Dan Aykroyd plays John Burns, a psychiatric patient under the care of the medically inept Dr. Baird. The two share a fierce rivalry culminating in Baird threatening to send Burns to a maximum security institution where he will be used for testing. Baird is also planning on leaving town to fill in for a psychiatrist radio show host who has fallen into a mid-life crisis. There's an identity mix up and Burns is mistaken for Baird, leading to him being the host of the show. But, believe it or not, Burns is actually better than the original host-and he has the popularity to prove it. He soon becomes the most listened to talk show in the U.S. and he definitely has the numbers to prove it. But, eventually the real Baird finds out about the mix up and attempts to track down Burns. What follows is a nice little cat and mouse game of a movie with some pretty decent acting on Dan Ayrkoyd's part. Walter Matthau also gives a good performance as Burns' cross country tag along.The tone of the film is incredibly well balanced and the jokes are mostly hits. In fact, there's nothing too terribly wrong with this film. It's surprising it's gained a reputation as a terrible film. It has a lot of heart in the story and it's very well cast. Dan Aykroyd is perfect as con-man John Burns. His performance is reminiscent of Bill Murray in "Stripes", which is an interesting turn for Aykroyd, considering by this time he had been type cast as the techno babbling sideman. It's interesting seeing Aykroyd in a full on lead role.So, overall, "The Couch Trip" is a fun little comedy It's nothing groundbreaking or spellbinding-but it is definitely a creative take on the cat and mouse genre. It's definitely not just your ordinary, average comedy.

does anybody know why this movie is called the couch trip? i was just watching it and am still not sure why this title was picked the movie was very funny and its probably my favorite Dan Aykroyd performance it even beats out his Ghostbusters performance i had never heard of the movie before i seen it in a sears store i read the back and thought it sounded good so i bought and when i finally got a chance to watch it, i thought it was better than what i had originally expected. this movie rates as good as animal house and national lampoon's vacation in my mind i wish comedies that have come out lately were written as well as this one was nothing sad happens in it and the bad stuff that does happen are also funny parts if anyone else feels this way and would like to read a comedy script for a movie that doesn't have a sad situation in it email me at [email protected]

The Couch Trip bears all the hallmarks of a failed vehicle to inflate the principal actors' fame at the expense of long-term product saleability. Just watching it, you catch moments that would appear in a trailer - one-liners mostly - yet the overall plot is far-fetched and ridiculous. Some may say that the movie is supposed to reflect the insanity of its protagonist Becker (Dan Aykroyd), but I disagree. The acting is wooden more times than not and the plot's clunkiness is too noticeable to overlook.Aykroyd delivers his character and dialogue with Aykroydesque aplomb, but never really breaks through an invisible barrier of being... Dan Aykroyd playing an obviously Dan Aykroyd role. Matthau delivers perhaps one truly funny line (see the scene where he literally sucks all the jelly out of the donuts using straws: "If anybody wants a donut without the jelly, they're ready.") but the rest of the time he treads out a tired role in a way that clearly indicates how unhappy he was making this film. Grodin is just more of the same... a pent-up, angst-ridden bag of nervous energy on the verge of a complete mental collapse - a parody of his repertoire - and delivers a prosaic role.The humour is overtly physical, though much too inferior for successful slapstick. The scripting problems come down to the fact that it was written to the actors' needs rather than the audience's benefit. It accommodates them in all their clichéd glory. No scene illustrates this better than when Aykroyd is in a limousine with the TV on in the background. A semi-witty condom commercial starring Chevy Chase plays - an obvious reference to their on-screen partnership in Spies Like Us - and even here Chase succeeds in being a send-up of himself.Most of the Saturday Night Live crew were involved in many of memorable family of comedies in the 1980s, of which Aykroyd and Grodin are members. The Couch Trip comes across as a quickly thrown-together, industrially-produced, colour-by-numbers replica of National Lampoons, promising funny actors, never delivering.It's a lazy piece of film-making that was intended to give Aykroyd more air-time (forgive the unintentional word use) and barely makes use of Matthau except as a parody of himself.Truly unforgettable.

Only one comment (as of this writing) on IMDB?? Which is the ultimate example of why this is a very underrated comedy dealing with Aykroyd's escape from a mental facilitly (more like a den for misfits) and masqerading as his hated supervisor/doctor from the nutbarn. He heads to L.A. with his assumed name to sub for an unstable radio shrink (Grodin) and his candid approach garners him city-wide attention. He fast talks his way into a big contract and seems on his way. He gets distracted, though, by knockout Dixon (his real-life wife, how lucky), who is some kind of shrink-producer and also by Matthau's perceptive homeless schemer. He's onto Aykroyd and says he'll keep quiet if Dan splits the cash with him. That's just a little of what's going on in this busy little conman adventure, as at the same time Grodin is getting wise with the real doctor Aykroyd is impersonating. And Grodin's wife is also involved with his lawyer, who is seeing dollar signs in Aykroyd, as well is a kiss-butt producer, and annoyingly assisting Grodin is Clennon, the real doctor who is supposed to be replacing him. There are a lot of great jabs at the psychiatry profession, and the entertainment business, the best being the short but very memorable scene where Aykroyd takes calls on the radio, one of the funniest scenes I've ever watched. Unfortunately, the film ends abruptly and could've used a better knock out blow. But, from beginning to (near) end this provides a lot of solid laughs and it's too bad that the kind of plot it has doesn't permit another trip to the couch.