As a child I loved to stay up late and watch "USA Up All Night" (with Gilbert Gottfried or Rhonda Shear, I wasn't picky). This allowed me to sample pretty much every major Troma movie, and I discovered the meaning of the phrase "guilty pleasure". As I got older I stayed away from Troma, as their movies radiated the kind of feeling you get from wearing a shoddy Halloween mask too long and getting nauseous inhaling the cheap rubber fumes. But after sampling the delightful "Tromeo & Juliet" I decided to return to my roots and check out the directors edition of the classic "Toxic Avenger".
While I was right in remembering the films as the guiltiest of pleasure, the cheap charm of the film was undeniable, and there was a ton of gore in the movie that I never saw on T.V. Arms are severed, guts are ripped out, seeing-eye dogs are shot, and children's heads are crushed- and it all looks pretty good! Some of the acting will make you wince, some of the jokes are atrocious (there are mother-in-law jokes), and some scenes go on too long (the idiotic out-of-control-car sequence) or too short (Toxie taking his revenge on his tormenters is strangely gore-free, which is explained in the director's commentary), but I can't bad-mouth a movie that has it's hero stuff a little old lady in a washing machine. If you're a gore fan with a high thresh hold for bad taste, then give the Toxic Avenger another shot- I did, and I'm a better person for it. I think.
