The Toxic Avenger

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.

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

You always have to take Troma films with a grain of salt, and that's exactly what I did. I enjoyed this film quite a bit. Though it's a typical B-movie, the premise is creative and I actually felt sympathy for the character of Melvin before his mutation. I know what it's like to be the underdog, so I was able to somewhat relate to him. So while some may have laughed at his quirky antics, I was too busy feeling sympathy for pool little Melvin.

The film is filled with quirky, low-brow humor, which often works. I just felt that the premise wore thin after a while, and that's when the film seemed to simply go through the motions.

Despite that, I had a good time and can understand why this is the film that put Troma on the map. So if you're in the mood for a funny, low-budget, low-brow horror-comedy, then please check out "The Toxic Avenger."

My score: 6 (out of 10)

Four crazed teenagers speed down the road in their car, wildly bragging about points they've notched up by running down different people in the car. So many points for someone on a bike, so many points for an elderly person, and big points for a small child. "How many points for a child on a bike?" asks the driver, excited. Learning this will earn him maximum points, he proceeds to knock the small child off his bike, and he goes flying over the hood. They turn round and see the child move in pain. Horrified that he may lose out on his points, the driver then proceeds to reverse over the child's head, squashing it completely. Two girls get out of the car and take some pictures. This scene, for me, represents the majority of this film. More shocking than it should be, even today, but never taking itself at all too seriously, regardless of the horror on show.

Melvin (Mark Torgl) is a skinny, nerdy loser who works in the swimming baths, forever cleaning up with his mop. He is frequently bullied and humiliated by a high school gang who one day play a trick on him, which sees him kissing a goat dressed in a tutu. Horrified, Melvin flees and throws himself through a window, landing on a conveniently positioned (and open-topped) barrel of toxic waste. He begins to burn and rot, and eventually the toxic waste causes him to mutate in a taller, stronger, and ultimately more heroic beast, who wants revenge on his tormentors. Toxie (as he is now called, played by man-mountain Mitch Cohen) starts to clean up the city of Tromaville, which is being run by corrupt mayor Peter Belgoody (Pay Ryan), while at the same time romancing blind girl Sara (Andree Maranda) who he rescues from a rapist in a restaurant.

This was Troma's first big hit, and also their first foray into horror, having previously focusing on really crap sex comedies. After this, which after an initial unsuccessful run became a popular cult favourite on the B-movie circuit, they focuses only on horrors. This is the second Troma film I've seen. The other was Killer Nerd. You can probably assume from the title that it is a god-awful excuse for a film, although it is quite amusing in it's filmed-on-video awfulness (starring Harvey Pekar associate Toby Radloff). This, I'm pleased to say, was actually good! It was a hell of a lot more violent than I was expecting, and the special effects are actually pretty impressive in some places. And Toxie proves to be a likable vigilante/superhero, however hideous he may be.

Having said that, this is a low-budget Troma, and it's not exactly Citizen Kane. The acting is wooden, and the film is so 80's you can practically reach out and feel the sweatbands and mullets. But it is funny, satisfyingly gory, and, most importantly, fun. Toxie proves to be a more interesting 'superhero' than the majority of others. And the film actually has a social message in there somewhere, beneath all the tits and human-taco-making, recognising the pollution that we are all too aware of in our age of global warming and climate change. Now to sit through the three sequels, which I am quietly confident will be awful!

www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

The king of trash movies. It's so effortlessly entertaining that things that should be offensive are easily laughed off. It's the only movie I can think of that can make a young child getting run over by a car side splittingly hilarious.