Twin Brothers. One’s A Good Cop. The Other’s Bad News.
Starring: Peter Paul, David Paul, Roddy McDowell, David Carradine, Troy Donahue, Bill Mumy, Lewis Arquette, Stefanos Miltsakakis
Director: John Paragon
1992 | 86 Minutes | Rated R
“Start talking or start bleeding” – David Jade
To say that Double Trouble is bad seems to miss the point entirely. It never set out to be good. All it set out to be was a good time and it can be when viewed with the right mindset.
The Jade brothers are as different as identical twin body builders can possibly be. David is a police officer while Peter is a jewel thief. After David arrests Peter, Peter is enlisted by the police department to help catch a ring of diamond thieves. When David’s partner is killed Peter becomes his new partner. These two huge brothers will have to work together for seemingly the first time in their lives to pull this off.
Now obviously the story is rather silly. The acting is pretty poor. The music is terrible. The action isn’t really exciting. But somehow I still enjoyed Double Trouble. This is the epitome of “it’s so bad it’s good”.
David Jade is apparently the only L.A. cop who is allowed to drive a beat up Trans Am with a police siren mounted on top. He is also the only one allowed to rock a massive mullet and a Raiders sweatshirt that shows his mid-riff. At least he has good heroes. He has a Terminator poster on the wall of his weight lifting room.
Peter Jade is the more sophisticated of the two even though he is the one on the wrong side of the law. He wears a suit through most of the movie. He doesn’t eat greasy cheeseburgers and instead prefers fine dining. And the artwork in his home is Mondrian instead of Schwarzenegger.
Together the two brothers are like two really, REALLY big kids. They bicker like brothers do. Their back and forth commentary is childish yet still funny. I couldn’t help myself. I knew it was incredibly stupid and childish but I laughed any way.
The action is usually done with a comedic tone. When the brothers have finally had enough of each other they get in a big fist fight that takes them from Peter’s home to the street through the backseat of a couple’s car, into a China shop and then finally into a back alley where the two punch back and forth until they tire out at which point they both fall back onto their butts and burst out laughing. From that point forward they are a perfect team.
Double Trouble can be a fun movie if viewed in the right state of mind. A few of your favorite recreational beverages may help you get there. For some it may not be physically possible to be in that right state of mind and if that sounds like you then don’t even bother.
Action Movie Fanatix 