Product Details

• Actors: Udo Samel, Peter Lohmeyer, Marc Richter, Leonard Lansink, Iris Berben
• Format: Color, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: TROMA ENTERTAINMENT INC.
• VHS Release Date: May 9, 2000
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (21 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6305281629
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #343,818 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

If you can get past cheap special effects and New Yorkers suddenly spouting German, this bizarre black comedy horror spoof is an aggressively trashy hoot. There's a ravenous prophylactic taking a bite out of the Big Apple, and it's up to slovenly, tough-as-nails NYPD detective Udo Samel (resembling a skid row Bob Hoskins) to protect mankind from this sinister threat. Shot in bleeding, oversaturated color on the streets of New York City with an all-German cast, director Martin Walz fills his film with in-your-face sleaziness and references to everything from The Godfather to Psycho to Attack of the Killer Tomatoes. The mad mix of clichés swirl detective films, monster movies, cop dramas, and mad-scientist conspiracies into a bizarre midnight movie genre soup. Samel's lecherous, well-endowed, hard-boiled detective wears his gay pride like a dare. His insatiable appetite for rent boys and young hunks may affront some viewers, but the chain-smoking tough guy in the rumpled trenchcoat makes a great, unapologetic icon for the '90s. The snaggle-toothed condoms, which look like a cross between Audrey II from Little Shop of Horrors and a sock puppet with teeth, were created by Germany's bad boy of horror, Jorge Buttgereit (Nekromantic). --Sean Axmaker

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Kondom des Grauens, April 10, 2001

By 

Lars Westergren (Sweden) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Killer Condom: The Rubber That Rubs You Out (DVD)

This trashy masterpiece is based on a cartoon by the great German cartoonist Ralf König (he is still quite unknown outside his home country and especially in the US for some reason). Your typical hardboiled, cynical, chain-smoking trench-coat wearing Italian detective stalks the street of New York. Only this one is openly gay, and is famous for his enormous..."schwanstucker". At the Hotel Quickie in his district, an alarming number of men have lost theirs. Over-eager hookers are first suspected, but our hero soon discovers the truth when he goes to the hotel and almost loses his - to a condom with teeth! Who may be behind this fiendish creature, and how is detective Macaroni going to convince others of the existence of this killer contraceptive before it strikes again? Unlike most Troma films this film actually have a rather good and coherent (but extremely absurd) plot. It is a satirical comedy that is actually played straight for the most part. For being a European film it actually had quite a big budget. It is also interesting to notice that lots of famous German actors and celebrities clamoured to get roles in this film that would have made Hollywood stars run away in terror screaming "Career killer!!!". The bearish and openly gay actor Udo Samel who stars as detective Macaroni has previously played in famous German masterpieces such as Far Away So Close and Kasper Hauser. There is a tender (but funny) love story included too. There is no frontal nudity but there are some sex scenes that might offend. But if you are easily offended, why are you here?
The DVD version includes some nice animated menus, some Troma extras and a great comment track by the director and special effects supervisor. There are lots of funny anecdotes about the directors claiming to be making a documentary so they will get permission to film in famous locations, police officers closing off New York streets for hours, stunts that went horribly wrong, and all the gruesome scenes that were cut. "For some reason they cut a close-up shot here of the condom on the floor after it had just...fed. I can't see why. I think it was a beautiful shot". At one point there is a nice fade from a flashback sequence, into a reflection in a window, and then a pan as the actor turns and walks away into the distance. The director explains how he did it, and then with a big laugh adds "But this was probably lost on the average Troma viewer!" Alien designer Giger is included in the credits as a creative consultant, but he joined the filming so late he could basically only say "yes, that looks good" about the designs already made. The film is in German with English subtitles. Unfortunately you can't turn the subtitles off, they are not on a separate track but for what its worth, it is a very good translation. American viewers might find it amusing to see German actors speaking German pretending to be New Yorkers, but as the directors point out, that is what Hollywood does to the rest of the world all the time.
The second half of the movie is unfortunately less polished (relatively speaking of course) than the first because the makers ran out of time and money. Lots of scenes were cut from the second half, which makes some subplots a little confusing, but the directors admit that the film would probably have been even better if some more stuff had been cut from the last half since the ending manages to be both slowly paced and confusing. However, it is still a good film and I can recommend it if you are a fan of trashy entertainment.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars This one bites..., January 29, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Killer Condom: The Rubber That Rubs You Out (DVD)

This movie is one of the funniest I've seen. I loved how it pokes fun at those American tough-lonely-cop-in-the-big city tv shows. Now,eveytime I see the opening credits for NYPD Blue, I just couldn't help but laugh out loud. Many people had problems with the German script, but I thought it was one of its many appeals. I mean movies such as Chocolat and Enemy at the Gates are set in countries where english is not their native language and yet we didn't seem to mind about their "suspicious" english scripts.
The killer condom in the film is a metaphor for AIDS. Underneath the gore and campiness, there is a strong message in the film about tolerance and understanding. Detective Mackeroni's "uplifting" speech in the climatic scene sums it all up.
Overall, this movie is not for the faint hearted. But if the title "Killer Condom" struck you immediately then you will thoroughly enjoy this film like I did. A definite cult classic.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars What the...?, November 7, 2001

By 

Dan Seitz "cinnatusc" (Somerville, MA, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Killer Condom: The Rubber That Rubs You Out (DVD)

This movie has only one flaw...well, okay, more than one, especially if you're slightly unnerved by the title, but for those of us who have spent lots of time with Troma and know what we're in for, the only problem is the fact that you will hear "Killing Me Softly" by the Fugees (badly dubbed, to boot) over. And over. AND OVER.

Otherwise, it's lots of fun. It's always nice to see well-endowed bald gay Sicilian police detectives who speak nothing but German represented in the movies. In a lot of ways, and not just the rubber from hell, this movie is surreal; the fact that it's shot ON LOCATION in New York...with an all-German cast is just the START. Furthermore, it's obviously been written in Germany, because it feels a lot like a foreigner trying to be American in the script.

Still, the gags are immortal and some of the one-liners are hysterical ("It's...It's..." "It's exactly 30.6 centimeters long.") Pick up, especially if you love sick humor!