Released by: Troma
Released on: October 3rd, 2023.
Director: Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman
Cast: Mitch Cohen, Andree Maranda, Ron Fazio, Phoebe Legere, David Mattey, Heidi Sjursen
Year: 1984, 1989, 1989, 2000
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The Toxic Avenger Collection – Movie Review:
Troma brings their flagship franchise to UHD in a new eight-disc boxed set comprised of all four of the original Toxic Avenger movies, just in time to cash in on the release of the upcoming remake (and really, can you blame them?)!
The Toxic Avenger:
The one that started it all! This 80s cult classic begins in the town of Tromaville, New Jersey, with Melvin Junko (Mark Torgl), a nerdy little wimp of a man who works as a janitor at a very dated looking 80s health and fitness club that seems to be populated entirely by jocks and assholes. One day he finds himself to be the victim of a cruel prank at the supple hands of a hot chick – poor, gullible Melvin. When he gets chased around the club by a bunch of those same bullheaded jocks he inadvertently ends up running out a window and landing in an oil drum full of toxic waste from a truck that happens to be making a run from the nuclear power plant.
This radioactive goop turns the previously wimpy Melvin into the Toxic Avenger (Mitch Cohen), a 'hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength' who sets about to right the wrongs of Tromaville and take down the bastards who did this to him. But not only does the Toxic Avenger want revenge, he also wants to clean up the town – which he does by making full use of his newly found super strength, first by saving a cop in an alleyway and then by stopping a brutal robbery at a Mexican restaurant. One of the customers that he saves happens to be a beautiful, blind girl named Sara (Andree Maranda), who cares not about his hideous looks but only about the beauty within.
But when Toxie starts closing in on some corruption in town, the Mayor (Pat Ryan) turns the tables on our hero and the townsfolk soon take a different view of their own superhero…
Rife with the crass and subversive humor that Troma’s films are known for, this fast paced and gleefully gory slice of eighties exploitation still holds up roughly forty years after it was made. Long before R-rated superhero movies were considered normal, The Toxic Avenger went there, going for the gore and the ridiculousness that movies like the Deadpool films would bring to multiplex decades later, but done with a lot more originality and on a much lower budget without the benefit of A-list cast members or multi-million dollar marketing budgets.
Politically barbed and feeling as poignant as ever, what with its problematic Nazi cops and corrupt politicians and city officials, the movie isn’t meant to be taken seriously but at the same time manages to make a few well-placed jabs at those who deserve it, something Kaufman’s films have always been good at. The acting is all over the top but the effects still hold up really well and the movie is quick in its pacing and never dull. There are parts of it that haven’t aged so well, but you can say that about pretty much any comedy from the eighties, but by and large, the original version of The Toxic Avenger remains an absolute blast.
The Toxic Avenger II:
The adventures of 'the first superhero from New Jersey' continue with The Toxic Avenger Part II, the first sequel to director Lloyd Kaufman's 1984 classic. This time around, The Toxic Avenger (Ron Fazio), who has basically finished riding the streets of Tromaville, New Jersey of crime, has settled down into your typical domestic life. He cares for his wife, Claire (Phoebe Legere), and he still loves his mother (Jessica Dublin) but he yearns for action and adventure.
All of this changes when his psychiatrist (Ericka Schickel), who is, unbeknownst to Toxie, on the payroll of a company called Apocalypse Inc., tells our hero that he's got daddy issues. That's right, the reason Toxie freaks out from time to time is because he never knew his father! But there's hope - she tells him that his dear old dad is alive and well and living in the Land Of The Rising Sun. As such, our intrepid superhero says goodbye to his family and heads east to Japan in hopes of tracking down his estranged father. Helping him in his quest is a beautiful Japanese woman named Masami (Mayako Katsuragi) who assists him in finding Big Mac Bunko (Rikiya Yasuoka) - his dad. While Toxie is in Japan trying to sort out his past, Apocalypse Inc. are able to take advantage of his absence and under the control of its leader (Rick Collins), exploit the local populace for their financial gain.
The Toxic Avenger Part II is entertaining enough but never quite manages to hit the same highs as the original film. Part of this is due to the fact that a lot of the cast has been changed up here but more than that, there are pacing problems aplenty. The site of Toxie windsurfing his way to Japan is amusing, particularly as he emerges from the sea 'Godzilla style' but there are a lot of scenes in the movie where Toxie just sort of wanders around without doing a whole lot of anything. Sightseeing is awesome and everything but it doesn't always make for the most interesting movie, even if the person doing the sightseeing is a mutant with a mop.
More action would have gone a long way towards making this a better film. When things do get down to business the movie features a good bit of the over the top gore that has become a trademark of Troma films. We get some welcome nudity and weird sex too, the obvious contender there being the love scene between Toxie and Claire. Phoebe Legere is pretty easy on the eyes, though her acting won't win her any awards. But again, there's something lacking here. Troma has made worse films than this to be sure but this movie marked the beginning of the decline that The Toxic Avenger would suffer, culminating in the fairly terrible Toxic Avenger III: The Last Temptation Of Toxie before getting things back on track with the fourth film.
The Toxic Avenger III – The Last Temptation Of Toxie:
Picking up pretty much where the second Toxic Avenger film left off, Toxic Avenger III: The Last Temptation Of Toxie finds The Toxic Avenger, quite simply, bored. It seems that he's basically eliminated all of the crime that previously plagued Tromaville from the city and is starting to feel a little stale. What to do? Well, he sets out to pony up enough scratch to pay for the operation to restore his blind girlfriend's (Phoebe Legere) eyesight. There's only one problem: he's short on dough.
So in order to make this happen, he takes a high paying job with Apocalypse Inc., a massive corporation run by a shifty chairman (Rick Collins). Things get off to a pretty great start but before you know it, things have gone to Toxie's head and he starts to turn into a yuppie! It turns out that Toxie has inadvertently made a deal with the devil, literally, and now it's up to him to set things right once more in Tromaville. After all, if he doesn't… who will?
While none of the Toxic Avenger films are going to win any Academy Awards, they've earned their place in horror/schlock/exploitation history by way of loads of politically incorrect humor, buckets of gore, and gratuitous sex and violence. And while the widely panned sequels in the trilogy aren't as strong as the first movie, they're still pretty funny and entertaining in their own rights. The scenes in which our oversized mutated superhero goes about his domesticated life are pretty funny and the interaction between Toxie and his blind lady pal are unusually cute in that weird way that scenes like that can be.
This one doesn't have as much going for it in the trash/schlock department, however. The concept behind this, that being Toxie taking on a decidedly evil corporation out to enslave the population of his town, is a good one and it's a concept that Troma still milks to this day (the recent Return To Nuke'em High and Poultrygeist features being prime examples of the studio's penchant for railing against the corporate takeover of America) but the sleaze factor is dialed down quite a bit. The opening scene, which is a highlight real showing off some of Toxie's greatest moments, is a series of grandiose gross-out moments but those are all taken from the earlier films… once we get into the third movie proper things feel a little neutered. There are moments here that work to be sure, but fans of the series by this point want to see all manner of bodily dismemberment and gooey, gory, gross out humor. That aspect of this one is dialed down considerably.
The movie has its moments though. The scene where we see Toxie embracing his new lifestyle and acting like a tennis player is amusing in its ridiculousness and once Toxie gets around to throwing down with the Prince Of Darkness himself, Kaufman and Herz show some creativity and deliver a few memorable set pieces. The monster costume is cool, Toxie looks good here and the makeup appliances used to bring Satan to life are amusing to see. There's some fun stunts and a bit of snappy comedy to keep things from completely falling apart. This is, however, Toxie-light and rightfully, almost universally, regarded as the weakest entry in the series thus far. Thankfully Kaufman and company would once again fire on all cylinders with the fourth film, but this one… well, fans will want to see it simply to see it just go in with properly tempered expectations.
NOTE - some people have reported playback issues with the UHD disc for The Toxic Avenger III. While I didn't personally have any issues with the disc, others have - if you find you have any problems with the disc, contact Troma's customer service department for a replacement.
The Toxic Avenger IV – Citizen Toxie:
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV, directed of course by Lloyd Kaufman, begins at The Tromaville School For The Very Special right in the middle of a Mexican food fiesta! As one class starts to dive into, the Diaper Mafia (led by Trent Haaga) - a gang of grown-ups in diapers - take the class and its very pregnant teacher, Ms. Weiner (Debbie Rochon), hostage. As they rape and pillage their way around the class, the Toxic Avenger (played by David Mattey and voiced by Clyde Lewis) and his morbidly obese sidekick Lardass (Joe Fleishaker) show up to save the day… just as the timer on a bomb starts ticking away.
Thankfully, the Toxic Avenger is a speedy sonuvabitch and he's able to head home, have sex with his wife Sara (Heidi Sjursen) - they're trying to have a baby and he's got to stay on top of her cycle - and then get back to the school in time. When he and Lardass, who sadly sacrifices himself to save the kids, leaves the school, however, something is different. Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD (Paul Kyrmse) is confused by the Sgt. part and the NYPD part of his name and everyone in Tromaville seems to be… off. The two kids from the school who leave with Toxie, Sweetie Honey (Lisa Terezakis) and Tito the 'Retarded Rebel' (Michael Budinger), seem to be their normal selves but everyone else? No so much.
And that's because Toxie has somehow entered an interdimensional portal and landed in Amortville while his evil doppelganger, the Noxious Offender, has landed in Tromaville. Noxie is causing plenty of trouble too. When he comes out of the school he rips the arms off of the police chief in front of a news crew, causing the mayor (Ron Jeremy) to bring in some help in the form of superheroes Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD, Mad Cowboy (Anthony Catanese), Dolphin Man (Olivier Tendon), Master Bator (Jarred Alterman) and The Vibrator (Lauren Heather McMahon).
Rather than take aim at any one specific target, Kaufman and company unload with two hours of cinematic buckshot, hitting anyone and everyone in their path. Troma have had no problem with pushing the boundaries of good taste in movies made prior to Citizen Toxie but with this film the boundaries aren't so much pushed as they are pissed on, shit on and obliterated. No offensive stone is left unturned, as the film takes shots at racial groups, politicians, corporations, news reporting, mass shootings, drug use, the mentally challenged and every sexual orientation out there. The film is a non-stop barrage of sex (particularly lesbians - there are a lot of rad lesbians in this movie), violence, scatological humor and over the top gore with just enough of a plot to see it through to the end (and what an end it is).
The intro to the film tells us to disregard Toxic Avenger Parts II and III, and that this is the true sequel to the original film. The storyline makes it easy to do just that as it doesn't tie into those earlier follow ups at all, but it does tie into the first one. In typical Troma style it's got some funny cameos (look for the aforementioned Ron Jeremy as well as Lemmy, Corey Feldman, Stan Lee, James Gunn, Al Goldstein, Hank The Angry Drunken Dwarf, Tiffany Shepis, Eli Roth, Julie Strain and husband/TMNT co-creator Kevin Eastman, Hugh Hefner and of course, Kaufman himself) and that trademark car flip footage. It's pretty long for what it is and again, the story goes off target more than a few times, but it's hard not to appreciate this one for the insane exercise in bad taste that it is.
The Toxic Avenger Collection – UHD Review:
Each of the four movies in this collection is presented on its own disc in an HEVC encoded 2160p transfer and framed at 1.85.1 widescreen and with HDR10. While these transfers are not immaculate – expect minor print damage through, especially in the first two movies – they definitely do take advantage of the format. Colors generally look really strong here, appropriately garish with the pinks of Melvin’s tutu and the greens of the toxic waste really popping. Skin tones look nice and lifelike throughout and black levels are generally very strong as well.
One note about the second film, however:
“The original negative of The Toxic Avenger Part II, while complete, was missing several short dialogue sequences in the opening third, which had been removed for pacing reasons. Although no film materials for these sequences could be located, in order to present the most complete version possible, these short segments were inserted from the highest quality digital master.”
Those inserts aside, and really they aren’t a huge distraction at all, the picture always looks like proper film. Grain is retained, there aren’t any issues with noise reduction or edge enhancement and compression artifacts are never really problematic. Are these going to be your new UHD demo discs? No, probably not, but fans will definitely appreciate how good the four movies look here, as the transfers are quite strong overall.
English audio options are provided in 24-bit DTS-HD 2.0 with removable subtitles are available in English only. Like the video quality, the audio here isn’t reference quality, but it’s pretty good and feels true to source. There’s a little bit of sibilance in the first movie, less so in the sequels. Overall, the tracks are clean, clear and nicely balanced.
The extras, the vast majority of which are from previous releases, are spread across the eight discs in the set as follows:
Disc One –Toxic Avenger UHD:
The first disc features a new intro from Kaufman who talks about the film now being on UHD as well as two commentary tracks, the first from Kaufman himself and the second from director of public relations Joe Narode with cast members Gary Schneider, Robert Pritchard and Dan Snow.
Disc Two – The Toxic Avenger Blu-ray:
Those same two commentary tracks are also on the included Blu-ray disc, as is the original Blu-ray into from Kaufman. The disc also carries over all of the interviews that were on the last Blu-ray release. First up, Jennifer Baptist spends nineteen minutes talking about her work on The Toxic Avenger and Class Of Nuke'em High, how she first connected with Troma, her first impressions of working with Herz and Kaufman, memories of shooting specific scenes, doing nudity in the film, meeting her husband on the set and more.
Robert Prichard talks for three minutes about playing Slug in the movie, his initial thoughts on the script, how his part got padded out, what it was like on set and the long days involved in the low budget shoot.
Mitch Cohen is up next in a nine minute talk about playing The Toxic Avenger, how he got the part, having to improvise during the shoot, going through four hours of makeup each day, memories of shooting specific scenes including the arm ripping, the film's cult following and why he didn't do the sequels.
Dan Snow talks for five minutes about playing Cigar Face in the movie, how he found out about the project by an ad in the trade papers, touring with the National Shakespeare Company during the year and spending his summers making Troma movies, where his character's name came from, having fun on set during the shoot and how the film was so original for its time.
We also get an interview with co-director Michael Herz, conducted by Kaufman, where he talks for fifteen minutes about how he came to work with Kaufman, how he came to co-direct Toxic Avenger and what it was like working together, casting the movie, memories from the shoot, getting the movie into theaters, the importance of Toxic Avenger to the Troma brand, the film's sequels and the film's legacy.
The “Mark Torgl Talks About The Toxic Avenger” featurette is a six minute piece where the original Melvin tells a few stories about working on the movie and shows off some of the original props used in the film.
Finishing things up is a behind the scenes photo gallery, the two minute 40 Years Of Troma piece, and trailers for all four Toxic Avenger movies and Return To Nuke’em High.
Disc Three –Toxic Avenger II UHD:
Once again, we get a quick new intro from Kaufman and a commentary track from director Lloyd Kaufman. This is a fairly engaging track. Say what you will about the man but Kaufman is a good speaker and a strong storyteller so as he details his exploits making this picture, his trademark sense of humor e evident throughout, this remains an easy listen. He covers the film's Japanese connections, censorship issues that he ran into, financing problems, effects work, location shooting and quite a bit more. Kaufman also appears in a newly shot introduction that plays before the main menu loads in which he is seen travelling in Denmark.
Disc Four – The Toxic Avenger II Blu-ray:
Aside from that same commentary, we get a four minute long interview with The Toxic Avenger himself (an amusing enough in character piece) entitled At Home With Toxie, a quick two minute interview with actress Lisa Gaye about her role as Malfaire and a three minute Toxie On Japanese TV bit is also included here, in which The Toxic Avenger… appears on Japanese TV. Also found on the disc is a quick two minute featurette entitled The American Cinematheque Honors 40 Years Of Troma, the Radiation March short, the original DVD intro for the movie and trailers for all four Toxic Avengers movies, Troma’s War and Return To Nuke’em High Parts One and Two.
Disc Five –Toxic Avenger III – The Last Temptation Of Toxie UHD:
A new prologue by Kaufman starts off the disc. You'll also get your choice of two commentaries, the first with Kaufman and the second with Joe "Flieshaker." Kaufman's track is an active track in which he talks about how this is ‘the best Toxic Avenger film ever' and how it's a personal film from his point of view. He's joined by two editors, Ronnie Thomas and Shawn McGrath, and he gives an amusing scene specific breakdown of the film. This is done with Kaufman's typical sense of humor as he talks about who played Toxie and why, the costumes, budgetary issues, who’s an asshole and who isn't and more! The ‘Flieshaker' track is basically a joke. He introduces himself as one of the stars of many Troma films and how most will recognize him as Michael Herz. There are a lot of in-jokes here that casual Troma fans might not get but that the more devoted ones will. There's a load of dead air here which makes it a bit of a chore at times but it can be amusing in spots.
Disc Six –Toxic Avenger III – The Last Temptation Of Toxie Blu-ray:
Aside from the commentary tracks, we also get a few featurettes. Tromoma is a twelve minute piece where we see how the NYC Museum Of Modern Art honored the Troma legacy with some showings. Cast and crew members are interviewed here, with Kaufman describing this as ‘kind of like putting a crackhouse next to Tiffany's… and we're the crackhouse. Also found on the disc is a quick two minute featurette entitled The American Cinematheque Honors 40 Years Of Troma. Make Your Own Damn Horror Film is an eleven and half minute long piece where Kaufman heads to the set of a low budget movie where he interviews a few cast and crew members about their experiences. A Halloween Carol is a ten minute parody short taking off A Christmas Carol with Kaufman as the Scrooge character.
Moving right along we get a two minute ‘infomercial' for Rabid Grannies that runs two minutes (and lies about the ‘crystal clear HD transfer'), a one minute short called Pests! that sees Kaufman railing against media conglomerates and the omnipresent Radiation March.
Disc Seven –Toxic Avenger IV – Citizen Toxie UHD:
Once again, the disc starts off with a new prologue by Kaufman but the main extras on the commentary tracks. First up a track from Kaufman covering the direction he wanted to take things with this movie, what it was like working with the different guest stars, budgetary limitations and the effect that they had on the movie and more. The second commentary track features producer Trent Haaga, who notes how he had to basically write the script in eight days, and a few of the cast members and it's also pretty interesting as they cover a good bit of ground that Kaufman does not. They talk about working with him as a director, some of the effects work, the different contributions of the cast and crew and quite a bit in addition to that. The third and final commentary is with editors Friedman and Sean McGrath. This is a bit more technical than the other two pieces and, as you'd guess, it focuses on putting together the production after it was shot. It also covers some bits that were taken out of the movie and does a decent job of explaining the flow of the film
Disc Seven –Toxic Avenger IV – Citizen Toxie Blu-ray:
Carried over from the older DVD release will be Apocalypse Soon, the epic making of documentary that runs almost three hours in length. This follows the making of the production from the early parts - like casting, writing and pre-production preparation - right through to the actual shoot and then post-production and it's a pretty revealing and honest look at the up's and down's of making a low budget feature like this. There's plenty of footage showing Kaufman being Kaufman and hamming it up but we also get some surprisingly honest bits where you can see the guy is having trouble keeping it all together. There's a lot of the typically amusing behind the scenes type of material in here but it's more than that - it stands as a genuinely interesting documentary on its own and is worth seeing regardless of your feelings on Citizen Toxie itself.
Along with that we get an eight minute Tribute to Lemmy segment that covers the Motorhead front-man's contribution to different Troma productions, the vintage intro from Kaufman from the last release, the two minute The American Cinematheque Honors 40 Years Of Troma piece and trailers for a Return To Nuke’em High Parts One and Two and Pro-Wresters Vs. Zombies.
The Toxic Avenger Collection - The Final Word:
The Toxic Avenger Collection doesn’t go all out in the way of new extras but it does carry over pretty much everything from previous releases, which is substantial. The new UHD presentations look very strong across the board, while the movies themselves are ridiculously entertaining trash much classics that are absolutely worth seeing. Highly recommended!