Film Review: Nothing But Trouble – 4/10

‘You people are sick, wicked, funky, misanthropic, co-dependent animals…’

Sometimes you watch a film and ponder how on earth did this thing get made? Nothing But Trouble is one of those films. Written and directed by Dan Aykroyd and starring Aykroyd, Chevy Chase, John Candy and Demi Moore, Nothing But Trouble is like some mad fever dream in which The Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 is forced to spend a romantic evening with The Nutty Professor II: The Klumps. It’s an uneasy mix of slapstick, body horror and bad SNL skits. Utterly bizarre…

The plot sees a pair of yuppies pulled over for speeding and then kidnapped by a group of mutant hillbillies. Candy and Aykroyd play multiple roles whilst Chevy Chase barely plays one such is his indifference to the events going on around him. Moore looks faintly embarrassed by the whole thing and it’s hard not to imagine that everyone knew this was a terrible mistake as it was being filmed. Indeed, the film was such a notorious flop that Aykroyd never directed again.

Whilst Nothing But Trouble is an interesting watch for just how fucking nuts it is, nobody could claim that this isn’t a terrible film. It’s an entertaining terrible film but a terrible film nevertheless. This is a horror/comedy that is never intentionally frightening or funny although I did laugh out loud several times at the sheer audacity and absurdity of it all. A truly unique cinematic experience for all the wrong reasons.