst Lubitsch or the ZAZ team.
Footnote: Apparently the DVD has almost forty minutes of black screen after the movie is over and reportedly so does the VHS version. Now that's funny.
