Loose Shoes

An occasionally amusing, often confusing, gleefully profane 70's movie that hasn't really aged well. A precursor to Saturday NIGHT LIVE, it's a hodgepodge of spoofs and takeoffs of popular movies of the time. Some of the material is quite good ('The Shaggy Studio Executive,' where Walt Disney comes back as a guy in a dog suit), some of it's dated badly (A 'Snacktime' concession stand advert featuring a stoned guy with the munchies), a lot of it you have to think for a minute or two to figure out what's supposed to be funny (Who knew the eulogist at the biker funeral was supposed to be a takeoff of Georgie Jessel?). Best if you remember the time.

Every previous review has stated something I agree with and maybe something I DISagree with. For example, this doesn't come close in laughs to Kentucky Fried Movie which I consider the benchmark for this type of parody movie.

I do believe that some of the segments (I don't know, is SKIT really the right word?) do go on a little past where they should. Even long trailers tend to end before these and we've all see via the internet and TV skit shows that a parody trailer can be hysterically funny and remain at the usual trailer length. There's some fantastic stuff here and some that do fall a bit flat but all in all, if you are a fan, even just a bit, of the genre, this is a must see, if for not other reason, it's a history lesson of what was, back in the day. If you don't enjoy it, really, what did you lose?

Continuing to review movies starring "SNL"ers early in their film careers, we're now still in 1977 with the completion of something originally called Coming Attractions but would eventually be released a few years later as Loose Shoes. Bill Murray, the first to join the show after the departure of a cast member-in this case Chevy Chase, appears in the "Three Chairs for Lefty" segment. He plays a condemned prisoner awaiting execution while studying to better himself. He's funny here but just about every skit-which spoofs various movie preview trailers-has something that I thought was hilarious. Oh, and Harry Shearer is another one who would eventually join "SNL". He's one of the announcers here. Oh, and since I just watched Tunnel Vision, I also have to note the appearances of Betty Thomas and Howard Hesseman from that flick doing their own funny characters (also Lynne Marie Stewart in more of a straight role). Since I grew up in the '70s, I noticed the spoofs on Billy Jack, The Bad News Bears, and Star Wars and laughed myself heartily on those. Then there's the climatic musical number that gives this movie its title which was taken from a now-politically incorrect quote by an administrator of the Ford presidency that was all-out entertaining to me. So on that note, I highly recommend Loose Shoes.

Most collections of comic sketches are extremely uneven. "Loose Shoes" is an exception. It is CONSISTENTLY unfunny, and all the episodes are awful. Their humor is infantile, aimed strictly at kids. Murray, who stars in just one episode, is awful,too. At 74 minutes, this excruciating "comedy" doesn't even qualify as a movie. It's just a fraud. Be warned.

Laughed, what more do you want from a movie? Bill Murray is in only one scene