The Toxic Avenger (USA. 1985)

A solid gold cult classic of classics (That makes sense. Trust me.)

Melvin is a big nerd. He’s constantly picked on at his janitorial job at Tromaville Gym and no matter what he does the ladies won’t give him the time of day. When a practical joke goes horribly wrong and Melvin ends up in a vat of Toxic waste, the world is given the gift of the TOXIC AVENGER. He is a mutated beast of unstoppable power and all the evil-dooers of the city beware! The corrupt mayor of the city, the transvestite muggers and the jerks who like to crush children’s heads are going to get a little Tromaton fuelled justice.

Director and owner of Troma Film, Lloyd Kaufma is famous for producing and releasing garbage that is only entertaining because you can laugh at it (Not with it). Sure, The Toxic Avenger has its fair share of HORRIBLE acting (Actually, all the acting is horrible) and tons of technical gaffs, but there’s still a beating heart beneath its nuclear skin. I got the sense that people actually wanted make a good movie. It still has the lame jokes, over-the top gore and slightly suspect direction that are hallmarks of later TROMA in-house efforts, but it still feels like a “real” movie, which is something that slowly disappeared from Lloyd Kaufman’s body work as time rolled on. I could be have been fooled by fact that the film has an older look , but I firmly stick by my statement that this is the all around best film Lloyd Kaufman has ever made. His later works like Terror Firmer and Citizen Toxie may be more laugh out loud funny or ten times gorier, but they never achieved the overall success that can be found in the one and only Toxie Numero Uno. For example take a closer look at the scene were our Toxic hero takes on a bunch of fast-food terrorists. It’s actually exciting and has gripping action choreography. Nothing ground breaking, but anything with the word “decent and competent” attached to it is near poison to a Troma film. The stunt-men perform crazy choreographed moves that are complemented by the use of the environment, choice of angles and editing. That’s unheard of from Mr. I-used-the-same-car-crash-in-four-movies Kaufman! I’m used to seeing 61 old year old stuntmen have a tiny little patch on their skin catch fire (Ex: The lame ending that caps Terror Firmer)

The only place Toxic Avenger lets me down is in its anti-climactic punch to the gut ending. Even with that in mind, I can’t recommend this film enough to fans of cult/trash cinema. If you’ve never heard of Troma, what the hell have you been doing all this time? Check this out and check out the downward slope (with slight peaks) that is Troma films.