Toxic Avenger

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.

Lacklustre direction by Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz, a goofy script (by Joe Ritter), truly poor FX and even worse acting all add up to, for some strange, abstract reason, a stupidly enjoyable film experience.

Maybe it's the camp sounding music, the over the top (and in some cases *way* over the top) 'acting', or perhaps it's just the fact that it's so unashamedly weird and downright cheesy that makes it such fun to watch, who knows? Whatever the reason this definitely isn't a film to spend long hours contemplating such things, instead just sit back and enjoy the crazy show.

Performance wise, as already mentioned, none of the actors give even remotely decent performances, with the exception of Andree Miranda who's actually pretty good in her role as Toxie's blind girlfriend. All of the other actors are so far over the top (or indeed just so downright terrible) that by films end they too have somehow managed to take on their own distinctly cheesy charm and add greatly to the whole 'so bad it's good' motif.

As I may have mentioned once or twice before 'The Toxic Avenger' is cheesier than a block of cheese factories, and as such it takes a special type of person to enjoy 'this type of thing', however for those with their tongue planted firmly in cheek, and for lovers of schlock cinema and 50's z-grade monster movies this is a must see. For most everyone else though it's probably best avoided and will most likely induce headaches and annoyance rather than belly laughs and amusement. Which of the above descriptions best suits you I'll leave you to decide for yourself.

7/10

Troma's best to this day, I still believe. Actually, I haven't seen the vast majority of their movies, but this has got to be the one on top. I love this! Deservedly the companies' most widely recognized film, it can't be ignored for it's willingness to go ahead and do whatever the hell it wants! The acting is completely ridiculous, but when was the last time you had so much fun watching??? The effects are pretty good, nice and gooey in all the right parts....If you've got a special place in your heart for satire, or just like bad, goofy movies, this is the one to see. All the pieces fall into just the right places.

Well you know what your going get when you head first in troma movie.

As soon as the movie started, I could not stop laughing and these bunch of Adults in there early to mid 30's acting like teens in this, the acting in this movie was So bad it was laughable.

The movies keep going on, I loved the plot the movie, was really clever, Horror fans never really had their own monster superhero

Well that kind of original Idea in 80's, this movie as some decent amount of Bloody deaths.

But I do think they spent bit to long death scenes just kill them already.

Well acting didn't really bother movie after first 10 minutes, I think it's improved just tiny bit, with rest of the over the top movie.

This movie falls in to that the movie is SO bad it's good for a Laugh.

6 out of 10

The Toxic Avenger is one of those Troma horror flicks you should have watched at least once in your lifetime befor entering the next level - if you love horror comedies, of course. What you get is perfect cheesy horror 80s style with a lot of humor, overacting, some naked boobs, weird stuff happening scene after scene, fueld with crazy characters, and last but not least, some gory moments and violence. Still great fun for the connoisseur of sleazy 'n' trash. Don't forget: there are a couple of sequels, quality ranging from okay to solid.