TheRetroCritic

The only film directed by Dan Aykroyd to date, Nothing But Trouble was a dark comedy from 1991 which starred Chevy Chase as a businessman who is arrested for speeding then put on trial in the trash and weirdo-filled little town of Valkenvania, just off the New Jersey Turnpike. With a cast that includes John Candy, Demi Moore, Taylor Negron and Dan Aykroyd himself, Nothing But Trouble looked like a safe bet and its goofy plot had lots of potential. Unfortunately, the film was a massive flop, gathering only about $8M against a healthy budget of $40M, and the critics did not go easy on it. Nothing But Trouble was panned by everyone back in the day, including Chevy Chase himself, it was nominated for several Razzie awards and Dan Aykroyd would never dare direct a film again afterwards. Looking back, the movie's failure at the box-office is hardly surprising: sinking this much money into a story this bizarre was never going to deliver. The film itself, on the other hand, isn't

In the early 90's, one film taught us how to handle the truth. That film was an all-star cast courtroom drama known as  A Few Good Men . Starring the likes of Tom Cruise, Jack Nicholson, Demi Moore, Kevin Bacon and Kiefer Sutherland, the movie could have easily been a dull affair seeing as it all revolved around a trial but somehow it managed to be not only universally accessible but actually surprisingly gripping and memorable. The plot follows a couple of US Navy men as they are arrested for the murder of a fellow soldier. Cruise's cocky military lawyer Daniel is hired to defend them and what could have easily been an open-and-shut case turns out to be much more complicated than that as the accused claim to have been acting under orders. We pretty much know who is to blame early on but it's whether Daniel can prove it or not in court that becomes a primary source of suspense. Also, the military "code" and its unspoken extra rules constantly get in the w