Not Another B Movie – DVD Review

Feb 6 2012 – Today we are looking at the DVD of Not Another B Movie from Troma Entertainment. If you are not familiar with Troma they make some awesome genre movies that are really worthwhile checking out if you are sick of typical Hollywood formulaic films. Our introduction to them was an interesting journey. It all started when we saw the world premiere of Astron-6’s excellent Manborg (reviewed here) at the Toronto After Dark Film Festival. In following the trail we discovered that Troma released Astron-6 Collection DVD, and we quickly fell in love with their unique and zany movie lineup. We plan on reviewing as many of their movies as possible.

This movie was released in 2010 and features sitcom heroes Lou Grant, Joanie Cunningham, Bud Bundy, and the Soup Nazi! I bet reading that gave you a chuckle and sets the tone for the film nicely. This is after all a comedy in the form of a spoof. The movie focuses on a hard working screenwriter (Byron Thames) wanting to make a legit movie discussing the movie with a whacky director (Larry Thomas) and his sidekick producer over dinner. All the director want is to make a formulaic B movie with shower scenes, nudity, cops on a stakeout, gratuitous violence, and a psycho umpire that chokes with his jock strap. The movie is unique in that it takes parts of the discussion and shows hilarious cut scenes based on what they were talking about. For example when they talk about product placement in the film a hilarious scene ensues that has product placement in every couple of sentences about Shaft Cola.

When discussing the use of breasts in the movie a typical dialogue goes like this: (Note – Byron is the screenwriter and Larry is the director.)

Byron – Look we’re never gonna be considered serious filmmakers unless we get away from this exploitation crap, you know I thought we were moving to some serious thriller territory with this film. A film that says more than “watch me slit these throats” and “look at these tits”.

Larry – Unfortunately the money situation dictates that these cheap slasher films is the only way to ensure profits.

Byron – What if we shot digital?

Larry – Bite your tongue! I am an artist, and I use the tools of an artist, not the toys of a child.

This is not a movie that everyone will enjoy, but if you are a fan of T-MAK World, chances are you will like this film and have a great time watching it. Remember this is not a Hollywood big budget film, and the jokes are much more clever than your average Adam Sandler lines. We had a great time watching this film and can easily recommend it to our readers. The DVD also includes footage from the premiere of the movie, as well as a bunch of trailers from other Troma releases.

Verdict: 7/10 Nice refreshing spoof of how formulaic horror films are made. Hilarious!