In 1988, Troma released their answer to all of the over-the-top action flicks of the eighties. Troma’s War has big guns with seemingly infinite amounts of ammunition, terribly overacted bad guys, and a dastardly plot that when unraveled looks completely ridiculous. While essentially being a mindless shoot-em-up, it was also a swipe at the policies of the Ronald Reagan administration, and while we don’t get political here at TGON, when you watch Troma’s War, you can tell they’re at least poking Ronnie’s ribs a little. While a majority of Troma films have their fair share of comedy, this one is played straight and serious and the comic relief is kept to a minimum.
When a plane crashes on an uncharted jungle island, the survivors are attacked by guerrilla mercenaries who are preparing to invade America. The guerrillas think the survivors are enemy mercenaries come to foil their plans, and no amount of explaining are going to convince them otherwise. The only way to make it off the island alive is to fight back and pretty much kill every bad guy there is.
Troma’s War is rife with character stereotypes. We have the gruff yet heroic Vietnam vet, the cowardly business man, the priest who refuses to fight, the woman with a baby, the blind woman who falls in love with a fat, not-very-handsome hero, a host of villains who are supposed to be trained soldiers but couldn’t shoot the broadside of a barn, a secret agent who just so happens to have his blowgun with cyanide darts on him at all times, a badass grandmother who knows how to rock a machine gun, and many others including an evil mercenary who, for reasons that are not explained, has a pig snout instead of a nose.
There isn’t much in the way of gore with this movie. Most of the SFX are people getting shot. So it’s mainly squibs and blood-packs used here with a few limbs getting blown off for good measure and the really nasty stuff that Troma is known and loved for does not make much of an appearance in this film. However, there are one or two scenes of sexual assault so I am putting a trigger warning here for that.
As far as the plot goes, it’s pretty simple stuff. Bad guys try to kill good guys, good guys fight back. Men become heroes, women become warriors and the evil guerrillas become dead. Some of the dialogue is stilted and sometimes poorly acted and other times simply hard to hear. In the version I watched, the audio cut out in two or three places, most notably there was an assault rifle being fired off with no sound.
While I don’t consider Troma’s War to be one of their best movies, it is still a good way to lose track of an hour and forty-five minutes. Is this another movie that you can watch on YouTube free and legal? Why yes it is. Am I going to embed it below? You bet I am! If you want to watch more Troma movies, do I insist on going to the TromaMovies YouTube channel? Well, what do you think?
Better clean that rifle, soldier, because this is Troma’s War!
