Double Trouble

Just how bad off were such talents as Roddy MacDowall, Troy Donahue, Bill Mumy, Lewis Arquette, and David Carradine that they decided that Double Trouble was the movie to be in? Were all the parts taken up in a Munster's tv movie?

This disgraceful film I caught one night while flipping around on television. After the revelation came that David Paul was not wearing a weight lifters belt but a midriff, my skin turned a color of green that Martha Stewart is sampling for her new paint collection. With such winning quotes as, "Where it IS!", I don't believe even James "Scotty" Doohan is putting this on his repitoire.

A true testament that if you try hard enough in Hollywood, you too can have your own movie...the Barbarian Brothers had three or four. Hope springs eternal.

Other reviewers are correct about the technical elements of the movie. The story is generic. The performances are decent, but not exceptional. Nevertheless, I felt compelled to review it because although it's not a great movie, it's a competent genre exercise, elevated by the impish charm of the Barbarian Brothers and the gravitas of Roddy McDowell and David Carradine. My only complaints: not enough A J. Johnson or Timothy Stack. If you can tolerate those straight-to-video action flicks from the late 80s and early 90s, you'll have a good time with this.

My score: 5/10

1-3: don't waste your time 4-6: good 7-9: great 10: outstanding.

I gave this movie a 3 (out of 10) and in retrospect, that may have been a mistake. Though it does have a huge so-bad-its-good factor, I feel guilty about elevating it above it's 2.7 rating and possibly leading anyone astray. Please allow me to plead my case.

This movie has it all. Twin behemoth body builder leads (David and Peter Paul), has been stars, really bad acting, guns with limitless ammo, a Trans Am and best of all, two of the most awe inspiring mullets in cinema history. Fantastic dated wardrobe, too, that makes M.C. Hammer look like a conservative Baptist minister... What? Wait a minute, strike that. Check out the mid-riff revealing sweatshirt that David Paul wears essentially through out the entire film. Little did poor David know that in just 8 short years they would have an entirely new name for them, they're called GIRL shirts. How can you not enjoy watching that?

The first thing, however, that will catch your eye with this 90's classic is the acting of the Paul Brothers. Not that it's bad, but actually the lack there of. Anyone can act bad, (I.E.) Lou Ferrigno, Vanna White, Al Pacino (recently). Over acting is an instinctual occurrence. But the Paul's do something quite uncommon. They are comfortable just being themselves, albeit big dumb 'roided out gym whores who can't act. I imagine this is the point of their thespian endeavor where they finally got in touch with their inner voices. Unfortunately that voice has the pacing of a old fat bear. It seems as if they are constantly contemplating what awaits them in their trailer at the end of each set up, whether it be food, women or a new set of chrome 120 lb. dumb bells, but certainly none of it seems phony. I actually believe they are going to go back to their dressing rooms to consume protein shakes. I loved this film.

Some say may say I have poor taste, but to me I just like to accept movies for what they are. Within the very first 10 minutes you can immediately tell this is a B movie affair. The production values are sub par and the acting is uh...basic. However with most B or perhaps C level movies you can find a whole lot of character if you sit on their level. And there is a whole lot of character here. On the whole this movie is charming and plenty entertaining on both a comedic and action level. Probably more so comedy wise than anything else. This movie undoubtedly suffers from the unintentional funnies. Total sober you can hear me giggling away every 3 minutes on the most irrelevant things from the way these muscle bound beasts run to how slightly more fat one is than the other. Not to say there aren't any legitimate laughs in this movie. The writing is decent, nothing too fancy. Plenty will say the Paul/Barbarian Brothers lack of talent. However, I believe there's enough there. They don't look stupid delivering the core content and they deliver the laughs by the truckload even on small liens. You kinda get that brotherly chemistry that I guess could only be gotten from some twins. Plus thanks to their frame they can handle some decent action scenes that appear to cater to what they do best (lift stuff). However, I will admit all hand to hand action was absolutely dreadful. But what do you expect for a B-flick?

This movie is an anachronism. Based on the clothes, music, hairdos, and so forth, it seems like this should be an eighties film.

Horkheimer, Adorno, and others of the Frankfurt School of thinkers argued in the 1940s that mass media was used to control the people and ultimately resulted in sameness. Double Trouble certainly proves the latter. The plot and the villains are all plucked willy nilly from various 1980s films. One of the barbarian brothers accidentally steals a card that gives access to a vault of diamonds just above the subway in downtown LA. The other barbarian brother is a cop forced by the chief to partner with his larcenous brother. Oh, the other barbarian brother...

How could anyone wear what this guy wears? The Raiders sweatshirt/half shirt with high-waisted, acid-washed jeans? But all of that pales compared with the mullets sported by each brother. Paging Billy-Ray Cyrus. The guy can't run either. He has a worse gait than Keanu Reeves.

Whoever thought that wrestlers could act anyway?

This film is about as fragmented and nonsensical as this review of it. In the right company this could be part of a beer-fueled evening with friends, or consumed alone. Regardless, mouths will be agape. The horror, the horror.