Return to Nuke 'Em High Volume 1

Return to Nuke 'En Volume 1 (2013) is a movie that I recently watched on 123Movies. The storyline follows two ladies at Nuke 'Em High who fall in love. As they explore their new passion other teenagers are mutating into strange mutants. When the lovers come back to reality they will need to try and save humanity.

This movie is directed by Lloyd Kaufman (Toxic Avenger I-IV) and stars Asta Paredes (Eros Point), Catherine Corcoran (Terrifier), Clay von Carlowitz (Eros Point), Mike Baez (Hitbaby) and John Renna (Slime City Massacre).

The best part of this movie is that Stan Lee is the narrator. This film really misses the essence of the originally Nuke 'Em High trilogy which had creative outfits and backdrops. The graffiti was always cool. This missed those key aspects. The acting and writing is awful. I will say the power plant scenes were hilarious and there's plenty of nudity from beginning to end. There's also a duck 🦆 sequence that's hilarious and a razor blade scene that's well done. The soundtrack also missed the mark.

The original trilogy is so bad it's good...this is just bad. I would score this a 3.5-4/10 but still recommend seeing it once.

As with all of Troma's movies, this is definitely something of an acquired taste. There has been some fun enough titles amongst the movies produced by Troma, but far from all are equally great.

While there were fun moments, and your standard outrageous Troma moments to be had here in "Return to Nuke Em High Volume 1", then the movie tended to drag out for long periods of time, and it just ended up as too much towards the end. There was so much nonsense in this movie - but hey, it's Troma!

Effects-wise, well if you are familiar with any of the previous Troma movies, then you know exactly what you are getting into here. For those who are not familiar with Troma's work, just a little heads up; lots of cheesy, low budget, outrageous and wacky effects, creatures, and spoofs throughout the entire movie.

There were lots of strange, funny, outrageous and just downright odd characters in "Return to Nuke Em High Volume 1", as in all of Troma's movies, so no big surprise there.

What ticked me off in this movie, was the lack of an overly coherent and appealing storyline. Without proper contents in a story, then all of Troma's oddball effects just wears thin.

It looks like this return to Tromas' popular "Nuke 'Em High" series will be one that will divide people. Some may embrace it, others may be either sorely disappointed or even offended. Of course, the whole point of a Troma film is gleeful, in your face insanity with no regard for restraint or political correctness. Everything is fair game with this sequel, directed by none other than Lloyd Kaufman himself. He guides everything with a flair for the utterly childish, the incredibly stupid, and the unapologetically manic. Personally speaking, this viewer had a reasonably good time with it. When it scored a hit, it was very funny, but it could also be pretty tiresome at times. And that, as well, may turn off some viewers because of the "trying too hard" aspect to the presentation.

The movie is a melange of sex, nudity, budding lesbian romance, extremely tacky and yet very colourful gore, goof ball songs, (mostly) way over the top performances, and satirical jabs. The "story" deals with a health food outfit, Tromorganics, setting up shop where the Tromaville nuclear power plant used to be. Wouldn't you know it: whatever secret ingredients they're using turn out to be deadly, either destroying or transforming the student body at Tromaville High. For one thing, the glee club turns into a marauding band of "Cretins" with a taste for violence and abuse.

The mostly no name cast does act with gusto. Foxy ladies Catherine Corcoran (as rich new girl in school Lauren) and Asta Paredes (as rebel blogger Chrissy) are very easy on the eyes. Babette Bombshell (now there's a name for you) is amusing as the principal; B movie legend Debbie Rochon plays the part of Coach Kotter and Lloyd himself turns up as nefarious Lee Harvey Herzkauf.

Ultimately, what's unfortunate about this movie is that it exhausts its better material early on and does lose a fair bit of momentum. At least the ending does appropriately leave one wanting more and waiting to see what happens in Volume 2.

Six out of 10.

How to review a movie like this? The first minute or so we get a fast-forward recap of all the previous Nuke 'Em High movies. The nuclear plant was destroyed and an organic food plant has been build on top of the ruins. A new girl starts school. She's given a hard time by some cute tough chick. On Taco Tuesday the food plant provides the ingredients. All the kids who eat it become mutants. The new girl as a pet duck that also becomes infected and infects the new girl in the craziest way. In the meantime new girl and tough girl have fallen for each other and now both become mutants as well as the school's singing club which have become The Cretins.

It's been years since I've seen a Troma movie. I never was much of a fan. And Return to Nuke 'Em High Volume 1 isn't going to turn me into one either. It's got great gore scenes, very good nudity from the two gorgeous leads: Catherine Corcoran and Asta Paredes. That's about it. The humor wouldn't be funny to 10 year olds. It's more interested in being offensive and dumb, as expected. It even manages to ruin the two main characters. It's impressive though to see a young cast so committed to doing whatever is asked of them. A shame Troma doesn't know what to with them. Still I'll probably check out part 2 just so see more of Cathy and Asta.

This fourth installment of the Class of Nuke Em High series is another schlocky Troma movie that is made for fans of the production company and for fans of B-movies. Just like the other movies from the series, this one is best to be understood as a comedy, with perhaps a little bit of gore (but actually not too much). There's a lot of meta references to other Troma movies, so I recommend watching the Toxic Avenger series and the other Class of Nuke Em High movies first. There's also a lot of funny pop culture references, as well as several nods to current political issues.

In terms of production values, the new digital look I think suits Troma movies. The visuals are very colorful, making you feel like in a campy 90's high school flick. There's a lot of ingenuity in the jokes, but also a lot of slap stick.

A lot of folks don't like the new Cretins—which sing(!)—but I didn't mind them too much. The singing is so absolutely nonsensical that it just seemed right for a movie like this, which, after all, tries to be deliberately random.

What really makes "RETURN TO NUKE 'EM HIGH VOLUME 1" stand out within the oeuvre of Troma movies is the excellent cast. The two female leads are very relatable, and the two of them together have some real energy. I also felt that Clay von Carlowitz's deliberately over-the-top performance as Eugene was absolutely hilarious, with a good sense of physicality.

All in all a nice, short-lived, campy session of good-old Troma entertainment.