Bofsensai
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.
Ton_O
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.
spicymcboner
Great Troma movie. The last guy who commented on it has obviously never watched a Troma film before. The thin plot, nudity and guts all come together to form a solid story. The cheesy humor is another staple in the making of a great "movie of the future" I mean, an evil general with AIDS? GENIUS! If you don't enjoy Tromas War, you probably don't love Bloodsucking Freaks either, which makes you a moron. If you've never watched a Troma movie before, don't comment on them as if your film tastes are so advanced. Although, you really don't need to know the whole story behind the company to enjoy this film. Lloyd Kaufman and Micheal Herz have done it yet again. Thank you.
Theo Robertson
Ah yes the 1980s , a time of Reaganomics and Sly , Chuck and a host of other action stars hiding in a remote jungle blowing away commies . At the time I couldn`t believe how movies like RAMBO , MISSING IN ACTION and UNCOMMON VALOR ( And who can forget the ridiculous RED DAWN ? ) made money at the box office , they`re turgid action crap fests with a rather off putting right wing agenda and they have dated very badly . TROMA`S WAR is a tongue in cheek take on these type of movies but you`ve got to ask yourself did they need spoofing in the first place ? Of course not . TROMA`S WAR lacks any sort of sophistication - though it does make the point that there`s no real difference between right wing tyrants and left wing ones - and sometimes feels more like a grade z movie than a send up . Maybe it is ?