By Geno McGahee
When it comes to the careers of Chevy Chase, John Candy, Demi Moore and Dan Aykroyd, one movie may stick out as the one that they shouldn’t have done and that film is NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, a widely panned film that bombed at the box office, only making 8.4 million of its 40 million budget back. Now, the general consensus is that this film is an embarrassment for the people involved and just a bad movie, but I think that this is just a misunderstood gem.
Chris Thorne (Chase) is a financial specialist that lives in Manhattan. He meets Diane (Moore) and agrees to drive her to Atlantic City to deal with some business. Going along for the ride is Fausto (Taylor Negron) and his sister, Renalda (Bertila Damas), two clients of Thorne from Brazil. I didn’t think that these two characters were terrible, but I can see why people don’t like them. They don’t add a great deal to this film.
While taking the back to Atlantic City, they roll through a stop sign and get pulled over by Dennis (Candy), a local cop. Instead of ticketing the group, he has them follow him to the courthouse, where they all stand in front of Judge Valkenheiser (Aykroyd). Valkenheiser’s grandfather was screwed out of a lot of money by a New York banker and holds it against all bankers. When he finds out that Thorne is a financial specialist, he sees him as a banker and locks him up with Diane and the Brazilian couple.
After being locked up in a strange room for a while, the group is brought out for dinner. Diane does her best to kiss up to Valkenheiser in hopes to get out, but it doesn’t work. When Diane and Thorne stumble upon a room with hundreds of photo IDs, they realize that they are doomed and that the judge is planning their deaths. Now they must escape but it won’t be easy.
Eldona, also played by John Candy, is the granddaughter of the judge and mute as well. She takes a liking to Thorne and the flirting that Candy does with Chase in this role is really really funny. Candy is always good and he made the character really work.
Thorne and Diane get separated. Thorne gets captured by the judge and his family while Diane is caught by Bobo (Aykroyd) and Lil Debbull (John Daveikis), two incredibly overweight, dirty and stupid grandchildren of the judge. Much like the Brazilian couple, I can see why these characters could ruin the viewing experience. There’s a line of absurdity that this film rides along, but these two characters seem to go well over the allotted line. I wasn’t a fan of Bobo and Debbull, but they didn’t destroy the film for me.
Some speeders are brought into court to be in front of the judge and they happen to be the band “Digital Underground”, that were popular for about five minutes. They were mostly known for their “Humpty Dance” song, but other than that, they basically disappeared. Actually, next to the Humpty Dance song, this movie may be what they are best known for, and that may not be a good thing.
The Digital Underground is released, but they do the judge a solid. Thorne is forced to marry Eldona, but the wedding goes sour and now Thorne reunites with Diane and are on the run again, eventually getting away, but they are not out of the woods yet. There are some more twists and turns along the way before the end credits roll.
NOTHING BUT TROUBLE reminds me a lot of HOUSE OF 1000 CORPSES and maybe even a little of the later TEXAS CHAINSAW MASSACRES. It is nearly a horror spoof but probably could have been a horror film had they lost some of the silly characters and made it darker. This is a film that missed the mark of what it tried to do, I think, but it isn’t without charm and brings a fun factor.
This is a really different sort of film then we are used to see this cast in. It’s actually a different sort of film than most. Those looking for a zany comedy that we get with actors like Candy, Chase and Aykroyd won’t get it here. This is a dark, weird comedy that has to be appreciated for what it is.
I enjoyed NOTHING BUT TROUBLE, despite being annoyed by a handful of characters. I’m not shocked it bombed. It’s one of those films that would get a cult following but the mainstream would see no value in. It’s much better than the critics have reported and there’s a great deal of fun to be had. I recommend it.
