Troma's long lost masterpiece.
Finally, on DVD, represented in the brilliant director's cut version that no one should miss!! This is Troma's answer to the Rambo kind of films that were doing well all around. This should have been as big a worldwide hit in theaters all over the world, if it weren't for the censors who always kindly cooperate with the big conglomerates, but while Rambo got it's R-rating with it's countless bullets, shot wounds, amounts of senseless violence and streams of blood, Troma's War wasn't treated with the same courtesy. While not more excessively violent or bloody than any of the drek that the big studio's poured out over the audiences, Troma's War was submitted to countless cuts, making it a rather senseless film, of which all the guts (literally and metaphorically), storyline and message were deleted, with the predictable result that no one really could care for the film anymore. A bloody shame, since it is - when seen in the original director's cut - so much better than the poor substitudes with the bid budgets spent on ridiculously overpaid mediocre actors from Hollywood. Troma's War in it's entirety is a masterpiece, a brilliant film that seems to pretend to be the Rambo-kind-of-film, and should please audiences that like that stuff, but in the meantime is so much more than that: it is an intelligent film with a layered texture, a superb story and a lot of fun. Furthermore, the film features the first appearance of Troma's
soon to be Superstar Joe Fleishaker. And it is the first movie to address the aids problem, long before any of the bigger studios even dared to touch it, again proving how much ahead of it's time Troma has always been. The director's audio-commentary is, as is always the case with Lloyd Kaufman's tracks, a wonderfully insightful feature, worth the price of the disc itself, and it explains in depth the evil works with which the big guys in the film-making world go to great lengths to put the independents out of business. But Troma's War still goes on -
35 years and counting! Get this film, it is a historically significant one.

Troma's War, Troma's Bore?
Having become a big fan of Troma over the years, starting off with seeing "Terror Firmer" in 1999, I had always been intrigued by "Tromas War" the lost master piece.

Then I realised it wasn't so lost and I ordered it from Amazon.

I think the main problem I had with this film is that I was too expecting it to be a later Lloyd Kaufman piece, brimming over with the barely contained insanity that I so adored in "Citizen Toxie" and the aforementioned "Terror Firmer". But what I found when I watched "Troma's War" was a far more sedate piece.

Thats not to say "Troma's War" is boring, thats pretty far from the truth. It just has a far more traditional flow than you'd expect and the budget gave it a sheen that made it feel as though it's a missing link between a "normal" film and a Troma movie.

I'm not sure how to conclude this review, I guess if you like alot of other Troma movies you'd do well to watch this. If you're not so big on Troma movies or you don't know what the hell i'm talking about this movie is pretty much a gateway drug.

Well thats me done.

WOW
This movie was very different from other Troma movies. This is a full fledged war movie, It has excellent special effects and a good story. No wonder this Lloyd kaufman's favorite Troma movie. Despite the title the movie isn't set in TromaVille, The entire film takes place on a small island. A plane crash lands on this island, The survivers of the crash take action against a rebel base on the island. These rebels also confuse the survivers as comandos come to abort the mission. Action packed! Excellent Movie!

Troma's War
After a Tromatic plane crash on an island somewhere off the face of Cuba, a few spirited Tromaville Citizens are about to find out the harsh reality of guerilla warfare. It is only a short period of time before the battle for life and death begins in one of Troma's ultimate masterpieces. If you like Troma, an interesting plot, or just a plain bloodbath, then Troma's war has it all. Though not the best Troma film, it is still worth getting. Unfortunately, it doesn't measure up to the wonderfully black standards of Terror Firmer, but then again, what could? It is still an amazing film, and a good storyline.

Troma Does a War Flick
Why I continue to plod my way through Troma's catalog of schlock movies is a question not easily answered. "The Toxic Avenger" holds a special place in my heart because that movie was my first real gore film experience. Since then, I have seen many more films from Lloyd Kaufman's warped studio, and none of them ever really matches that first Toxic Avenger picture. If you are not familiar with Troma, they are a movie production company dedicated to releasing the worst trash films in cinematic history. The people at Troma actually revel in their reputation for bad taste through massive self-promotion in all forms of media. "Troma's War" shares attributes with nearly every other Troma film I have seen: atrocious and hammy acting, cheesy but gruesome effects, lame musical scores, pedestrian pacing, and tasteless humor.

The impetus for "Troma's War" is a plane full of civilians crash landing on a seemingly deserted island. Not many passengers survive, but those who do constitute a broad cross section of American society. You have a Catholic priest (who is a great singer!), a trio of rock and roll wannabes, a slimy businessman, a blind girl, the requisite hunky guy and gal, a Vietnam vet (who really gets into the war: he wears a necklace made out of human ears and has the best death scene in the movie), a British guy with a blowgun and poison darts, a few old folks, and a woman with a baby. The surviving passengers spend the first scenes of the movie just trying to figure out what happened and to map a plan of action. When hunky guy Taylor decides to explore the island, he discovers a roving band of soldiers armed with assault weapons slogging through the forest. All the survivors generally agree that this could be a bad thing, especially when they witness a band of armed thugs gunning down one of the defenseless passengers on the beach. Our heroes rapidly head for the hills, so to speak, in order to avoid the armed gangs looking for them.

As "Troma's War" unfolds, the crash victims discover that these soldiers on the island are actually armed mercenaries and terrorists training for a clandestine offensive against the good old United States of America. After some trite soul searching, the group of survivors decides to arm themselves and fight the terrorists in their own backyard. This decision takes on special meaning when the terrorists capture several members of the group and subject them to painful torture techniques, such as exposure to AIDS and throwing a flight attendant off of a watchtower. When our armed heroes liberate the prisoners and kill all of the terrorists, they move on to the main target: a base full of Cuban soldiers and more terrorists. As the enemy soldiers die in numbers that John Rambo would appreciate, the crash survivors also suffer a few casualties in the course of the war.

That's all there is to "Troma's War": several scenes of survivors bonding followed by lengthy battle sequences where people die en masse. Kaufman states in an extra on the disc that "Troma's War" used more squibs (little packets of blood placed on the body and set off with a small charge to simulate gunshot wounds) than nearly any other movie with the possible exception of Sam Peckinpah's "The Wild Bunch." Kaufman may be right, but we don't get to see many of those squibs going off because the battle scenes are so poorly choreographed. It looks as though Kaufman directed his cast and extras to just run around and shoot, and we don't get to see much of the carnage in graphic detail because Kaufman and company didn't effectively use slow motion outside of a few "people on fire" scenes. Moreover, the squibs weren't as big as they could have been. I looked forward to blood packets the size of tennis balls, but alas, this did not happen. Overall, there is still a body count so high that it should satiate even the most rabid war movie fan.

Troma made this film in 1988 as a response to the hyperpatriotic, right wing war films like the Rambo series and "Red Dawn." At one point in the film, lead character Taylor waxes philosophic about how he found documents in the terrorist camp proving that right wing elements in America are working with the terrorists because they want to use the resulting chaos to increase their wealth and power over the common man. It's a class and control issue, laments Taylor, and it's up to them to put a stop to this terrible exploitation. Further evidence in this vein comes from the mouths of one of the terrorists, claiming that a campaign to destabilize America will cause the citizens to turn to mercenaries in order to restore the rule of law. I wish someone would one day write an article about left wing themes in Troma films.

The DVD version of "Troma's War" contains even more extras than a normal Troma release. There are interviews with nearly every person involved in the production, from the actors to the stunt people to the crew. The usual tour of Troma studios and intelligence test are here, as are four trailers for such Z grade numbers like "Sizzle Beach, U.S.A." More importantly, the movie on the disc is the unrated director's cut. "Troma's War" isn't the greatest Troma film ever made ("great" being a highly subjective term regarding Troma), but it isn't the worst one, either. Low budget movie aficionados should probably check this one out if they get a chance, as there is plenty of groan worthy material in the movie. I recommend this as a "rent, not buy" experience.