The story revolves around Chris Thorne (Chevy Chase) a rich financial publisher who decides to take Diane (Demi Moore), a jilted girlfriend, to Atlantic City to confront her now ex-boyfriend. Inviting themselves along for the ride are Fausto (Taylor Negron) and Renalda (Bertila Damas), siblings who, as Chris puts it, are "Brazilionaires".

On with the road from Manhattan to A.C., the four decide to take a more scenic detour through Pennsylvania. Not following their maps too well, these morons head into a coal-mining region that resembles the burned-out smokey remnants of our state’s (former) proud coal-town heritage. They end up in a town that, with its steam-vent pipes in the middle of main-street and lack of residents, resembles ghostly Centralia, PA (with its ever-burning underground fires). After running a stop sign and enduring a high-speed police chase by Dennis (John Candy), the town cop, they get arrested and taken to the local Justice of the Peace, Judge Alvin "J.P" Valkenheiser (Dan Aykroyd, who also co-wrote — with his brother Peter — and directed the film). This is where the fun begins.

Working out of some horror fun-house that has 27 times the clutter and stuff that my grandmother’s house used to have (which is a lot to say at the very least), the judge lives there with his grandson Dennis, and his granddaughters Eldona (also John Candy, playing a dumb-mute) and their cousin Miss Purdah, also a cop. The four city folk quickly realize they are way out of their element as they get a glimpse of the very old and ugly judge. This judge clearly has a contempt for these rich folk who stroll about like they sumpn’ else. Not liking intruding outsiders, the judge has his own ways of dispensing justice in this here part of the land and ain’t nothing gonna stop that now.

The rest of the film involves the struggle to find a way to escape this madhouse (while trying to avoid the auto yard working, obese, six foot tall, sweaty, diapered freaks Bobo and Li’l Debbull, who are also the judge’s grandkids), and getting far far away from the insanity that is Valkenvania, PA.

While too easy to dismiss at the time (weak script, some wooden acting, over-the-top humor), the film can be watched with a different take: the pure and absolute guilty pleasure of a bad movie that is great fun to get into and watch repeatedly. (One thing that impressed me while watching the DVD version — yes, I spent a whole $10 for the DVD — was the magnificence and splendor of the amazing detailed set design, which didn’t fully register with me on the first viewing[s]). The movie is a light and brainless journey into the absurd and it is one fun ride to take. After all, any film that has Tupac Shakur (who played himself as a member of his then-Hip Hop group Digital Underground) and Chevy Chase in the same room is worth repeating.

Duel, with the story and script by Richard Matheson (Stir Of Echoes, What Dreams May Come, Jaws 3D, The Morning After), was copied well recently in the Saturn car commercial with the business man in his white Honda being waved on by a trucker (directly from the movie) and then becoming increasingly paranoid when a mysterious car (an unimpressive Saturn) comes barreling up behind him. The film has obviously lingered in the collective pop-culture minds of fans and petrified road-warriors. With minimal reliance on special effects, trickery or unnecessary dramatics, Spielberg has crafted a film where terror plays a major role and it strikes home so forcefully because any of us could find ourselves in this situation. Two men, a car and a truck. That’s it. No guns, robots, aliens, monsters (other than human), computer graphics or a big budget were needed to make this movie work as a lesson in fear.