Troma-tically Insane

"Insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results." - Albert Einstein


I don't get it. That's about the most personal admission I can make about Troma movies.

There are elements that I get, on principle. Bad acting? I'm a fan. Incomprehensible plot? Count me in.

There's just something about their own self-congratulating that I can't get behind. The charm revolves around these movies patting themselves on the back for being bad movies, while doing their best to be a bad movie. That's fine for a single film. But for every single film under an entire banner of films, that is just a bit much. Even the Godzilla films tried to do something differently as each "series" passed.

Seriously though, watch Sgt. Kabukiman. I promise that there will be multiple moments where you ask yourself how in the world these scenes were rehearsed (if they were), planned out, and shot. That is great, great fun. But it's exactly the same sense of wonder you had when you were watching The Toxic Avenger for the first time, or Class of Nuke'em High. The feeling doesn't change, and that's why watching more and more Troma movies just doesn't make a lot of sense. Sooner or later, laughing the laughs just seems like giving Godzilla a buck for stomping Tokyo. It's simply what he SHOULD do for the money, not what you're paying him to do.