First-time director Dan Aykroyd might have once parodied this sort of wretched excess in his ‘bad-cinema’ sketches on Saturday Night Live. Premise, stripped to the bone, had potential: a faceless drive-through town seems to have no resident except the cop who miraculously appears to pinch unsuspecting drivers.
The one-joke starter is then taken to absurd extremes as four Manhattan yuppies get shanghaied to the village of Valkenvania, where a demented old judge (Aykroyd, in heavy makeup) metes out executioner-style justice over moving violations.
The story [by Peter Aykroyd] turns into an extended maze with Chevy Chase and Demi Moore as the principal Nintendo-ized targets running through one tepid peril after another, while mouthing banal wisecracks.
It’s a good bet a film is in trouble when the highlight comes from seeing John Candy in drag.
