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NOTHING BUT TROUBLE
One of the most notorious flops of the nineties, an overly expensive, under-conceived Tim Burton-esque concoction from writer/director Dan Aykroyd. It is memorable though, and even kinda fun in its cockeyed way. Not to over praise this far-from-classic comedy, but it’s a cult waiting to happen.
The Package
For Warner Bros., 1991’s NOTHING BUT TROUBLE was aptly titled in every
sense. Featuring pricey talent like Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, John Candy and
Demi Moore (plus a brief cameo by the rap group Digital Underground), it was the
highly anticipated directorial debut of Aykroyd, who went massively over
budget. Warners execs meekly allowed Aykroyd’s excesses, apparently thinking
they had another BEETLEJUICE on their hands (BEETLEJUICE wannabes were all the
rage at the time: see the same year’s DROP DEAD FRED). The total cost ended up
at around $40 million, a substantial amount at the time, and the film bombed
critically and at the box office.
Now that all the furor has died down, I’m confident NOTHING BUT TROUBLE
will achieve cult status, as it already has in many quarters. A dark,
misanthropic and plain weird movie, it definitely wasn’t what early nineties
audiences wanted to see, but I believe modern day viewers are made of sterner
stuff.
The Story
Businessman Chris Thorne decides, together with his hot chick companion
Diane and goofball buddies Fausto and Renalda, to take a weekend trip to
Atlantic City. But while driving through the creepy town of Valkenvania Chris
is pulled over for running a stop sign. He and his friends are herded into a
forbidding old house run by the ancient Judge Alvin Valkenheiser, who passes
sentence from behind a large desk that rises out of the floor--this he does by
pulling a lever that drops Chris and co. into a dark underground chamber! They,
it turns out, are the lucky ones: a more obnoxious group of people are dragged
in a bit later and sentenced to death by the judge, who deposits the hapless
victims in a roller coaster car that thrusts them into a metal (and bone)
grinder.
Later that night Chris and his friends are invited to dinner with Alvin,
his woman sheriff companion and their severely overweight daughter. Chris and
Diane try to escape, stumbling into an upstairs room where they find several
drivers’ licenses, presumably from past victims, stuck to a wall. Shortly
thereafter the two are separated; Chris is thrust further into Alvin’s loony
world when the latter decides he’s to marry his daughter, while Diane ends up in
the clutches of Alvin’s mutant twin sons, who live in a vast junkyard adjacent
to the house.
Alvin becomes tired of Chris’ antics and sends him out in the roller
coaster execution machine, but it breaks down before reaching the deadly
grinder. Chris jumps out, meets up with Diane and the two make their way back
to civilization, where they contact the police--not that this helps any, as
Alvin and his family have already decided to pay Chris a home visit!
The Direction
Who knew that Dan Aykroyd, the mild-mannered star of light comedies like
TRADING PLACES, THE BLUES BROTHERS and GHOSTBUSTERS (and screenwriter of the
latter two) had the crazed, mean-spirited NOTHING BUT TROUBLE in him? The
seeming dichotomy of the film’s fecund strangeness with its writer-director’s
traditional nice-guy persona seemed to really bother critics and viewers of
1991, but for me the film’s weirdness is what makes it interesting: love it or
hate it, NOTHING BUT TROUBLE is one of the most arrestingly odd movies ever made
by a major Hollywood studio. It’s also, if one is in the right mood--which is
to say, if one isn’t put off by lightweight grotesquerie--quite fun to watch
with its funhouse setting and plethora of elaborate special effects.
But I said at the head of this review that the film is far from the stuff
which classic comedies are made. For starters, it’s never particularly funny.
Nor are talented cast members like Chevy Chase and John Candy ever given much to
work with character-wise. (The most memorable role, unsurprisingly, went to
Aykroyd himself, buried under tons of make-up as the evil Judge Valkenheiser.)
There’s also the prickly fact that the proceedings are far too modest in
conception (the script was allegedly based on an actual incident that happened
to Aykroyd back in the seventies) to support the big budget treatment it was
given. If nothing else, Aykroyd succeeded in making the most expensive
John
Waters movie ever.
Vital Statistics
NOTHING BUT TROUBLE
Warner Bros.
Director: Dan Aykroyd
Producer: Robert K. Weiss
Screenplay: Dan Aykroyd
Cinematography: Dean Cundey
Editing: Malcolm Campbell, James R. Symons
Cast: Chevy Chase, Dan Aykroyd, Demi Moore, John Candy, Valri Bromfield, Taylor
Negron, Bertila Damas, Raymond J. Barry, Brian Doyle-Murray, John Wesley, Peter
Aykroyd, Daniel Baldwin, Jim Staskel, Deborah Lee Johnson, Karla Tamburrelli,
John Daveikis