The vengeance of the 31 days of cheese – Day 3 - Tromeo and Juliet

 

 I sort of missed out on the whole Troma pictures era – I suspect I was just a bit too old or out of the loop when they started their run – I do remember vaguely seeing The Toxic Avenger and thinking well this is odd – and other than being intrigued by a trailer for Sgt. Kabuikiman nothing really sang to me.

Anyway this is revamped version of Romeo and Juliet setting it in New York in the 90’s and adding lots of gross out humor and dick jokes along with nudity.  it is I have to admit very entraining and keeps up the energy – and things happen here – maybe not the most effective things or things you’d want to see but things do happen:   Car Crashes, fights , body parts being removed, women kissing, a penis monster – you have to see the film to understand that reference) and mutants.

All of this madness is given a sort of structure by the speeches of the chorus who is played by the late Ian Lemmy Kilmster who obviously did his work in one day in one setting (hanging out early morning near what looks like 42^nd street but things have changed in this city so much that I can’t be sure. Anyway what you have at intervals among the mayhem is Lemmy in that thick midlands accent he had reciting bits from the Shakespeare play – as a final little surreal touch he’s wearing a WW2 German officer’s coat (probably from his personal collection) while doing this.

They add a little bit love across the tracks here as well as the Capulets are portrayed as rich (and in the case of the father insane) while the Que’s (Troma’s shortening of the Montague) live in squalor after some mysterious business between the two families which is explained at the end (no this time I’m not spoiling it)

Things happen – then funny things happen then disgusting things happen – women take their clothes off and people die in disgusting ways – yes there is a Tybalt and a  Mercutio and the Tybalt guys kills the other guy – who does not get angry at everybody before he dies – and there is the Count Paris character who is slated to marry Juliet – who is now the heir to the most disgusting meat packing company I think I’ve seen on film – and I’ve seen the short ‘This is Hormel’ which  not only will make you give up meat but will just make you give up.

This does not end in tragedy as the Shakespeare play does. Romantic love, especially in the young,  in the Elizabethan age was regarded with great suspicion.  It was noble or exulted and made you crazy things and the humpy hump dance and leads they thought to tragedy. It’s mindset that exulted other loves as being far more pure and worth pursuit - marriage was simply for making heirs and such.  Looking back even further is was considered very bad form for an ancient Roman to display affection in public for his wife. It just wasn’t done.

Anyway the story ends with the head of Capulets (the main heavy) being killed and the lovers united in happiness and mutation.  The change does make sense as the tone and structure of this cheesy gross out fest of a movie simply wouldn’t be able to handle the death of the two leads

Well worth seeing if you have a taste for the gross and bizarre. (Which alas will not be the case with a lot of these films so enjoy when one like this comes by.)

Enjoy with veggies and dip but really you won’t snack much watching this film.