New On Netflix: Nothing But Trouble

No one really knew what to make of this thing back in 1991… and not much has changed in the past 20 years. However, you have to respect (though maybe that’s too strong a word) Nothing But Trouble for at least having what’s probably an uncompromised vision, even if it’s never quite clear what writer-director-star Dan Aykroyd is doing other than being as punch-drunk weird as possible. Chevy Chase and Demi Moore play Manhattanites off for an Atlantic City weekend; a wrong turn off the New Jersey Turnpike leads them to Valkenvania, a steampunk gothic hellhole run by the 106-year-old Judge Alvin Valkenheiser (Aykroyd, in one of at least two roles), who plunges (sometimes literally) the cityfolk into his macabre funhouse of a town. You also get the late John Candy (in at least two roles as well) and a musical performance by Digital Underground that’s so out-of-nowhere you’ll question whether it’s actually happening. Definitely worth watching, if just to see what happens when talented people with a lot of money suddenly lose their minds.

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