Episode 56 — Nothing But Trouble

[RichardsCopyCat 22]

No one here saw the clear parallel to Texas Chainsaw Massacre? The dinner... the scewed, small-town, no one can hear you scream elements? Watched this recently with my best friend after more than a decade since my last viewing. Deffinitly felt differently about it as a child. Watching this as an adult, I was reminded of Chainsaw, and also how trippy it felt to watch Pee Wee's Big Adventure since watching it as a kid.

[choochoo_the_wonder_slut 740]

 

they'd probably like to continue working in the industry

 

So when Ben Affleck wins Best Director in a few days the Reindeer Games and Gigli episodes are coming down? Come on now. I'd just like them to mix it up with recent flops a little more often is all.

[torgo1985 1]

I haven't listened to the podcast yet, but I hope you mention that in the last scene, we see the judge clearly has a dick for a nose.

 

He has it in the dinner scene, too. Chevy gives a bug-eyed take to the camera over it.

 

When I was about 9 I caught this movie on cable, turning it on right as Chevy Chase was on Mr. Bonestripper's treadmill. I spent most of my life convincing myself it was just a horrible dream, until it came up again on Comedy Central. Then I realized not only was it a real movie, but it was made by people who had made some of my favorite comedies ever! It was then that I first knew betrayal.

 

I disagree with the crew not recommending that anyone watch Nothing But Trouble. I think everyone should watch it at least once, just to come out of the experience stronger.

[robinsbruce 4985]

 

So when Ben Affleck wins Best Director in a few days the Reindeer Games and Gigli episodes are coming down? Come on now. I'd just like them to mix it up with recent flops a little more often is all.

 

I'm with you spirit bear. Are we to believe that Happy Madison/Sandler is big enough to black-ball talented comedians and writers from good jobs for making fun of his terrible movies? He doesn't run Hollywood, and Jason/June/Paul certainly wouldn't be the first to pan the shitty films he has put out.

[Cabbagehead 61]

Oh man, this movie...

[Herself 107]

Didn't they say early on that people were complaining about having to pay to see current movies? Maybe they're purposefully choosing older flicks than we can find online cheap or free? Just a thought.

[pokey_valentine 115]

June nailed it. Not only was this movie bad, I didn't feel well watching it. It's gross and dumb and terrible, but there's something really sad and awkward about it, too.

[Liz212 1]

I feel like Dan Akyroyd wanted to make something like Terry Gilliam's Brazil, but we got this because he's not nearly as smart or creative as he thinks he is.

[RyanSz 3140]

Didn't they say early on that people were complaining about having to pay to see current movies? Maybe they're purposefully choosing older flicks than we can find online cheap or free? Just a thought.

 

That was it. Unless it was something universally crappy/big like Breaking Dawn, they wanted fans to be able to find these things for cheap or free.

[choochoo_the_wonder_slut 740]

 

That was it. Unless it was something universally crappy/big like Breaking Dawn, they wanted fans to be able to find these things for cheap or free.

 

Got it, that makes sense. Thanks.

[Kickpuncher 5012]

Having thankfully not seen this movie, I was a little confused about something discussed at the end. Based on the scene with the Brazilians and Candy at the end, I got the impression that the Brazilians were in cahoots with Aykroyd & Co., and got Chase to get off the turnpike as a trap. So, was that...

 

1) not implied at all, and I'm reading too much into it?

2) implied, and the hosts got it, but just touched on it without explicitly saying it or digging deeper?

3) implied, and the hosts didn't get it?

 

Other thoughts:

- Was Rananazzisi the quietest guest ever? It didn't hurt the show at all, and I can understand how it could be hard to get a word in, but it was a little weird.

- June's "Were they humans?", Jason's laughter, and the ensuing discussion was one of my favorite HDTGM moments ever.

[PlanBFromOuterSpace 3138]

 

So when Ben Affleck wins Best Director in a few days the Reindeer Games and Gigli episodes are coming down? Come on now. I'd just like them to mix it up with recent flops a little more often is all.

CORRECTION: Affleck wasn't nominated in the Best Director category for the Academy Awards, which is exactly why "Argo" will win Best PICTURE as an apology/face-saving move. Affleck has been cleaning up and winning every OTHER directing award, which makes the Academy look like assholes for getting it so, so wrong. That's a pretty damn good consolation prize.

[KatieOfPluto 6]

Having thankfully not seen this movie, I was a little confused about something discussed at the end. Based on the scene with the Brazilians and Candy at the end, I got the impression that the Brazilians were in cahoots with Aykroyd & Co., and got Chase to get off the turnpike as a trap. So, was that...

 

1) not implied at all, and I'm reading too much into it?

2) implied, and the hosts got it, but just touched on it without explicitly saying it or digging deeper?

3) implied, and the hosts didn't get it?

 

 

It's not implied. They convinced Candy to abandon Aykroyd and sneak them out of the death town. Candy was already second-guessing Aykroyd's ways and was getting tired of the whole small-town justice system, so they all flee. If they were in cahoots, then there wouldn't have been a scene of them pleading with Candy to set them free/sneak out with them.

[danm_999 30]

Hey guys how about doing some more recent movies more often? Outside of Liz&Dick/Timothy Green/Twilight we've had like 5 months straight of stuff mostly from the 90's. You know Adam Sandler is still working right?

 

If you look at the breakdown of the podcast over its roughly two year history, you'll notice that in the first year, they only did two films from the pre-2000 era (Mac and Me and Superman III) out of 24 episodes.

 

So if they're heavier on older films in their second year, that's hardly unsurprising.

[action52 554]

I remember this being one of those movies Comedy Central used to play all the time, especially at weird hours. I would see bits and pieces of it sometimes as I flipped around and it always freaked me out.This movie makes no sense even if you watch it from the beginning, but turning it on in the middle and trying to understand anything is a total mindfuck.

[seanotron 2307]

I don't think a Sandler movie would work. His movies are knowingly stupid, and the best HDTGM eps are about movies that seem blissfully unaware of their stupidity/horribleness.

[danm_999 30]

I don't think a Sandler movie would work. His movies are knowingly stupid, and the best HDTGM eps are about movies that seem blissfully unaware of their stupidity/horribleness.

 

Yeah and there's sort of an internal logic to why Sandler films are made; he's a huge box office draw, even if his movies aren't very good, people will go see them in the millions. They're pretty predictable, you know what you're getting. Studios just give him some cash, he gets his friends to act in it, and they crank out something that does really well at the box office that's unrelated to it's quality.

 

HDTGM seems to want to target movies where the question is less clear; so how did "Nothing But Trouble" get made when it's a nightmarish mess of tone, has no clear narrative or pacing and all these great comedic actors appear like they don't want to be there?

 

How did "The Devil's Advocate" get made when Al Pacino turned it down five times, it had it's script altered and doctored like five times and Keanu Reeves was like the fifth person approached to play the lead?

 

How did Reindeer Games, a Christmas movie, get made when it was released in March and had a third act that didn't make sense given the first two acts?

 

If you ask the question about Jack and Jill "How Did This Get Made", the answer is really "Adam Sandler = money, duh".

[neals79 7]

 

If you look at the breakdown of the podcast over its roughly two year history, you'll notice that in the first year, they only did two films from the pre-2000 era (Mac and Me and Superman III) out of 24 episodes.

 

So if they're heavier on older films in their second year, that's hardly unsurprising.

 

So it is surprising?

 

I personally prefer the older movie episodes. The nostalgia factor on some are great (Mac and Me) and the abundance of glaringly low budget gems (sleepaway camp) are hard to match with current flicks. The bonkers quotient seems to be high on these ones too. It's amazing every time they bring up repressed memories of viewing these atrocities as a child.

[ben mcd 127]

CORRECTION: Affleck wasn't nominated in the Best Director category for the Academy Awards, which is exactly why "Argo" will win Best PICTURE as an apology/face-saving move. Affleck has been cleaning up and winning every OTHER directing award, which makes the Academy look like assholes for getting it so, so wrong. That's a pretty damn good consolation prize.

 

And yet the "Ben Affleck is emotionally torn and drinking a bottle of whiskey in his hotel room while mugging out the window" scene would be perfectly at home in any other HDTGM film. ACTING!

[pokey_valentine 115]

The more this movie works itself around my mind, the more convinced I become that it's some kind of dismal, surrealist self-portrait in three parts, some absurdist, coke-addled cry for help.

 

Dan Aykroyd plays a shell of a man, glory days behind him, whose egomania and enablers support his horrible decisions. He also plays a giant, overgrown baby-man.

 

Chevy Chase plays a rich, arrogant prick who will do literally anything to get with a beautiful woman while scoffing at poor people and laws from the driver's seat of his BMW. His survival is inexplicable.

 

John Candy plays a put-upon lackey who wants to do right, but ultimately sells out (he serves the J.P. for promise of inheritance, and helps the Brazilianaires escape for the promise of fortune). He also plays a voiceless woman who is undesirable because she's fat.

 

This is the only way the movie, or its existence, even makes sense to me.

[JacobCrites 4977]

I don't think a Sandler movie would work. His movies are knowingly stupid, and the best HDTGM eps are about movies that seem blissfully unaware of their stupidity/horribleness.

I agree, although the main reason why the gang won't touch those movies is because they have buddies that star in them. Which is fine.

And personally, I like that the podcast is choosing movies that are so-bad-they're-good. Sandler movies are pretty much the scum of the earth, but that makes them soul-sucking to watch. As you say, it's more fun to watch movies that are unaware of how bad they are.

[FUTURE DRACULA 2]

THIS MOVIE GAVE ME RECURRING MISTER BONESTRIPPER NIGHTMARES FOR YEARS. Thank you for finally covering it... I honestly thought I had dreamed the entire thing and I am both deeply relieved and incredibly disappointed to learn that it is actually real.

[therealjayknox 26]

Best question of the episode "are they supposed to be humans?" and we may never know. In this movie, a backstory would have the Judge taking a dump in the toxic pool and for no reason these two creatures were 'born'.

 

Is it possible to say a single good thing about this movie?

Maybe.

It really was unique. I mean I still have no idea if this was a slasher horror, a bizarre 'camp' send-up or was trying to be serious or slapstick or what was this????

 

Seriously I feel unhappy after seeing this - and I just bounced from scene to scene. Digital Underground was in this. What the hell is going on.

[JustinL 216]

I just found an interview with Dan Aykroyd online that's apparently from an issue of Starlog that came out just before the movie was released. Lots of great (read: kind of sad) ironic statements. There's more about the experience he had which inspired the film and interestingly, the giant baby men are referred to as "mutants" and are based on real people. Yes, you read that right. He also talks about the challenges of opening a film against Twins.

 

http://www.oocities.org/hollywood/lot/2976/starlog.html

[Conley76 0]

So i've never seen this movie, but after listening to it be described, I have to ask: do you think this movie was, at least in part, the inspiration for House Of 1,000 Corpses?