Directed by and starring Dan Aykroyd (“Ghostbusters”, “The Blues Brothers”), “Nothing But Trouble” is meant to be a comedy but it instead plays out more like one of the “Texas Chainsaw Massacre” movies. I imagine the filmmakers were trying to make another “The ‘Burbs” or even “Beetlejuice” but the enormous effort that clearly went into this film is incredibly misguided.

A New York businessman (Chevy Chase “Fletch”, “Funny Farm”) and his friends become the prisoner of the sadistic Judge Valkenheiser (Aykroyd) in the bizarre and very unpleasant town of Valkenvania. What follows is a series of ugly images with poor comedic dialog accompanying them.

Dan Aykroyd plays multiple roles in the movie but you mainly see him as the judge character. He looks pretty creepy as the make-up guys have done a good job but the he isn’t interesting and he isn’t funny. Chevy Chase is not remotely funny as Chris. John Candy (“Spaceballs”) isn’t funny as Valkenvania’s police officer and he certainly isn’t funny when dressed up as a woman when playing the judge character’s granddaughter. Demi Moore (“Indecent Proposal”) is easily the most entertaining cast member here as she plays another protagonist by the name of Diane and she is the closest this film gets to being funny but that’s not saying much.

The set design looks great and some of the atmosphere created is great but this movie should not have been a comedy; Demi Moore is mildly amusing at best but everybody else tries to make us laugh and they fail… miserably. You have to admire the work that has gone in here but at the same time, you can’t help but feel that something went horribly wrong during the pitching of this movie. Allegedly, the movie is loosely based on a real experience Aykroyd had back in 70s and this movie came out in 1991 and he hasn’t sat in the director’s chair since… which experience do you think was worse for him?