Rated:

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.

Don't pay more than a buck for this dvd or video. But then, if you're buying over the internet you'll have the added expense of postage. You know, the post office should have a kind of freepost for such films. Perhaps they have: sellers, test it out. Just say to the postman 'Chevy Chase' and they might agree to send it for free because his dvds are surely not worth the price of a stamp.

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