So what are your best TROMA films?

HappyGilmore · February 23, 2009, 10:21:50 PM

The 'best' Troma flick, in my opinion would be The Toxic Avenger. Worst, hmm. Not sure. I'll throw Rabid Grannies out there. Or was that just distributed by them? Are we counting movies Troma produced, or can we count a distributed flick as a "Troma" flick? Cause if we're talking distributed flicks, then Cannibal! The Musical is their best flick.

Quote from: Circus_Circus on February 23, 2009, 04:19:28 PM
Quote from: doggett on February 23, 2009, 04:13:11 PM
Have you seen Citizen Toxie ?
I heard it's quite good.

Yes, an it was awful. I hated it.

The only reason I made it through parts 2 & 3 was because of Phoebe Legere and the kick ass theme song!

Citizen Toxie may not have been great, but it was a hell of a lot better than the god awful parts 2 and 3.

Quote from: doggett on February 23, 2009, 04:13:11 PM

And I was so shocked by Terror Firmer that I still haven't been able to come up with an opinion. Which is saying a lot as I saw it 6 years ago !

I liked Terror Firmer. Can't say it's a film I'd recommend to people unless I know they're into that type of stuff, but for what it was, I enjoyed it. In fact, I love the "Oh my god, he's got an afro!" quote.

CheezeFlixz · February 23, 2009, 10:25:32 PM

I had a thread about this some time ago ...

Ah here ...
http://www.badmovies.org/forum/index.php/topic,119564.0.html

HappyGilmore · February 23, 2009, 10:26:33 PM

Quote from: WingedSerpent on February 23, 2009, 04:02:33 PM
I've seen a couple of the Toxic Avenger movies-and something with Humanoids in the title. (Only other thing I can remember about the movie is that the humanoids had mouths on their stomaches instead of belly-buttons.)

Their the deffinition of "guilty pleasure" movies.

Trying to think of that movie. It wouldn't be Class of Nuke Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown would it?

Jim H · February 24, 2009, 05:39:46 AM

Toxic Avenger is probably the best film they've made.

Another Troma film I thought was actually very funny was Poultrygeist. Probably the grossest movie I've ever seen (way worse than other Troma films, even something like Terror Firmer), but it's genuinely funny. Definitely worth a watch.

meQal · February 24, 2009, 06:50:57 AM

I haven't seen a Troma film in years. Mostly because we no longer have to mom and pop rental places around anymore and the chain stores don't carry them. I think the last Troma film I got to see was Class of Nuke Em High 2: Subhumanoid Meltdown.

Doggett · February 24, 2009, 08:26:09 AM

Kicking it to the first page

Mr. DS · February 24, 2009, 09:09:11 AM

Side note, I merged this topic with "Let's Talk Troma".

Another side note, I don't watch Troma much because their films in the past 10 years simply look like they don't give a crap about what their filming so why should I. I do appreciate them bringing stuff like Time Barbarians to DVD.

For the classic stuff, Toxie was good and I actually kind of liked Toxie 2. Class Of Nukem High was fun too.

ghouck · February 24, 2009, 11:46:33 AM

In the 6 months since this thread was started, I learned:

1) That Poultrygiest is one of my favorite Troma movies
2) Ferocious Female Freedom Fighters is pretty darn entertaining, I love the Crackhead Cobra
3) Troma's War was good, but not great IMO
4) Terror Firmer is a close second

Psycho Circus · February 24, 2009, 12:18:31 PM

Chopper Chicks In Zombietown!! Oh damn, how did I forget that one!

I love that film. After "Class Of Nuke 'Em High" it's my fave.

RCMerchant · February 24, 2009, 06:21:07 PM

I've only seen a handful of Troma films...but hands down is TROMA'S WAR!!!

Andrew · February 24, 2009, 07:13:52 PM

If I had to recommend "Poultrygeist" or "The Toxic Avenger" to somebody, I would definitely suggest "The Toxic Avenger." Poultrygeist has its good points, but I think they were trying to go too overboard with the Troma style when they made it. Believe it or not, lots of references to a corpse's dessicated finger being shoved into somebody's butt does get to be a bit too much for me.

Check out Tromeo and Juliet if you haven't seen it before. Twisted, twisted version of that story.

Saucerman · February 24, 2009, 07:33:59 PM

Toxic Avenger would be my pick.

Incidentally, a friend's girlfriend got to watch clips from Tromeo and Juliet in her Shakespeare class last semester.

Jim H · February 24, 2009, 08:09:34 PM

Quote from: Andrew on February 24, 2009, 07:13:52 PM
If I had to recommend "Poultrygeist" or "The Toxic Avenger" to somebody, I would definitely suggest "The Toxic Avenger." Poultrygeist has its good points, but I think they were trying to go too overboard with the Troma style when they made it. Believe it or not, lots of references to a corpse's dessicated finger being shoved into somebody's butt does get to be a bit too much for me.

Check out Tromeo and Juliet if you haven't seen it before. Twisted, twisted version of that story.

I dunno, Andrew. It's very gross, and went overboard at times... But it was, for me at least, the most genuinely entertaining Troma-made film in quite a while. I think the film that actually goes the MOST overboard with Troma-style is Toxic Avenger 4 (just in the way the gags are employed, not the level of nastiness and grossness on display). Has its moments, but it's not nearly as funny as Poultrygeist. It also can't help but be a letdown in comparison to the original.

Kaufman likes to brag that the budgets of Citizen Toxie and the original film are the same, but of course, the original was made over 20 years earlier, meaning its budget is effectively perhaps three times as much. It might be worth bragging about, except that Citizen Toxie's cheapness shows too much. I realize that's part of the style, but I miss the genuinely effective makeup for Toxie in the original film, especially compared to the POS mask used in the sequels. Similarly, scenes of gunfire are done ultra-cheaply, and the editing has to hide a lot of crap - it really does hurt the film at times. Whatever though...

One thing we all seem to agree on is that The Toxic Avenger is their best film. It's also probably the only Troma film I'd suggest anyone besides people like us board regulars would like at all.

One final note... Lloyd Kaufman's book on film making is actually very funny and has some quite good information and advice on it. It's hardly a book to be studied deeply, but there's good stuff in it, and lots of good anecdotes if you like Troma. Probably the most mind boggling thing I found out is that all of Kaufman's films are shot on 35MM still, and that his films have huge shooting ratios. On the order 10:1 (meaning for a two hour movie, they'd shoot 20 hours, at least, of footage). Keep in mind his films budgets top out in the 500k range, and development and telecine of an hour of 35MM film is in the $10,000 range. End result is half the budget (and, apparently, even higher than that for Poultrygeist) is spent on film costs.

It's fine if he wants to stick with film, but if he wants his budgets to stay in that range, I think he should switch to 16MM film, which has like 1/10th the development and telecine cost. It'd be like his films suddenly got 1/3 bigger budgets, which would help them out, especially with all the budget and production problems Poultrygeist apparently had (with Kaufman having to put his own money into the film to get it done).

Rev. Powell · February 24, 2009, 10:48:11 PM

Quote from: Andrew on February 24, 2009, 07:13:52 PM

Check out Tromeo and Juliet if you haven't seen it before. Twisted, twisted version of that story.

Having just seen it, after avoiding Troma for years, I'd second this recommendation. I think the Troma formula has a ceiling as to how effective the films can be, and this bumps right up against it.

I haven't seen THE TOXIC AVENGER, though. (Maybe I need to go post that on the "OMG! You've Never seen..." thread and accept my spanking).

Mr. DS · February 24, 2009, 11:02:39 PM

Come to think of it, I did kind of like Terror Firmer. It was Troma pretty much making fun of itself which I can appreciate.