Troma's War

Troma's War, about a group of refugees from a plane crash stranded on an island with wild Commandos led by a two-headed politician planning the extinction of America... is some ridiculous s***.

But for the first two thirds Kaufman and Herz and company manage to find a balance between the one liners and gags, and the more serious elements (or at least as serious as a goofy cartoon like Troma can get) such as the commandos on the island who are, behind the jokey Schwarzenegger captain who is funny every time he speaks and the (Jesus Christ!) AIDS guy who is out to rape women so they get it, its a war movie that is intentionally BIG and MANIC and just nuts, but with a purpose.

When Troma's War is at its most impressive and eye catching when Kaufman skewers 80s action movies and Regan era militarism. As an ex hippie it's clear he didn't like what he was seeing, in bloated B movies and over the top spectacles, so... why not make his own, the Troma way? Where it lost me a bit was in the last third. There is what feels like a natural climax like two thirds into the movie, where some of the heroes (like Lost they're not all likable but their bond is a plane crash) save the others from being killed and raped and maimed by the commandos. and then it just keeps going. And the acting doesn't get better.

And not that one should be looking for a totally consistent tone in this junk food, but there was a better grasp of what the film was and trying to do for a while. By the time it nears its real climax, there's still some more mayhem, relentless violence, all shot and edited with flair even as its with little to no budget (outside of the special effects - the highlight for me is a montage of soldiers in trees who all get shot down and fall off the same way, tree after tree). But it kind of devolves into dumb antics and one liners (and I mean DUMB for a movie by these f****rs), though it's almost saved by a side characters stunt from a truck onto a boat.

I want to like it more - it's shot with more competency than other Troma movies, has ambitious and exciting stunts and effects, and up to a point has some really good music (up to a point as in not too much but still there crappy 80s songs put over scenes unnecessarily) and though some of the acting is cheesy and over the top, some of it really works for it being a ludicrous mockery. There's even some arcs for characters, like the guy who gets his truck onto the boat at the end. And yet there is a line that, sometimes, Kaufman and Herz have to not cross but do a lot of the time which is the film being the same carnage extravaganza with bullets flying and guts spilling and squibs popping like there's no tomorrow and became something like Commando.

But... if you wanna get some buddies together, and are in the mood for some comic book characters and set ups and pay offs (including a British dude who talks like Peter O'Toole and has a shtick with poison darts), this ain't bad. It's just not AS memorable as Toxic Avenger and Nuke em High.

TROMA'S WAR isn't a great film by any respects but this highly cheesy war movie is certainly the best Troma film I've seen to date. This is because the majority of Troma films are cheap, gross-out comedies with rubbish acting and effects. This has the cheapness and the rubbish acting, but in some places it's actually quite decent.

You could call TROMA'S WAR a camp classic if you were feeling charitable and it's certainly an '80s film through and through. It's an over the top cheese fest about a group of people stranded on a desert island where they discover an evil guerrilla army is running rampant. Inevitably it's up to them to stop it which they attempt to do in the most violent ways imaginable.

There's no real plot here after the initial set up, just a bunch of random action and war sequences joined together. The film is marred by horrible over acting and more screaming than in a dozen horror flicks, but it does have a wealth of war action and violence to recommend it. Seen uncut it's a gruesome film with some surprisingly explicit moments like the excruciating tongue extraction scene and plenty of bloody squib hits. There's also plenty of topless nudity and explosive stuff going on. A masterpiece it isn't, but I found it oddly watchable and enjoyable and in high definition it at least looks good.

If you begin to watch a Troma offering, you know you're in for basically deliberately inept, silly (lazy? Never!) film making to the extent that it's 'so bad it's good' is expected, since because that is surely the intention of the Troma oeuvre, anyway:

So, if not to be another why waste ya time to watch, then first I would suggest you set it up as a fun billing along with others, not of the classic Arnold/ Sly more serious war is macho genre, but rather those of similar - but unintentionally so, though - dross of the likes of the S. Seagal and/or C. Connors entries into the genre.

Then as settling in for the inevitable ineptness, parts I found fun were the constant jewellery wearing air crash survivors (dangly spangly earrings especially) and the fact that the island army is surely made up of extras who were told to bring their own approximations of military outfit gear: the incongruities displayed are legion.

Of them, you can then also get a fine appreciation of the stunts people in executing their chops, be it jumping (mostly backwards) over objects (sandbags, oil drums, other 'dead' compatriots) or putting themselves in the correct position to plummet, 'shot and dead', from high places, trees especially: and, around the middle an amusing Arnold accent take rant in favour of the corrupt (US!) system… but then soon after a quite rather prescient almost 'conspiracist theory' the terrorist threat is really from inside from the system elite rejoinder from the hero (i.e well written scriptwriters): Then, throughout the interminable battles, there is a great wailing guitar background soundtrack to enjoy, too by which to get you finally to the end, at which point having so sat through such deliberate tosh, I would implore you wait around until the last end credit has rolled: it's a great denouement to the 'seriousness' of all that's gone before, making it, really, inarguably, surely one of Troma's best entries.

Forget Coppola´s "Apocalypse Now" and Spielberg´s "Saving Private Ryan" because this film is the ultimate contribution to the genre of war movies! Typically Troma, you´ll find lots of cheesy F/X and bad acting in it, however this shot is not as awful as many other flicks produced by this company: "Troma´s War" is REALLY entertaining, what´s absolutely no guarantee for the other works of Lloyd Kaufman´s firm. The humor is not too silly this time, although there are many politically not correct jokes about Aids or Siamese twins. The violence in this film is business as usual, so prepare for cut off ears and fountains of blood! With its exaggerated patriotism "Troma´s War" is also a nice parody on all those soldier-movies like "Rambo" or "Delta Force", which were very popular in the Reagan-ruled 1980s. And some nudity of pretty silicon-chicks doesn´t hurt either..! I liked this movie even more than "Combat Shock", that is alleged to be a touching anti war-drama, but after all only a cheap and boring film! This one doesn´t take itself too serious and that´s no mistake!! So if you´re going out tonight to rent a Troma-flick... take this one!!!

This movie is a spoof of all those Rambo/Norris/Ahnuld commando bloodbath movies from the 80's. It is very unsubtle, full of cartoonish shootouts where the same bad guy terrorists get mowed down by the good guy plane crash survivors, some cheesy sex and boob scenes, with an original hard rock background music score. Basically, a random bunch of people crash on a Caribbean Island: punk rocker, Wall Street yuppie, hysterical woman, priest, etc etc; owned by Cuba. The island is a terrorist training camp for a motley bunch of cartoonish terrorists, loosely based on the 80's Communist types. There is a pig snouted redneck terrorist, a psycho Nazi Jew hating one, Russians, Arabs, a ninja, and even two Siamese twin leaders. They are going to land in the US and undermine us with AIDS and random violence, ala "Invasion USA", I guess. So this motley bunch of survivors, led by an ex Airborne Vietnam vet, start kicking some serious butt instead.

There isn't too much of a plot after that, but plenty of gratuitous violence on the level of Monty Python, with more shootout scenes than ten action movies put together. But the same bunch of terrorists keep getting mowed down by our heroes. It is funny yet the overkill grows on you after a while. But it definitely is chock full of special effects and weapons, especially for a low budget flick.

To call this a politically incorrect movie is a euphemism for a totally bad taste movie. But it does have it's charm, in a cheap, exploitative but not a stupid way. Definitely not for the weak at heart, while not gory compared to modern horror movies, it has some real bloody hamburger scenes