My Year of Flops Case File #29 Nothing But Trouble
The highest praise Dan Aykroyd ever received was when Eric Idle said that of all the comic actors he's worked with Aykroyd was the only one worthy of being in Monty Python. Watching the first season of Saturday Night Live it's easy to see why he merits such hyperbolic praise. Before Phil Hartman and Will Ferrell, Aykroyd functioned as the comic glue that held Saturday Night Live together. Beyond his tongue-twisting virtuosity Aykroyd was an insanely versatile performer who could play any role and made every skit he appeared in better. When reading an oral history of John Belushi I was struck that the cast and crew of SNL viewed the loss of Aykroyd as a much bigger blow to the show than Belushi's departure. Everyone knew Belushi was gone as soon as Animal House became a phenomenon but Aykroyd seemed like a guy who could happily toil in the trenches of sketch comedy for at least a few more years.
Not surprisingly Aykroyd's film career got off to an auspicious start (once you throw movies like 1941 and Neighbors out of the equation, of course). Unlike Chevy Chase, Belushi or even Bill Murray, Aykroyd co-wrote many of his signature hits, particularly The Blues Brothers and Ghostbuster. So it seemed a logical next step for one of the sharpest comedy minds of the seventies and eighties to branch out into directing. Alas, Aykroyd's directorial debut, 1991's Nothing But Trouble in many ways marked the beginning of the end. In a desperate bid to reclaim stardom Aykroyd revisted past triumphs with the Coneheads movie and Blues Brothers 2000 but those flops only highlighted just how far Aykroyd had fallen.
As the nineties wore on Aykroyd's career increasingly entailed starring roles in films no one even knew existed (the no-doubt-hilarious 1996 Jack Lemmon Nazi-next-door-neighbor comedy Getting Away With Murder) and thankless supporting roles in forgettable mainstream schlock. Aykroyd is still capable of turning in the odd crackerjack supporting performance (Grosse Pointe Blank, House Of Mirth and Bright Young Things being three prominent examples) but it's become increasingly apparent that for fat, old Aykroyd kindly dad roles in crap like Crossroads are the rule, not the exception. Clearly the star of Loose Cannons and Exit To Eden deserves better.
Nothing But Trouble consequently serves as an unfortunate turning point in Aykroyd's career. As the film's director, screenwriter and star Aykroyd has only himself to blame for the film's spectacular failure.