The Toxic Avenger

There are few movie characters who embody the role of "underdog" as fully as the Toxic Avenger. A lowly janitor at a chemical facility who is thrown into the slime by his nefarious bosses, he emerges as a mutant with superhuman strength and a glowing mop which is able to corrode human skin on contact.

A remake of the surprise 1984 hit from Troma Studios, this film is nothing if not inspirational. Peter Dinklage is mesmerizing in the title role, particularly in the early scenes before he is transformed into the creature. I can't help thinking that his performance was subdued by the heavy prosthetic make-up he wears in the later scenes. Also outstanding are Kevin Bacon as the scheming boss at the chemical plant and Elijah Wood as his creepy brother - who reminded me of the character of Riff Raff from The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Short review: Sometimes the only key to a films success is knowing exactly what it is, what it needs to do, and committing to the concept. 'The Toxic Avenger' knows exactly what it has to do to be successful. It has to be a little campy, not take itself too seriously, have some truly great kill scenes and keep the accelerator down at a non-stop pace. It does all those things and for that reason, a film that wouldn't usually be to my taste, was a very fun experience.

You can tell that the cast were having a blast making this. Every one of them seems to be given complete freedom to be as over the top and outrageous as they like. And they flourish. This was a fun one. 7/10.

(Republish of September 2023 review which was deleted).

All of last year, I was certain that this movie wasn't ever going to be released and that was a disappointing notion. When I found out that it was going to be released in theaters unrated, I perked up.

I wouldn't say this was a hugely anticipated movie for me but I was excited. I just saw it a few hours ago and I've gotta say that it's just barely above average. The biggest problem with this movie is that a huge majority of the jokes in this movie fall flat and leave an awkward impression. It also didn't help that the tone and pacing for this movie was an absolute mess as well.

That being said, I was never bored or put off by the film. There's an amazing display of gore (even if it's hugely CGI) and sight gags as well. The whole cast also hams it the hell up which is a big plus.

I didn't hate the new Toxic Avenger but it's definitely nothing special.

C+

The Toxic Avenger is a suitably gory and surprisingly funny low budget throwback to B-movies that's greatest strength comes from how consistently those jokes land. It updates the titular character for modern times effectively and is always moving quickly enough to remain a fun watch. The bad taste sensibilities are more than accounted for and it also has the required heart to be emotionally investing as well.

Peter Dinklage gets things off to a strong start thanks to his heartfelt performance as a downbeat guy who just wants to be a good dad. Once he hands over the physical work to Luisa Guerreiro, they work well together so it still feels like one character. Kevin Bacon is the fun kind of pathetic villain and Elijah Wood similarly gets some laughs out of his eccentric character. Taylour Paige does the narrative heavy lifting as well as delivering solid jokes.

Macon Blair's direction has a clear affection for this genre and when the smaller budget becomes visible it only adds to the charm. All the gore is fittingly bloody and gleefully over the top but it would've benefited from looking more practical overall. The occasionally snappy editing by Brett W. Bachman and James Thomas prevents the film from getting bogged down by the most common narrative tropes when they appear.

I'll start off by saying the first Toxic Avenger back in 1984 is probably in my top 25 - 50 movies to watch easily. It's violent, disgusting, offensive and yet funny. You either love it or hate it. There is absolutely no way it could be made today considering you'll offend people with even the subtlest of things we'd consider insignificant. They should have stopped at the second one where they go to Japan. Let's be honest.

This on the other hand is just a soulless cash grab where the people who possibly bought the rights to make this did the bare minimum to call it Toxic Avenger. Sort of like that first Super Mario movie from the 1990s. Sure there wasn't much plot involved in the original Toxic Avenger movie but they could have expanded upon what shreds of plot there were as this is an insult if it was a reboot. This is so far from the original this is almost a spinoff and without a doubt this is the worst in the series. I thought the 4th one Citizen Toxie was the worst, thinking it wasn't possible to do worse but this somehow set the bar so low not even ants can crawl under it.

I have no idea why anyone even remotely famous signed up for this. We've got Peter Dinklage for some reason, at most they could have used his voice as everyone remembers how golden Toxie's voice was in that one movie. We've got Kevin Bacon in it, which his role could have been done by anyone else just as effectively and Elijah Wood. Who cares. Neither of them have been relevant for like 15-20+ years.

The plot makes sense for why toxie ends up why he did. However, it's just this slog through mud where the only thing going for it is there's some good music in it from bands such as Judas Priest, Savatage and Peter singing Overkill by Motorhead. Lemmy the singer of Motorhead was in a few Tromaville films so it's a nice nod to him. However the step father not getting respect from the boy or the whole medical insurance angles were weak.

The CGI gore didn't suit the movie and if you endure the movie until the end past the credits you get to watch Peter Dinklage.. you know.. make an umm.. you know.. grilled cheese.. which, you know.. is... good. The way Toxie looks just seems wrong as well, perhaps if they took the "Celebrities" out of this there would be more of a budget to make the movie to get that classic tromaville film look instead of this garbage. I've seen my share of tromaville films and some like class of nuke'em high are worth the second watch, they are low budget, gross, offensive and fun but the people who made this didn't understand what made them so good.

0 / 10 - I wish this never came out. I'm glad to see so many crew members as well as their friends and family put up fake reviews, pretending this was a good movie and thumbing down honest reviews.