Office Space.
Reign of Fire.
I’m just going to drop selections from the Troma catalog in here:
- The Toxic Avenger
- Surf Nazis Must Die
- Class of Nuke ‘em High
- Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD
- Tromeo and Juliet
These are objectively shitty movies. Most of these movies are irredeemable; hell, some of them are down right an exercise in poor taste. A lot of it hasn’t aged well, and I’m not talking about the cinematography. I haven’t kept up with Troma in the 21st century, though, so maybe Troma has gotten worse-better or better-worse?
However, I find joy in these movies because they are like a time warp back to New Jersey and New York in the 80s and 90s. They were so low budget and always filmed around New York (except for Toxic Avenger II which somehow was filmed in Japan), that they used a lot of family members of the cast and crew or random locals as extras. It is obvious that a lot of people on screen probably didn’t know they were being filmed (or if they did, didn’t realize what type of movie they were in). There’s bad hair and makeup (but not from the effects department), and thick accents and regionalisms that have faded. There are mainstreets and skylines that don’t exist anymore, or if they do, are wildly different. It is amazing to catch a glimpse of an era that doesn’t exist anymore. This exists in all old movies, but the low-budget realness hits differently.
Most of these movies are trash, but they’re my trash. Apologies to Mr. Kaufman.
Mine’s gotta be “The Brothers Grimm” starring Matt Damon and Heath Ledger. It’s the same camp vibe as the “Van Helsing” movie starring Hugh Jackman, but there’s no badass super hero to save the day - there’s just a bunch of imperfect people trying their best, and it’s almost entirely by luck or destiny that they snatch victory from the clutches of defeat. It’s also one of the most morbid depictions of childish horror i’ve seen on-screen, where it gives no fucks about being realistic.
That era of movies is what everyone wants their D&D campaigns to be.
“Who Framed Roger Rabbit”.
An absolute masterpiece in terms of blending and transitioning between live action and animation; plus the whole Disney/Warner Bros character crossovers… just 👌🏼
Kalo. A low budget horror movie, available on YouTube for free.
8 Heads in a Duffel Bag.
David spade and Joe Pesci. Amazing.
Kung Pow
George and the Christmas Star
Fool’s Gold. It’s so bad, but gets me in the feels.
Home Alone
Battlefield Earth
Galaxina. Low budget space western comedy. Space cowboy wants to have sex with his robot pilot but they have to order the extra parts for her.
Death to Smoochy
Psychotic Robin Williams
He was magnificent
I love this fucking movie and noone else understands why, it’s nearly perfect. Even John Stewart is there with truly terrible acting.
This is a fantastic movie, and not in a “it’s so bad it’s good” way. Great writing, hilarious acting, phenomenal cast… It’s just underappreciated.
Scamper the Penguin.
The Feature Films for Families version, cuz I never saw the original Russian one called Lolo
No war but class war.
Genuinely love this movie. So weird to see a lot of the actors in really early roles lol
Right? Who could have predicted that Gutter would go on to lay the foundations for Marvel’s decades-long cinematic dominance?
Lol he is a force to be reckoned with for sure
It’s like… if you’re nice to them… they bring you things?
Gutter is a tool!
Can you blow me where the pampers is?
