Loose Screws (1985)

A Brilliant Conflict

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

There's a more than satisfactory amount of boom-boom in the movie's trim running time.

Story: It's very simple but honestly that is fine.

Loose Screws (1985)* 1/2 (out of 4) Sequel to SCREWBALLS finds four perverted guys getting sent to a school with plenty of women where they decide to play a rating game. For every girl they score with they get ten points but the main prize is a French teacher with big breasts. I'm still a little confused as why they'd punish perverts by sending them to a school with nothing but women. Anyways, this 80's teen-sex comedy is pretty bad no matter how you look at it. It's clear that the original movie made some money so this thing was rushed into production without much of a screenplay. Instead of any type of story we're just graced with scenes where one of the four men will be making out with a number of women who find them desirable. None of these scenes are all that erotic and it's rare for me to say this but even the nudity gets boring after a while. There's also very few laughs to be found here as the "stunts" and "games" played by the guys are all rather lame. The film tries hard to recapture the spirit of the first movie but it pretty much fails on all levels. Even the ending tries to copy the one in the original but it just doesn't work. The performances are certainly below average but I'll overlook this since we really don't come to these movies to see Oscar-winning performances. The characters aren't all that likable and it's really hard to care about anything going on. LOOSE SCREWS is a pretty poor movie that was made just to try and get some extra bucks off the first film's success.

If you thought Screwballs was a disaster, then by all means pass this one by. I, myself, am not a big fan of T & A movies, but I do love comedies. Luckily for some, this is one of the two, and let's just say I laughed once the whole movie. Come on, guys, really!?? We can't get 17 seconds into the movie without some girl exposing her chest? Then again, we're not exactly expecting ground breaking masterpieces with a title like "Loose Screws", now are we? I mean, let's break it down: First scene of the movie shows a sign outside a school that says BEAVER HIGH. How a bunch of horny guys looking to get laid by girls fail a school like this is beyond me. Oh, yeah, welcome to one of those movies where it's an immature snicker fest at the whole 'get it?' jokes: A man walking around with the name Hugh G. Rection. Get it? Get it! Giggle, giggle...oh, I miss you anyway, 1985. The paper thin plot, barely any plot of Screwballs continues with this sequel. A french teacher is the center of attention for these wacky, goofball candidates to go to Coxwell Academy. The story includes trying to get her out of her clothes. That's it! There's your story! No twists, no turns, no over thinking needed. The comedy, of course, is dumbed down. There's absolutely nothing intelligent about this film, which I suppose makes a great drinking movie when you're drunk, I myself do not drink anymore, so I would much prefer to watch something with more humor, more emotional depth, something. By far, Screwballs is a much better flick then this, and I trashed that movie, so you can use your imagination and figure out what I think of this one. If you like silly comedies drown out by young female nudity, this is the one for you. If you don't, it's not...it's really that simple. For me, if I could get that time back that I spent watching this movie, I would have picked something else to watch.

Four twenty-year olds who have been stuck in the twelfth grade for four years because of all the babes they continue to score with are sent by their fed-up principal to a "special school" in the summer to supposedly teach a lesson, but these leopards don't change their spots.LOOSE SCREWS is basically another in a long line of PORKY'S wannabes with more (less than subdued)sexual innuendo within the jokes, names of characters, and even the schools than you can shake a stick at. Lines of dialogue featured between characters contain—particularly between guys and girls (who seem to be just as naughty and sexually liberated as their horny male counterparts)—constant references to and proposals for sex. The film is a tool of titillation and features non-stop boobage. It seems the casting director must've been very convincing in orchestrating a long line of willing girls with no inhibitions whatsoever, because so many wind up removing their shirts: seriously, the female form is an important character in movies like LOOSE SCREWS. Either you like movies like this or you find them reprehensible, because immoral behavior and open attitudes about shagging at any given moment are the main dish on the menu of LOOSE SCREWS.The plot finds time for the four buddies (with sex ALWAYS on their minds) to compete to see who can bed the new French teacher, keeping a scoring system regarding who can score with the most chicks, with even a beach dance number for good measure. Here's the names for the four main characters: Brad LOVEtt(Bryan Genesse, who dresses in drag so he can spend the night in the female dorm(!), including a bathtub scene with a girl he soon becomes involved with), Steve HARDman(Lance Van Der Kolk, the typical blond hunk who almost gets caught in bed with his new school's principal's wife!), HUgh G. RECTION( Alan Deveau), and Marvin EATMORE (Jason Warren, the heavy character whose appetite and large size were fodder for fat jokes especially in the 80s). When you have female characters named Tracey GRATEHEAD (great head) and MONA LOTT (moan a lot) or even Hilda Von Blow(the typical scary German woman who favors a Butch female Nazi), then you ought to know the kind of sleazy comedy you are in for.There is positively nothing here anything less than gratuitous. There's a visit from the four goofballs to a strip club featuring the usual wet T-shirt contest, not to mention, the "revenge on the principal" lifted right out of PORKY'S (also, the bar the four guys visit is called THE PIGPIN, sheesh) at the end when the gang get even with the disciplinarian who expels them (rightfully so) for their continual antics in his school. The principal, Mr. Arenault (Mike MacDonald), is one of those types who wears a scowl on his face and punishes the gang for their "errors in distaste" (such as writing on the chalkboard 1000 times about not bothering the French teacher, or cleaning the school floors with a tooth brush) so you know he will be victimized at the very end for such deeds. Deborah Lobban is the French teacher the boys try to get jiggy with—the "hot teacher" angle played to the hilt as only the 80s could do it. I think many films lift the sex from PORKY'S without seeing the other ingredients which made the movie such a success: there's heart and strong characterizations in that movie, including the awesome authenticity of the period depicted, which seem left out of all the imitators.

"Loose Screws" is a radical party movie with an awesome, quasi-new wave & "fake rock" soundtrack. The lead actors are older, sleazy guys playing sex-crazed teenagers. When it comes to the females in this film, obviously "loose" is the operative word. This film delivers non-stop idiocy and perversion in a way that "Preppies" and other teen sex comedies of the day fail to live up to. There is no attempt to be sentimental or involve the characters in an annoying action sub-plot.One of the best moments of the film occurs during the climax scene at the graduation assembly. The 4 main guys kind-of magically become a new wave-ish rock band and turn the entire ceremony into a party. Disregard other reviews that peg this film as garbage; those people JUST DON'T GET IT! This film delivers non-stop idiocy in a way that "Preppies" and many other teen sex comedies of the day fail to live up to. "Loose Screws" is truly unhinged! FYI: The Summer school exteriors were filmed at St. Andrews College in Auroura, Ontario. Pay special attention to the scenes shot on a chilly, dismal Toronto "beach". There is also a great second-story-window-fall which looks really quite painful (couldn't afford a stunt man?). The soundtrack was never released, but one of the musical highlights is available on used vinyl: "Circular Impressions" by The Extras.