Tromeo and Juliet

I know very little of Shakespeare's personality, so I haven't a clue as to how he would've felt had he seen this masterfully perverse retelling of his work. I don't much care either. I firmly believe he would have liked this one better than the Leo and Claire version. I also firmly believe that Troma will never cease to amaze us all. Every time they make a film they work with a budget smaller than the life-savings of a third-world peasant, and the cast is dominated by more amateur actors than a school play, and yet, the film flows smoother than wine, and the performances are like platinum. Troma will likely never be surpassed in terms of cult following with a feel that is endearingly John Watersesque. If you like Troma, don't pass this up. If you've never seen Troma, let this be your first. If you hate Troma, then s***w ya.

TROMEO AND JULIET (3+ outta 5 stars)

Well, you gotta give this movie points for sheer nerve, if nothing else. Basing a low budget sex-and-violence schlock-fest on one of the greatest Shakespearean romances... it's probably not one of the best ideas ever. But, you know what? It works! Not for everyone, mind you... you need to have a high tolerance for sick humour, bloody special effects, gratuitous nudity and Shakespearean soliloquies. Actually they trimmed a lot of the William S. dialogue after test audiences didn't approve (go figure)... but the plot is still the same. Tromeo and Juliet, belonging to two different families with a lot of bad blood between them, meet and fall in love and decide to go against their families' wishes and be together. Tragedy and violence follow... as well as copious amounts of sleaze. I've seen a few movies from Troma Pictures and they are all basically the same... but I think this is probably their best effort.

I've recently became curious about the Troma film industry. I wanted to keep an open mind to its quirky, crude, tasteless, brainless, gratuitous, violent, disgusting style (if you can call it that). These are the type of movies that make great cult flicks. And I have nothing against cult flicks, in general, but this one wasn't completely...up to my taste.

There's lots of nudity and gratuitous violence. There's a steamy lesbian sex scene which is worth rewinding and hitting the slo-mo button on your remote. You can tell this movie was going straight towards "guilty pleasure" territory. However, half of the scenes in the movie are so repulsive, ugly and vomit-inducing that I had a hard time pleading guilty. This is sick, twisted entertainment that is DEFINITELY not for all tastes!

I have to admit I laughed at some scenes, was stimulated by gratuitous nudity and just found some portion of the movie to be oddly appealing. I can't help but appreciate a movie that's different. I'm tired of seeing this standard mainstream Hollywood crap, and I crave for originality--but "Tromeo and Juliet" just doesn't the type of originality I crave. It doesn't have that "Seinfeld" show-about-nothing type of originality. It has that sick, David Lynch type of originality, sometimes used as an excuse to display the evil fantasies that lurk deep down inside and express them on screen. The effects are generally gross--though obviously fake--and the humor is generally stupid--and not the "funny stupid."

I'm sure I'll get fried by the Troma Fans Union of America, but if you pay close attention to my review--like you should--I'm NOT panning this movie on account of EVERYBODY on the face of this Earth. I'm saying what I THINK, and as far as I know--that's the intent of these message boards.

Troma fans will love this movie! Others...beware!

My score: 4 (out of 10)

Tromeo And Juliet is a funny movie. It's a good movie. It's a cool movie. And even a perverted and violent movie. But above all it is a weird movie. Bill Shakespere wouldn't just roll over in his grave if he saw this he'd probably spin like a top. There's a lot to be said for a movie that has a person in the credits under the title "stunt nipple". The found a peanut bouncing head is hilarious, but not as funny as the guy picking up his brain and futily trying to put it back in his head while crying. The religious hymn of "Job We Gather At The River" each time someone dies brings happy recollections of the opening moments in The Wild Bunch. This is definately a good movie. Watch it sober your first time around however.

Romeo and Juliet, let's face it, is a silly story at its core, about two young dopey kids who live under rival tribe-gangs, and then meet and at first sight fall desperately in love. The rival-gang story might be fine enough, but the 'young-first-love' thing grows tired, at least for me, once I get past the age of reason (certain exceptions, like when Jerome Robbins adds kick-ass choreography and sings for West Side Story, or in little animated spurts, abound). So, mixing this silly story into the mix of Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz's Troma world is actually not a bad idea: lots of torpedo-the-top violence, excessive, icky almost Nickelodeon-slime-like gore, nudity and sex, and punk rock and piercings and tattoos for the characters. When there's a gang-fight here, or any kind of altercation that might result in violence, there's not only gotta be blood - severed limbs, torn and cracked skulls, maybe even the occasional mutation or radioactive penis might do the trick.

Here, it's a story told with a little more down-and-dirt grit (and coming out right around the time, intentional or not, with the Baz Luhrman Romeo + Juliet makes a terrific counterpoint for that film's unknowing stupidity). The Capulets and the Montagues were once partners in a film screening business, until Mr. Capulet screwed over Mr. Montague. Now its years later and Tromeo wants true love, as does Juliet, though they both have intended others (for Juliet, a son of a billionaire Juliet's evil father - and yes, he's evil as you will see, incestuous too). They meet at a costume party and have a dance, and right there it's love. But oh, what light on yon Plexiglas does shine! What does that mean? You'll have to see it to believe it.

Tromeo and Juliet offers up a lot of the gross-out stuff and crazy, X-rated cartoonish violence, including, a hight-light for me, a man's face stuck in a car window as it drives at top speed and then being flung to a fire hydrant. Ouch. But it also has James Gunn as writer and (un-official-but-really-was-co) director of the film, and it's fascinating to see after Slither and Super to see that his mark is on it: the film is more disturbing than one might expect from the crude but playful Kaufman, such as the 'black room' with the Plexiglas Capulet has, and some of the more crazy sexual dialog (though some of it is still Troma-light, like when Juliet calls a phone sex line just cause a picture she sees in the ad looks like Tromeo... and the guy on the other end is a 400 pound guy eating a pizza while he sex talks!) You gotta know, this is not your grand-daddy's R&J; this isn't even Abel Ferrara's 80's rock take China Girl. This is a beast of true B to maybe Z grade coverage of the story, with Lemmy from Motorhead as narrator, and, I should note, lots and lots of sex (though some semi-sweet romance midway through too). It's outrageous, it's stupid, it's childish, offensive, disgusting, maybe pornographic in its fetishizing of special effects and the same car crash footage used in every other Troma feature. But it's fun, and it knows it, and that's what counts here. It's all of a piece, to put it another way, even as certain pieces may fall flat or just astound with how bad the acting is or how obvious a stunt is (or, yeah, a boom mic in a few shots).