As "Canadian Tax Shelter" as they tend to get, Loose Screws is another T&A comedy from the Roger Corman factory that started life intended as a sequel to 1983's amusing Screwballs only to become a mostly unrelated sex romp that's light on the laughs, heavy on the low-brow sex jokes, and gobs of naked skin.

Four students from Beaver High (yes, that's the level of humour on hand here, be forewarned) are forced to go to summer school at Coxwell Academy in order to avoid flunking out. They're the typical bunch of stereotypes as there's the tennis playing stud, the overeating fat guy, the videophile nerd, and the womanizer. How they're all friends is beyond me, but nevermind.

From there it's the usual sex comedy hijinks as the guys get into all sorts of mayhem and misadventures (that usually involve some form of naked woman) as they make wagers to keep track during the summer for any sexual conquests they rack up giving them points for various accomplishments - the main goal, and the biggest point getter, is if they can manage to bed sultry French teacher Mona Lots.

With about as thin a plot as you can get - not that many movies of this type are heavy on such things - Loose Screws is an exercise in low-budget, low-brow hokum and the first of many T&A comedies director Rafal Zielinski would be responsible for (others such as 1986's Recruits and 1988's Screwball Academy are actually a small amount better than this) and it packs on the typical pointless nudity as the guys get up to no good posing as doctors to get girls to undress, they pour a bikini disintegrating liquid into the school pool's filter, there's the expected locker room scene, and (because no movie of this type would be complete without it) even a wet t-shirt contest. And if that wasn't enough "hilarity" for you the cast even gets to lip-sync a poor new wave song late in the movie.

Yeah, so in case you weren't sure, all we have here is just another juvenile romp filled with goofily named characters (one guy is Hugh G. Rection, a joke that might've been funny when I was crank calling people with my friends in fifth grade), obvious innuendo puns, and boobies galore. Heck, they even take a page out of Porky's (the only Canadian made movie of this type worth seeing) by having a Lesbian-like authority figure called Ms. Von Blow.

Loose Screws is better left alone. Sure, Screwballs was pretty similar and just as stupid, but at least it was entertaining. All we get here are dull, groanable jokes and mediocre production values and while Cyd Belliveau isn't that bad as Ms. Lots and Canadian comedian Mike McDonald does what he can as principal Arsenault their performances alone can't make this a complete waste of 77 minutes. (Chris Hartley, 10/11/06)

Directed By: Rafal Zielinski.
Written By: Michael Cory.

Starring: Bryan Genesse, Lance Van Der Kolk, Alan Deveau, Jason Warren.

Picture Ratio: Full Frame.

Picture Quality: With heavy print damage at times and a soft presentation, Loose Screws looks about on par as if you were to watch it on VHS or late night cable TV.

Extras: Another entry in Buena Vista's Roger Corman "Comedies Your Mom Won't Let You See" series this has about as much going for it as Beach Balls did - that mainly being nothing. They've just tossed it on disc with a static "Play Movie" menu and no chapter selections.