The famed, Lloyd Kaufman/Joe Ritter/Michael Herz, Troma mascot and mop-wielding superhero from New Jersey, the Toxic Avenger, has received a redux, which has long been shelved without a distributor, but now thanks to Cineverse, splashes onto the scene in all of its big-name-cast glory.
The new (unrated and punk-rock vibed) Toxic Avenger (completed in 2023) was written/directed by Macon (The Monkey's Paw/Green Room) Blair and stars Peter Dinklage as the Melvin Junko successor, Winston Gooze, a cancer-plagued, insurance-denied, single-father janitor who does his best to care for his sensitive, performing-arts stepson, Jason Trembly's Wade. After being put upon by the daily grind, Gooze succumbs to toxic goo and from there transforms into a noble monster (played in layered makeup by Luisa Guerriero), set on making a better life for his boy, while delivering justice to all who've been wrongly done by the phony, synthetic-dumping elitists of St. Roma Village.
Kevin Bacon plays the top bad guy, Robert Garbinger, owner of the BTH chemical plant, and Elijah Wood plays his brother, Fritz, who taps Dwight Frye from James Whale's Frankenstein, Richard O'Brien's Riff Raff and Danny DeVito's Penguin. The siblings really stir the pot with their unethical drive, abetted by a band of rotten rockers, the Killer Nutz, who go after a woman who wishes to expose the company, Taylour Page's J.J. Doherty. Nonetheless, through it all, Toxie is there to mend the villainous creases.
The original Toxic Avenger is pretty gruesome, and this satire is nowhere near as graphic, but it does have its moments (in sync, that is, with Jason Eisener's Hobo with a Shotgun), never becoming a watered-down example of the 1984 version, which its sequels, musical and cartoon series were, even if still entertaining in how they carried the character's slimy torch ... er, mop.
The leads are a big reason why this one jives, bringing a cool quirkiness to their characters (and though disguised, Guerriero deserves huge credit in this respect), but the backup performers are also effective: Sarah Niles, Julia Davis, David Yow and the man behind the camera, Macon Blair (a seasoned actor in his own fine right).
With violence and crime having seized so many cities and home towns in recent years (with certain politicians more than happy to turn a blind eye to such), the mayhem featured in fictional St. Roma Village might hit too close to home for some, regardless of its campy margins. On the other hand, Toxie's fight for what's right couldn't be more identifiable and therefore, the delay in the movie's release may be more fortuitous than not, as it hits a current, cultural chord.
Even so, I've a hunch this one will come and go in theaters, and if so, so be it, but like the Toxie adventures that came before, it'll find its place in cult-dom, adding yet another notch to the irreverent belt of Troma's perennial brainchild.
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