Melvin is the janitor at the local gym, he's also a nerd and a bit of a weakling as well. All the gym members constantly bully him and as he is such a nice guy he can see no wrong in them. When a trick played on him gets out of hand, he falls through a window into toxic waste and becomes New Jersey's first superhero.
Melvin now starts to rid the city of bad guys and comes up against and kills various drug dealers and robbers amongst others. At the same time he also meets a beautiful blind girl and they fall in love. As the Mayor of Tromaville is corrupt and has his finger in every pie going, he isn't happy and wants Melvin eliminated.
The Toxic Avenger is incredibly violent and full of blood and gore. It's also brilliantly un-PC and we have camp hairdressers, German police chiefs with Nazi mannerisms, offensive language and huge amounts of T&A. It's all done in the best possible (bad) taste and constantly hilarious. The bad guys are stereotypically awesome especially one of them called Cigar Face and you don't get many films where old ladies are put in tumble dryers.
Although the big hair and clothes date the film somewhat (it's 30 years old) the gore is still good and like I said it's bloody funny and immensely entertaining in a sick way. The blu-ray is packed with extras including a commentary, introductions, trailers and Toxie chatting to you in his luxury home. The soundtrack is also great featuring classical music and possibly the cheesiest work out song ever. Trust me you will be singing 'Body Talk' after the film ends.
I haven't seen it in a very long time and then it was probably cut to shreds. Its simply one of my favourite releases this year and a big thumbs up for the restoration as well, the films looks brilliant. Rush out and buy it now.
- Starring Mark Torgl Dan Snow Mitchell Cohen Kenneth Kessler
- Directors Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman
- Distributor 88 Films
