Class of Nuke 'Em High

Troma amuses me, no doubt, but I really like the older stuff better. "Class of Nuke 'em High" is a great example. Nowadays it's like Troma's gotten TOO good at what they do, which sort of kills the charm of their special brand of filmmaking (Though I anticipate "Citizen Toxie"). This one's pretty funny in just about every way, completely ridiculous all around. I love that the pot grows right outside the power plant and only 1 or 2 workers notice. I love how all the signs featured look like someone glued cut-out construction paper letters to a piece of poster board. I love the dialogue from the fat guy who runs the power plant. I love the Cretins' incredible overacting, and who couldn't love the monster? The heroine's pretty cute, too, and this is just that special brand of cheezy charm Troma used to bring us....I guess it's tough to recommend it to anybody who doesn't already have a taste for this stuff, but if you do and haven't seen it, rent it! And check out the narrator's voice in the trailer when he announces the title....

I think every fan of tromas work should see this, it's one of the early films that made troma what it was. After their 4 sex comedies and buying Bloodsucking Freaks, Toxic Avenger was the first truly Tromatic film and this is the follow up where they do MORE. I love this film to death it's amazing with cheey eighties special effects, comic book plot, good music and good jokes. A lot of fun, you'll enjoy it if you like Troma's other stuff...Not recommended as a starting point.

This movie opens with a shot of Manhattan Island and then never features New York for the rest of the running time. Much like this paragraph.

Nuke 'em High is a Tromaville hellhole populated by a diverse range of characters, some annoying, some funny. The Cretins (a punk gang in the vein of Griff Tannen's gang from BTTF Part II) have a deal with the neighboring nuclear power plant to deal toxic weed grown on the grounds. The sludge from the plant has already infected the school's water supply and is having a terrifying effect on the students. But the toxic weed causes horny feelings, speedy demon pregnancy, and sporadic superhuman powers (other students being completely unaffected by it is one of an infinity of logic errors).

Wholesome couple Chrissy and Warren, affected by the contamination and toxic weed, battle with the Cretins in a stupendously disjointed and senseless plot, but that's missing the point. Anyone watching a Troma film for serious art will no doubt be disappointed and confused. These movies barely hang together and were made by amateurs that make Ed Wood look like Orson Welles. The cinematography is wobbly and uncertain, the acting just about passable, the sound is barely audible, and for some reason generic 80s rock music plays in the distance during every single scene.

But it entertains. Class of Nuke 'em High may be trash of the lowest order, but it has a lot of energy, a lot of ideas (no matter how underdeveloped or misunderstood), crazy and interesting characters, is frequently intentionally funny, has mediocre-to-decent gore effects, has a gorgeous female lead in Janelle Brady (a sort of 80s Katherine Heigl, who has sadly massively deteriorated since then - missing and presumed dead in Las Vegas), and is never once boring.

If that is all the movie sets out to do then does that make it a huge success? It led to a sequel and a spin-off - so yes?

Troma usually gives us demented violent comedies and they are really cool if very politically incorrect. I love them. This film is also cool. It has no real plot, but it's fun to laugh at the weird stuff going on. It is funny, but not as dark as the average troma film. If you were just trying to get into troma movies, this would be a good place to start. Not as gory as Toxic Avenger, Not as funny as Kabukiman, but still a cool movie.

People seem to unfairly dismiss most of Troma's output. True, on the surface there is enough melting mutants, gore and exposed female flesh to appeal to the lowest common denominator, however, most Troma movies (like most good movies) make a comment on the world we live in and following the tradition of 50's radioactive monster movies, CONH explores the fears society has towards expanding and growing youth cultures who reject the ideas of the generation before them, just like the fear Rock and Roll created in the 50's that has never fully subsided and our fears about the saftey of radiation, the media and our education system. Viewed as a piece of paranoid social commentry, Class of Nukem High is a classic.