If you're a fan of schlocky horror movies from the 80s, chances are you've at least seen The Toxic Avenger. It's the most well known film from Troma Entertainment, an independent production company that primarily produces low budget horror comedies. This remake of the cult classic has been in the works for seemingly ages, with the film finally being screened at Fantastic Fest in 2023. Now nearly two years later it's finally in theatres, and it's a pretty fun time at the movies.
The film follows Peter Dinklage as Winston, a janitor working for a sketchy health company left by his deceased partner to care for her son Wade. When Winston is given six months to live due to a brain cancer diagnosis, his company's shady health insurance plan leads him to attempting to steal from them, only to wind up falling into a fat of toxic chemicals and becoming... THE TOXIC AVENGER. He is then thrown into a web of weirdly dressed guns for hire, a corrupt CEO, and a conspiracy to expose the company's dark secrets.
To start things out, this has way too good of a cast for what it is. I don't know why Peter Dinklage signed onto this but I'm so glad he is, as having a legit great actor in the leading role makes this just another level of fun. He isn't at his best by any means, but it's a fun performance in a fun movie. Playing his stepson is Jacob Tremblay, looking younger than I expected since this has been sitting for so long but nonetheless doing a decent job. Taylour Paige plays a reporter trying to expose Winston's company and she genuinely puts in a great performance. It feels weird having great acting in a movie this trashy but I respect the hell out of it. Most of the ensemble is just doing goofy B-movie acting, but we're treated to a pair of fun turns from Kevin Bacon and Elijah Wood, who at this point in their careers feel perfect for fun roles like this.
Where I have mixed feelings with this one is the main course, the gore. The original film is filled with gross practical effects, and while this does deliver a lot of gnarly kills, there's just way too much CGI. I'm a sucker for practical gore and sadly the digital stuff just doesn't look as good, so while a lot of the carnage is quite clever it isn't delivered as well as it should be. There are some practical moments that I really enjoyed, and Toxie is brought to life with some great SFX makeup, I just wish more was done physically rather than digitally. Narratively it's a fun, crass, and over the top revenge/espionage that I think is pretty satisfying for fans of the original. At the end of the day this isn't anything amazing, but it would almost be a disservice if it was an exceptionally made movie. This is fun and schlocky and that's what it needed to be. 3/5
Comments
Post a Comment