Peter and David Paul got kinda-sorta famous after starring Kutchek and Gore respectively in Ruggero Deodato's 1987 Conan cash-in The Barbarians (they'd previously had cameos in D.C. Cab). With their collective star on the rise in the late eighties, by the time the decade turned it was somehow inevitable the identical twin muscle-heads would star in a goofy buddy-cop comedy. And thus was born the cinematic stinkbomb that is Double Trouble, bankrolled by the Motion Picture Corporation Of America in 1992 and directed by John Paragon (who would work with the brothers again two years later for the equally terrible Twin Sitters).

When the movie begins, a guy with a briefcase handcuffed to his arm is shot dead, that case then removed from his person by some sinister crooks led by a bad guy named Philip Chamberlain (Roddy McDowell). From there, we get to a high tech building where a cop named David (David Paul) is called in to stop a cat burglar. When he arrives he nabs the culprit who turns out to be his twin brother, Peter (Peter Paul). Rather than send the thief away to do hard time, David's commanding officers decides that the two of them should team up to stop the rash of diamond thefts that are plaguing Los Angeles and while David resists this at first, even going so far as to slam his badge down on the desk of Chief O'Brien (James Doohan), eventually he relents and they're off, with some help from a third partner named Whitney (Collin Bernsen).

And with that, they're off… one straight laced, tough guy cop who plays by his own rules but wants to see justice served, and one smart-ass jewel thief who can't help but want to see where all of this goes and, coincidently, wants to stay out of prison.

OK, while this has an interesting supporting cast in with the likes of James Doohan, Bill Mumy, Troy Donahue, Roddy McDowell and even David Carradine popping up the real reason anyone is going to want to see this is for the presence of the Barbarian Brothers. Not the acting skills of the Barbarian Brothers and certainly not the fashion sense of the Barbarian Brothers, but the presence. Simply by existing and by being on screen, things are funny though to be fair, you're not always laughing with them as at them. In defense of Peter and David, they seem pretty aware of how flat out ridiculous and awful all of this is, but they never let it stop them. You'll stare in awe as David rips a satellite dish off of a rooftop and tosses it at a car below while clad in tight mom jeans and a belly exposing RAIDERS sweatshirt and you'll wince in pain at Peter's terrible jokes and one-liners. This is a movie where Rambo III poster is prominently displayed on a wall, a movie where chesty lady next door mistakes work out grunts for sex noises, a movie where one punch can send a guy flying across the screen out of frame. In short, it's a movie that seems to have been made by a bunch of kids and when looked at that way, it sort of works.

Nevermind the fact that it's R-rated (though it would probably get a PG-13 these days as there's nothing all that harsh in it), this is eighty-five minutes or so of two giant dudes running around bickering like twelve year olds and beating up bad guys. Beating up the bad guys never really seems like its' the point though, rather, we're here to watch David and Peter argue and make bad jokes with each other, flexing occasionally, their absolutely massive mullets blowing in the California breeze. It's not high art or even good comedy. It's not thrilling action or even close to suspenseful. Yet somehow, despite the fact that it's literally awful in every way possible, it's hard not to have a good time with it.

Video:

Double Trouble arrives on DVD framed at 1.78.1 widescreen. Some shots look a little tight up top but otherwise the framing seems fine. The quality of the transfer isn't mind-blowing but it's okay. Some scenes show some mosquito noise but outside of that the image is pretty clean, save for some minor print damage. The early nineties L.A. locations and fashions are pretty colorful and those colors are reproduced accurately. Black levels look good as well. Some minor compression artifacts pop up here and there but they're not really distracting or anything. Yeah, this looks okay, not amazing, but okay.