Tales From The Crapper

Released by: Troma
Released on: 9/28/2004
Director: Gabriel Friedman, Lloyd Kaufman, David Paiko, Brian Spitz
Cast: Julie Strain, Debbie Rochan, Lloyd Kaufman, Kevin Eastman, Trey Parker, Ted Raimi
Year: 2004
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The Movie:

Here's a 'trivia fact' from the IMDB that might shed some light on Troma's latest, Tales From The Crapper:

“Originally shot as two DV films starring Julie Strain and directed by India Allen. Lloyd Kaufman had a dispute with Allen and sued her over the productions after they wrapped. Allen later counter-sued, citing breach of contract, slander per se, sexual harassment, trade slander, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The only way the Troma Team could salvage these films was to shoot extra scenes and turn the two features into an anthology film.”

So keep in mind, this is essentially a salvage operation, albeit one on a semi-cinematic level, but a salvage operation none the less. Troma needed to recoup their money on this turkey and so Kaufman took it upon himself to 'fix' what was wrong with the project. How did he do it? Fart jokes and boobies, basically. Two aspects of life of which I and many others are very fond of.

Basicaly, this Tales From The Crypt pardoy puts Kaufman in the role of your humble narrator, The Crapkeeper. He appears from time to time to pad out the running length of the two shorts (cut down from their original length), make some bad jokes, throw in some toilet humor, and keep it all moving. It's all an excuse for gratuitous nudity, goofy low budget gore and crass humor - but what did you expect from a Troma film called Tales From The Crapper? The title kind of gives it all away in that respect. Take into account that Kaufman claims he shot it under the 'Dogpile 95' methodology, you can see where they're going with this.

Video/Audio/Extras:

The film was shot on video quickly and without much of a budget, and it shows. While the general clarity is pretty decent and the image is free of any print damage, there is some shimmering and some compression evident and there are instances where some of the colors bleed. Overall though, for a movie that was shot 'fast and cheap' it doesn't look half bad. Quality is on par with most other recent shot on video cheapies.

The Dolby Digital 2.0 Audio mix doesn't fare quite so well. A lot of the dialogue is pretty muffled and there's virtually no range in this mix at all. Most of it is quite flat and rather dull sounding. Most of the dialogue is at least understandable, save for a couple of scenes where you might end up scratching your head wondering what they're saying. Luckily, it doesn't take too much away from the film. It's just not the kind of movie where dialogue is all that important.

Aside from a 'time travelling' introduction by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, there are a bunch of other extra features on this release as well. First up are a pair of commentary tracks. The first one features Lloyd Kaufman and the films editor, Gabe Friedman. The second one features Julie Strain and co-director Brian Spitz. Both commentaries are pretty amusing. Kaufman in particular has a lot to say about the genesis of the film and he's always a fun guy to listen to. He knows what to take seriously and what not and he knows he's not making Citizen Kane here. Strain and Spitz look back on the movie with some fun anecdotes though their track, while informative, isn't quite as enthusiastic or fun as the one that Kaufman and Friedman share.

Up next is The Thick Brown Line, which is a pretty in depth look at the making of the movie and the reshoots involved in getting it finished. Kaufman narrates the film, turning the camera on himself for much of the running time, and letting us in on some of the reasons that the reshoots were needed and where he had to stop in to shape things up a little bit. One of the more interesting aspects of this segment isn't so much the reshooting as it is seeing Kaufman in a serious mode, doing what he does and not hamming it up for the camera but instead playing it all very straight and trying to save what he intially though would be a waste of a film.

The Topless Comedy Jam is a 'day in the life' sort of retrospect on Julie Strain, who wanders around in her birthday suit and shows off her collection of movie memorabilia. It's not really a comedy jam at all, but hey, it's got a naked lady in it so it's all good.

A selection of self proclaimed 'Craptacular' deleted scenes filmed abroad in locations such as Russia, Spain can be found next. These are mildly amusing especially the one in which Kaufman appears in front of the very high profile tomb where Lenon is buried in Russia.

Rounding out the supplements are some of the 'Tromatic Extras' that we've seen popping up on some of their other DVD releases: a preview for Make Your Own Damn Movie, a mMusic video for Cannibal Lesbian Hoedown (from the Tales from the Crapper soundtrack no less!), a Radiation March short, a plug for Webmonkey's Bananas, and a big gooey wad of Troma trailers. The Tales from the Crapper web comic is also included.


The Final Word:

How much enjoyment you get out of Tales From The Crapper will be directly co-realated to how much you enjoy Troma's style of filmmaking. This movie more or less embodies everything that they're known for. If you didn't like Toxie 4 or Terror Firmer, stay away but if you found it within yourself to laugh and the childish and immature humor like I did, Tales From The Crapper is worth a look.