Kiss My Haz: The Toxic Avenger review

For nearly 13 years, a remake of The Toxic Avenger has been looming. In 2010, Steve Pink (Accepted, Hot Tub Time Machine) was tapped to do it. That didn’t work out. Then in 2016, Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2) was tapped to do it, which made sense considering the remake was supposed to follow the Toxic Crusaders cartoon storyline. This one didn’t pan out either. Two years later, things finally started to come together when Legendary Pictures won the rights to the reboot, with the original creative team of Lloyd Kaufman and Micheal Herz coming on to act as producers on the project. A year after that, the film would find its writer/director in Macon Blair (I Don’t Feel at Home in This World Anymore) and man, did they find the right guy for the job. 2023’s The Toxic Avenger is an insane, corrosive, trashy movie that operates on full tilt from start to finish. 

Peter Dinklage plays Winston Gooze, a janitor for BTH, a sketchy pharmaceutical company, raising his deceased partner’s son Wade (Jacob Tremblay). After being diagnosed with a terminal brain disease, Winston desperately attempts to rob BTH to acquire funds for his procedure and gets tied into a dangerous game of cat and mouse that turns him into Toxie. For a movie that plays fast and loose with its juvenile humor, I found the film’s portrayal of Winston to be pretty sensitive and understanding. They could have very easily made jokes at the expense of Winston and his condition, but instead, they take the time to allow the viewer to see things from his perspective. He just wants to get help so that he can be a good father to Wade, and the world continues to kick him while he’s down… until he becomes Toxie that is. To the people, Toxie isn’t just some janitor or some loser, he’s a hero keeping the streets clean of criminals and other ne'er do wells. 

Dinklage gives a great performance here and gives both versions of Winston a good amount of gravity. He makes you believe in the loser that is Winston Gooze and turns that on its head with the confidence of Toxie. With his trusty mop in hand, he’s ready to take down the very company that made him and expose their secrets, alongside his new companion J.J. (Taylour Paige). Taylour Paige elevates this character from Toxie’s sidekick to a legitimate player in the game. After narrowly escaping a pack of goons, with a hard drive filled with information on a controversial new project at BTH Pharmaceuticals, J.J finds herself in a fight to expose BTH. She never overplays her hand and in moments where she’s been bested, her eyes tell the audience what’s going on in the character's head as she tries to figure out her next move. Meanwhile, Kevin Bacon shows up to give one of the craziest performances I’ve seen this year as Bob Garbinger, the CEO of BTH Pharmaceutical and the villain of our story. By the time he’s done chewing up any given scene, there’s barely anything left for the other actors in the best way possible. Elijah Wood appears as his brother Fritz Garbinger, head of security and manager to a band of juggalo-adjacents that also happen to be murderers. You’ll just have to take my word that these are all things in the movie. 

Everyone involved with the project brings their A-game to it, while also having fun and showing a serious understanding of the type of film they were making. The special effects are fun and plenty gory if that was something you’re worried about.  The makeup on Toxie alone should be nominated for an Academy Award, and the practical effects make it clear where a good amount of this film’s budget went to. This thing deserves to be seen on a big screen, and, at the moment, I believe it’s still looking for distribution. Where it lands is a crapshoot, and while I hope that it gets a full theatrical run, I think the more important thing is that people see this movie and support it. It’s weird and loud, and in a lot of ways, a middle finger to the big budget superhero movies we’ve been inundated with for the past few years. An ode to the Troma films of the past while adapting that style for the modern day, The Toxic Avenger knows exactly how to tweak that formula and make it more accessible without ostracizing those that will flock to this movie off nostalgia alone. This is a film that arguably shouldn’t exist, but the world is a better place for having it around.