The "Toxic Avenger" Franchise: Not For Everyone

In this episode we delve into the "Toxic Avenger" franchise. There are five movies-- including this year's reboot starring Peter Dinklage ("Game of Thrones"), Kevin Bacon, Elijah Woods and a host of other famous faces.  Toxic Avenger (affectionately known as "Toxie") is the brain child of Lloyd Kaufman. His company, Troma Entertainment, is the longest running independent film studio in existence. Besides "Toxic Avenger", the studio is most famous for "Sargent Kubikiman NYPD", "Class of Nuke Em High" and their various sequels.  "Toxic Avenger" was not a success when it was first released in 1984. However midnight showings at Blecker Street Cinemas and word of mouth soon turned it into a cult classic. Toxie is a satirical take on superhero movies. He battles bad guys and protects the innocent in Tromaville, NJ (the toxic chemical capital of the world). These movies are not for everyone. All were made on a shoe string budget and are ultra violent, very un-PC and feature excessive nudity, Their target demographic seems to be 13 year old boys. I would suggest watching the first movie and the reboot. I would like to see more of this version of Toxie. Hopefully it will do well enough at the box office to justify a sequel. Forget the rest of the movies unless you're a die hard fan. Just a word of caution. The 80s (when the original came out) were different times so there is much here to offend younger viewers if you go in blind.    Photo Credit: Here