Various forms of a remake have been in the works since at least 2010, and though it’s been on the shelf for a minute—the film originally premiered in September 2023—this is worth the wait for fans. Blair and company capture what makes the 1983 film so much damn fun, while making it their own. This feels like a Troma movie in all the best ways. It’s lo-fi, down and dirty, steeped in camp, and soaked in gore, and they lean into the utter ridiculousness at every step.
[Related Reading: 'Green Room' Movie Review]
Peter Dinklage (Game of Thrones) plays Winston Gooze, a lowly janitor at just the worst factory. All he wants is to connect with his stepson, Wade (Jacob Tremblay, Doctor Sleep), but when he gets bad medical news, he learns his insurance won’t cover life-saving treatment. When an incident with a batch of caustic sludge leaves Winston transformed into the green mutant Toxie, he and his crusading journalist sidekick, J.J. (Taylour Paige, Beverly Hills Cop: Axel F, set out to get some justice for the little guy and take down maniacal corporate honcho and rampant polluter Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon, Footloose).
Set in a scummy, old school alternate New Jersey, this is pure throwback grime and sleaze. Every lick of production design is spot on, and you walk away needing to wash your hands, everything is so gritty and filthy. This is the kind of world where an Insane Clown Posse-style band moonlights doing wet work for corrupt CEOs. Arms get pulled off, faces get wiped away in an instant by radioactive mops, and blood shoots out of everything. Since it debuted, many in the industry reportedly referred to The Toxic Avenger as unreleasable due to the less savory elements, and the movie certainly does it’s best to live up to that.
[Related Reading: 'Doctor Sleep' Movie Review]
Paige is a blast as not only a journalist on a mission, but also something of an unpredictable agent of chaos. Bacon is in full-blown scene-chewing glory, going as far over the top as possible. Elijah Wood (Bookworm) channels Dany Devito’s Penguin as Bacon’s younger brother/head of security/manager of the aforementioned band of assassins. Across the board, everyone is fully along for the ride and enjoying themselves.
The biggest knock against the movie is the relative lack of Dinklage. Winston is hopeless and hapless, but Dinklage imbues him with a deep pathos and world-weary sadness. All while still occasionally talking about pulling out his dick and peeing acid. He lost his wife; Wade lost his mom. He’s struggling to keep their family together, but he doesn’t know how, which can be effective. But that generally goes away when he’s Toxie (performed by Luisa Guerreiro). It’s unavoidable—you can’t have a Toxic Avenger movie without Toxie, after all—but it leaves a noticeable emotional void. On the other hand, the movie does its best to fill that void with carnage and viscera.
[Related Reading: 'Bookworm' Movie Review]
The whole thing gets extra points for the running series of perfectly timed and placed off-screen quips that play almost like a commentary on the film. When Winston has a literal save-the-cat moment early on, an unseen voice hollers, “That motherfucker saved a cat!” It’s winking and self-aware enough to be fun, but never intrusive, distracting, or ham-fisted.
With The Toxic Avenger in his hands, Blair knows exactly what he’s doing. (If you haven’t seen his excellent debut I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore, check it out.) It pokes fun at but also celebrates the original, and there’s a clear affection for the source material. That feels like the dividing line between who will and won’t enjoy this movie. My guess is that if you have an affinity for the OG Toxic Avenger, or Troma films in general, you’ll have a damn fine time with this version and watch it with a shit-eating grin. If not, your mileage may vary and I’m curious to see how that segment of the population responds. [Grade: B]
No comments:
Post a Comment