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The Toxic Avenger Review
Image Credit: Yana Blajeva/Legendary Pictures
Loading...The Toxic Avenger Review
Peter Dinklage– Winston Gooze/Toxie (The Hero) (voice)
Luisa Guerreiro– Toxie (The Bod)
Jacob Tremblay– Wade (The Kid)
Taylour Paige– J.J. Doherty (The Wild Card)
Kevin Bacon– Bob Garbinger (The Villain)
Elijah Wood– Fritz Garbinger (His Creepy Brother)
Julia Davis– Kissy Sturnevan (His Associate)
David Yow– Gunthrie Stockins (The Wise Hobo)
Jonny Coyne– Thad Barkabus (The Big Boss)
Shaun Dooley– Mel Ferd (The Crusading Reporter)
(check out the rest of the cast here)
Directed by Macon Blair
Screenplay by Macon Blair, based on The Toxic Avenger (1984) by Lloyd Kaufman and Joe Ritter
Distributed by Bloody Disgusting and Cineverse Entertainment
Unrated
Runtime– 102 minutes
The Toxic Avenger, the long awaited remake of the 1984 Troma classic, is finally out in the world. Written and directed by Macon Blair, the new The Toxic Avenger is a sweet, sometimes funny, weird as hell superhero movie that’s also a sort of parody of superhero movies. To a degree, you can tell that director Blair and company adore the Lloyd Kaufman/Michael Herz directed original, as that movie is also sweet, sometimes funny, and weird as hell. Both versions are also gory, with the remake leaning in on gross looking CGI violence as opposed to going full practical effects (although there are some nifty looking practical effects, like the Toxic Avenger body suit used by Lisa Guerreiro, who physically plays the actual Toxic Avenger). And while I’m sure fans will generally approve of this remake, I’m also fairly certain that they, along with other curious movie fans, will wonder why the hell The Toxic Avenger remake was ever deemed “unreleasable” because of its violence or, really, for any content related reason whatsoever. There isn’t anything in the remake of The Toxic Avenger that movie watching fans haven’t seen a million times before, either in low-budget genre cinema or big deal Hollywood releases. So, the big question regarding The Toxic Avenger remake’s release is why, exactly, did it take two years for this movie to get a release? And I mean what is the real reason? Something isn’t adding up here.
The Toxic Avenger remake stars Peter Dinklage as Winston Gooze, a good natured and doting single father and widower who works as a janitor for BTH (Body Talk Health), a mega polluting corporation run by a media friendly douchebag named Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon). While trying to raise his son Wade (Jacob Tremblay) in the polluted and crime filled village known as St. Roma’s and doing a slightly below adequate job at it (he really tries his best but he doesn’t relate to Wade all that much, and Wade is upset that Winston never married his Mom and Winston doesn’t know how to “fix” things), Winston goes to the doctor and finds out that he has brain cancer and maybe a year to live. Initially distraught at his diagnosis, Winston briefly experiences a moment of hope as he is told that there is a new drug that he can take that should be able to cure his brain cancer. Winston becomes distraught again after calling his health insurance company and finding out that his insurance doesn’t cover the new drug (and the new drug is expensive). What the hell is Winston going to do? What is he going to tell Wade?
So then some stuff happens, Winston decides that he should talk to his company’s owner Garbinger directly, and he comes up with a scheme to sneak into a fancy rich person’s party to talk to Garbinger. Winston actually gets to talk to Garbinger, and Garbinger claims he’s sympathetic to Winston’s problem and will find a way to take care of him. For a brief instance, Winston feels a sense of relief. Maybe he won’t die from brain cancer and will be able to continue being a doting father to his son Wade. The reality, of course, is that Garbinger is a mega rich asshole who doesn’t care about anyone but himself and his vast fortune and he has Winston fired. Winston decides right then and there that he has to do something drastic in order to survive. So Winston concocts a disguise, creates a weapon with his mop (he actually dips the mop in toxic waste), and robs a Garbinger company vault. While escaping with a bag full of Garbinger’s money, Winston is confronted by Fritz Garbinger (Elijah Wood) and his rock band gang of killers/henchmen and shot in the head. Winston is then thrown in a nearby pool of toxic waste, presumably so Winston’s dead body would dissolve. Winston’s body doesn’t dissolve, though. Instead, Winston’s body transforms/mutates into a monster.
So then some more stuff happens, the newly mutated Winston tries to figure out what the hell just happened to him, and Winston then tries to talk to Wade. Talking to Wade doesn’t go well at all, as Winston’s new monster look frightens Wade, and Winston runs off into the night. Winston also gets attacked while running away and absolutely destroys a bad guy by ripping his arms off. Winston is then confronted by a mob of people because he just ripped a guy’s arms off in public. Winston then runs off into the woods. While in the woods, Winston meets Guthrie Stockins (David Yow), a “wise hobo” that essentially shows him how to use a mop as a weapon and how to be a hero. Winston figures out that becoming a hero of sorts is likely the only way he will be able to relate to Wade and survive with his new look. Winston will have to become and fully embrace the moniker of Toxie. Winston/Toxie then heads into downtown St. Roma’s to take care of a gang of criminals that have decided to take hostages at a fast food restaurant. Taking down criminal scumbags will be Winston/Toxie’s new job.
Now, while all of that is happening, reporter J.J. Doherty (Taylour Paige) is on the run from Fritz Garbinger’s gang after surviving an attack on Doherty’s boss Mel Ferd (Shaun Dooley) at the beginning of the movie. Ferd had been planning a major exposé on BTH when he was attacked and killed by Fritz’s gang. Doherty now has that exposé information, and if any of that exposé information actually gets out to the public, Bob Garbinger and BTH will be in serious trouble. And while all of that is going on, Bob Garbinger has to deal with Thad Barkabus (Jonny Coyne), a mobster that “loaned” Garbinger a massive amount of money to keep BTH running. Garbinger and Barkabus do not like one another at all, and they seem to live in constant fear of one another. Will Garbinger try to welch on what he owes Barkabus? And will Barkabus try to kill Garbinger because of the amount of money he owes and hasn’t paid back yet?
The rest of the movie plays out like you expect it to, with Winston/Toxie taking on the Garbingers and Barkabus while also trying to protect Doherty from harm. Winston/Toxie also tries to rescue Wade (because you just know that the movie’s villains are going to involve Wade in the big scheme at the end. It would be weird if that didn’t happen). Will Winston/Toxie rescue everyone and kill all of the bad guys and become a hero to everyone in St. Roma village? Will Winston/Toxie be able to repair his relationship with Wade?
The Toxic Avenger moves at a deliberate pace. Director Blair takes his time establishing the movie’s fantastical setting, as St. Roma village is somehow both very real and not real at all. Parts of St. Roma feel like they exist in the real world, while others feel like they exist in a wacked out comic book. There are also Troma Easter eggs spread throughout the city, like Belgoody Bail Bonds (named after the mayor from the original movie), the dead reporter’s name (Melvin Ferd was the name of the nerdy health club employee that transforms into the Toxic Avenger in the original), and the name of the village (there’s a small sequence where the camera hovers over the sign at the entrance to the village and the sign looks very familiar to the Tromaville sign you see in the Toxic Avenger sequels). There is a cool reworking of the “Night on Bald Mountain” Mussorgsky music when Winston transforms/mutates into Toxie. The only Easter egg that doesn’t appear is the car flip from Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, which I really thought would happen (maybe not the actual car flip scene but a remake of it). There are others that I likely missed, but noticing them is part of the fun of the movie (if you’re not at all familiar with Troma you likely won’t pick up on the Easter eggs at all). The Toxie makeup resembles the look of the Toxic Avenger character from the Toxic Crusaders cartoon, where the Toxic Avenger was known as the Toxic Crusader. I do think the movie would play better if it was somehow faster. I don’t know how that could be achieved at the moment, but a greater sense of urgency wouldn’t hurt things at all.
The movie’s sort of subversive point of view is fun, but it also doesn’t go far enough. The movie is obviously taking shots at corporate America, religion (the mega rich people are all in league with the village’s religious leaders), the American healthcare industry, TV news, and a myriad of other targets, but it also feels like it’s pulling its punches a bit. That’s likely due to Winston and Wade and their father-son relationship taking up most of the emotional core of the movie. If Winston didn’t have a son and was just some guy with a bad job and brain cancer and ends up becoming a mutated monster, the politics of the movie would likely hit harder. Maybe. The mob subplot doesn’t work as well as it probably should. It would make more sense to me if Garbinger was the big villain and that mob boss Barkabus somehow worked for Garbinger. If that happened, Bob Garbinger would have his hands in everything wrong with St. Roma, and Barkabus wouldn’t feel as though he’s tacked on to the plot.
The movie’s violence is nasty and gross, as you’d expect it to be, but, just like the subversive point of view, the violence isn’t so nasty and gross that it breaks any new ground in the nasty and gross department. Arms get ripped off, Toxie demolishes the faces and heads of bad guys with his mop weapon, and there’s quite a bit of blood spilled. Nothing happens in the movie, though, that resembles or is as memorable as the “drug dealer gets his head crushed in a weight machine in the health club” scene in the original The Toxic Avenger. There are also no violent sequences where you laugh and cringe at the same time and wonder “Why the hell did they do that? Jesus!” The closest thing to a “what the hell?” moment the movie has involves Toxie having toxic urine. I was expecting an homage to the infamous alley fight from the original movie (I know smoking is generally frowned upon in movies now, but why didn’t we get a Cigar Face type criminal at all in the movie? That would have been hilarious). The CGI violence sequences more or less work the first time you see them, but the more they happen the less interesting and impactful they become. Fritz’s gang is interesting and right out of a real Troma movie, but they aren’t sadistic or stupid enough.
The movie’s performances are generally good. Peter Dinklage does a nice job as Winston. Winston is a guy that is trying his best to keep things together for his son Wade while also still dealing with the after effects of grief (Winston was destroyed by the death of his girlfriend/Wade’s Mom). He tries to relate to Wade and encourage him to follow his dreams, but he isn’t very successful at it. Winston also tries hard at his job as a janitor at the BTH factory, but it is effort that will never be rewarded or recognized. As he finds out while dealing with the company’s health insurance provider, Winston is just a cog in the BTH machine and can be replaced at any moment. Winston does show a moment of bravery early on, saving his landlord’s cat from certain death, but he doesn’t show anything like that at any other time (Wade gives him crap for it). When Winston becomes Toxie, Dinklage continues to perform the voice of Winston/Toxie, while the physical performance is done by Luisa Guerreiro. Dinklage and Guerreiro make for a good team.
Kevin Bacon does a good job as Bob Garbinger. Garbinger is a suave and sophisticated media figure that is beloved by everyone that consumes media but is, in reality, a heartless, soulless douchebag piece of garbage (you know, a big businessman). Bacon seems to be having fun making Garbinger as sleazy as he can make him, and after about a minute of seeing him in action you want to punch Garbinger in the face. That is what you want out of your comic book movie villain. Julia Davis is terrific as Kissy Sturnevan, Garbinger’s executive assistant. She’s just as awful as her boss and that really is something to see.
Elijah Wood does an okay job as Fritz Garbinger, the leader of the nasty rock band/band of killers that does his brother Bob’s violent bidding. Fritz is a bit of a sad sack character, which is surprising. You’d think that with the makeup Wood wears throughout the movie (he looks like a Rocky Horror Picture Show cosplayer that lives in his costume) that Fritz would be a little nastier than he is, but he’s sort of a lameo. The characterization really doesn’t work, and I think people are going to be confused by him. Wood works hard at it, but he doesn’t really pull it off. David Yow is okay as Guthrie Stockins, the wise hobo that Winston/Toxie meets out in the woods. He’s funny, he seems to be having a blast with that fake bird that keeps showing up, but you get the feeling that she should be way wackier than he is.
Jacob Tremblay does a fine job as Wade, Winston’s son. He’s an awkward teen that, just like his father Winston, is trying his best to deal with life but isn’t very successful at it. Wade wants to be some sort of performer and auditions for a part in a school production, but Wade is too awkward and unsure of himself to make it happen. Tremblay makes Wade incredibly likeable, and you will feel for him throughout the movie.
And Taylour Paige does a good job as J.J. Doherty, the reporter that finds herself on the run from a band of killers because of the information she has that will exposé the nefarious Garbinger and his company. She pops in and out of the movie as it progresses and seems to be confused by most of the weird stuff happening around her (and you can’t blame her because, well, how are you supposed to react to being chased by a psycho killer wear a giant chicken head? No one is going to just take that kind of shit in stride). Doherty gets through it, though. It’s her only option for survival.
Be on the lookout for the inevitable Lloyd Kaufman cameo. It is a fun moment indeed (I’m surprised he didn’t play the Stockins character, or a guy that gets run over by a car or something). The director Macon Blair also has a part in the movie.
Now, as I said earlier, I don’t understand why this movie had such trouble finding distribution. There is absolutely nothing in it that we haven’t seen before, either in terms of plot, subtext, or graphic violence. So what’s the real story here in regards to it sitting on the shelf for two years? Did it have something to do with the association with Troma? Lloyd Kaufman has complained for years about how the big Hollywood companies (I believe he has called them some version of “Devil worshiping corporations”) have made it incredibly difficult for indie movie companies like Troma to get any sort of significant theatrical play. Is that the real reason for The Toxic Avenger taking two years to get a release of any kind? Or is there something else going on here, something we don’t know about just yet? I would really like to know because, again, there isn’t anything in The Toxic Avenger that movie watching audiences haven’t seen before. I hope we find out one day what the real story is.
So, will audiences enjoy The Toxic Avenger remake? I think Troma fans will enjoy it for what it is, and general movie watching audiences will have fun with it if they give it a chance. But if you go into the movie thinking you’re finally going to see something that’s so messed up and transgressive and nasty and “the movie they didn’t want you to see” because it’s dangerous and a massive “screw you” to the establishment or whatever, or a movie that’s so incredibly violent that it had to be suppressed until now, you’re going to be disappointed. There just isn’t anything in The Toxic Avenger remake that warrants its “unreleasable” reputation. It’s well-made and fun, but it isn’t anything you haven’t seen before.
So, yes, you should absolutely go see The Toxic Avenger remake. It is fun. Just be aware, though, there is absolutely nothing in the movie that makes it “unreleasable.” There is no reason this movie couldn’t have been released two years ago or a year ago, at least in terms of what’s in the movie. There has to be some other reason for why it was deemed “unreleasable.” There just has to be.
See The Toxic Avenger remake. See it, see it, see it.
So what do we have here?
Dead bodies: At least 20.
Explosions: Two big ones.
Nudity?: Yes.
Doobage: Weird gang attack. Trident harpoon gun. A fantasy town. Attempted breakfast making with burned toast. Cat throwing. Cat rescuing. Floor mopping. Off screen work accident. Off screen doctor’s appointment. Brain cancer diagnosis. A mansion surrounded by heavily armed guards. A rock band performance. A school performance that doesn’t go to plan. A walk at night. A fancy dinner. Toxic waste sample taking. Vault robbing. Burned up money. Bullet to the face. Attempted dead body destroying. Massive mutation. Serious bloody arm removal. A mob chase. A mop weapon training lesson. TV news hooey. A hostage situation. Misogyny. Bloody jaw removal. Bloody decapitation. Intestines pulled out through asshole. Eye fixing. Toxic urination. Scientists figuring stuff out. Homing device hooey. A shootout. A dead body used as a decoy. Bloody head removal. Head crushing. Toxic healing. A music festival. Boobs. Wang. Top of the head destruction. Exploding “ninjas.” Mop used as a spear. Exploding head. Beard removal. Two stupid guards. A fucked up statue garden. Knockout gas. Kidnapping. Scientific experimentation. Goo drinking. Serious neck breaking. Scalp removal. More monster mutations. More goo drinking. More toxic urination. Metal Frisbee to the face. Exploding shed. Attempted decapitation. Toilet bowl to the head. Mega face punching. Serious car engine attack. Serious throat slitting. A mega explosion. A post-credits sequence.
Kim Richards? Almost.
Gratuitous: Peter Dinklage doing a voiceover. Ye Olde Shithead District. An obvious dummy dead body. A billboard with Kevin Bacon on it. “Depressing Outskirts.” A drug TV commercial. “Thank you, Bob.” Peter Dinklage attempting to cook breakfast. Peter Dinklage trying really hard to be a good father. Additional Holy Redeemer Church. Peter Dinklage using a flip phone. Peter Dinklage talking to his health insurance company over the phone. Kevin Bacon saying that he’s “like syphilis.” A music video interlude. Peter Dinklage dancing around his apartment wearing a pink tutu. Elijah Wood trying to play a pan flute. “Night on Bald Mountain” on the soundtrack. Belgoody Bail Bonds. Pro Forma Shady Buyout Contract. “Hello, Pervert Tip Hotline.” Terrorists upset that their favorite meat fast food restaurant changed its name. A book called Limb Reattachment Theory. A “cornhole” homage joke. “Sometimes you gotta do something.” Peter Dinklage singing Motorhead’s “Overkill” at a music festival. Kevin Bacon wearing bunny slippers. A sort of homage to the end of Wes Craven’s Swamp Thing (1982). Lloyd Kaufman. Grilled cheese.
Best lines: “It all started on the other side of town. I wasn’t even involved.” “Got these fuckers now!” You dickless idiots!” “Yeah, that motherfucker saved a cat!” “Sometimes it’s better to do nothing.” “Oh, honey, I’m talking about tiers.” “And what the fuck did you do to my floor, man?” “You suck!” “You’re such a good kid. You’re gonna be okay.” “No one calls me bozo anymore.” “Fire him, rehire him, then fire him again. Jesus Christ.” “I just said I was sorry.” “I want my boy, but he thinks I’m a monster.” “Good luck, Winston. He is one ugly sonofabitch, though.” “Are you triggered?” “Oh my God, is that man dead? Yeah, that’s his head. Oh God!” “That guy looks like a fucked up hot dog!” “Does it hurt? No, it’s not bad. Sort of like a sunburn.” “Are you sure you’re a doctor? Who told you I’m a doctor?” “Don’t you Thad me you cunty jerk!” “I am very hard.” “Fuck! You!” “Garbinger, you’re gonna find out what hurts.” “No witnesses!” “Pissed. I gotta get my dick out.” “I promise you I’m not a pervert!”
