the direction to someone else". Washington Post writer Hal Hinson called the film "nothing but trouble and agony and pain and suffering and obnoxious, toxically unfunny bad taste; it's nothing but miserable". Entertainment Weekly critic Michael Sauter wrote: "[Aykroyd and Candy] generate approximately four laughs. Chase adds maybe two. In movie-ticket terms, that's less than one laugh per dollar; as a video rental, it's a slightly better deal." The same publication printed a second review by Owen Gleiberman, writing: "Most of the jokes are so lame that Chevy Chase can't even be bothered to look nonchalant. A sadder excuse for a movie would be hard to imagine." Writing for People, Ralph Novak wrote that "after a few minutes, it's clear that this comedy is not enigmatic—just hopelessly confused". Empire writer Jo Berry wrote: "Unfortunately this isn't even half as fun as the shortest bumper-car ride, with the cast lost in a sea of unfunny situations and badly executed antique jokes on loan from The Munsters all obviously puzzled about why they are actually there." A staff review in Variety opined, "it's a good bet a film is in trouble when the highlight comes from seeing John Candy in drag"; while TV Guide stated, "Aykroyd's film has a relentless imbecility that allows it to stand with films such as Bela Lugosi Meets a Brooklyn Gorilla, John Goldfarb, Please Come Home! and Which Way to the Front? as one of the worst attempts at comedy ever filmed". Roger Ebert famously hated Nothing But Trouble so much that he refused to write a review for it after giving the movie an emphatic "Thumbs Down" and actually wanted a few noisy teenagers to make even more noise so he wouldn't hear any more of the movie while watching it in the theater auditorium. His At the Movies partner, Gene Siskel, also gave the film an emphatic "Thumbs Down" on their "At the Movies" program. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 12% based on reviews from 25 critics. The site's consensus states: "There's nothing good in Nothing But Trouble, a grotesque comedy that is more likely to make audiences ill than make them laugh". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "D+" on an A+ to F scale. Nathan Rabin, in his My Year of Flops segment for The A.V. Club, wrote: "Aykroyd here has lovingly, meticulously