Verdict
Summary
A simple, connect the dots comedy / caper with its feet firmly entrenched in the cocaine-swilling ’80s, Dirty Laundry is a delightfully unsophisticated movie with random punks, casual racism, girls in bikinis, old ladies with guns, Miami Vice spoofing, kung fu, and a chase in an ice cream truck. Honestly, what more could you ask for?
Plot:
A bag of money is accidentally switched at a laundry mat, leading to a madcap chase.
Review:
A rock star lands in Los Angeles for a big time gig, and his manager (played by Sonny Bono) is dealing cocaine on the side. He passes off a bag full of cocaine to his handler (played by a spastic Nicholas Worth), who takes it to a laundry mat, where he is supposed to exchange the drugs for a bag full of money. The bag is accidentally switched with the dirty laundry bag belonging to a regular dude named Jay (Leigh McCloskey), who throws the bag in his trunk and drives off. This event marks him as a target for the mob and for the unhinged assassin (Worth) they hire to retrieve the cash at any cost. Jay spends the next 24 hours totally clueless as to why people are trying to kill him, but when he teams up with a reporter (played by Jeanne O’Brien), they both realize at the same time what the fuss is all about, but instead of turning the money in in exchange for Jay’s next-door-neighbor buddy (played by Robbie Rist) whom the mob has kidnapped, Jay and the reporter go on a wild adventure as they spend and give the money away everywhere they go!
A simple, connect the dots comedy / caper with its feet firmly entrenched in the cocaine-swilling ’80s, Dirty Laundry is a delightfully unsophisticated movie with random punks, casual racism, girls in bikinis, old ladies with guns, Miami Vice spoofing, kung fu, and a chase in an ice cream truck. Honestly, what more could you ask for? It’s dumb, sometimes tasteless, and clumsier than a Police Academy sequel, but I had a really fun time with it. Never released theatrically, but dumped to home video during the VHS video boom, Dirty Laundry could have used even more tasteless and sexist gags, but as it is, it’s a goober of a time capsule. From director William Webb.
MVD Rewind did us all a favor and resurrected Dirty Laundry from obscurity and has just put it out on Blu-ray and DVD. The Blu-ray (#33 on the spine) has a new on-camera (via Skype, looks like) with star McCloskey, a new audio commentary, another interview with co-star Rist, the trailer, and a foldout poster inside the package. The film is in its original theatrical aspect ratio for the firs time ever.
