It took two years to get this out to theaters. That’s weird. Although, it was kind of a dud. Still, I do think it’s worth talking about.

So, I have a complicated relationship with Troma. On one hand, their movies are quite bad, on the other hand, they do something unique and that does have value. Okay, so why are they so bad? In general, their decision to go with the Loyd Kaufman school of acting is a hindrance. One movie… it’s fine. Every movie… not so much. At the same time, they are in a unique position in popular culture. While there are plenty of small companies making B-movies, Troma does have a very singular vision. You could even argue Kaufman, as the face of the company, is an auteur. In a way, I feel pretty similarly about Troma as I feel about John Waters – they might not make the best movies, but if they weren’t around, someone would have to invent them.

So, when you find one of the great actors of their generation, Peter Dinklage, to play the role of Toxie, things are a bit different. Of course, the cast is full of actual actors and considering that the director, Macon Blair, has also been an actor for a large part of his career, he knows how to use them.

The story is different. There’s a new emotional element to it as Toxie has a son. There is no love interest. The plot is pretty basic and blunt. Things develop pretty fast.

The worldbuilding is weird and it kind of seems that you need to be familiar with Tromaville, but not really. It’s even called St. Roma Village. Was this in the original? The world is still the same, though. Tromaville is just a disgusting place on multiple levels. There’s just scummy people everywhere and everything is dirty. Actually, it reminded of The Naked Gun a bit, because there’s so much to digest on the screen all of the time. Just small visual gags and references and jokey ads. They are just everywhere. If you are the kind of person who likes to go through a movie one frame a time, this might be for you.

The action is mostly kind of meaningless. First, most of the sequences are very explosive and when in the climax we have a longer one, it isn’t really that good.

There’s plenty of references to the original and inside things. This is actually pretty bad, because the movie has a tendency to stop to admire itself when there’s a cameo or a reference, so it’s awkward when you don’t know what it’s about. Sure, I know that the name of the original Toxie was Melvin, but then there’s a cameo near the end, where I just didn’t know who it was (I recognized Kaufman, but after that there’s another one I didn’t).

Also, I guess, it’s important to note the amount of nudity is pretty tame for Troma movie. We have a prosthetic penis, one ballsack, one butt and two women flashing. That’s it.

So, is it worth it? For most, probably not. Actually, it’s pretty hard to identify an audience for this. Mainsteam doesn’t care, Troma fans are not going to get what they want from it… It’s a cult classic being remade by real filmmakers with a real budget. As such, it is actually pretty successful in what it’s doing, but I still can’t imagine there’s more than a handful of people who could possibly be interested.