The Toxic Avenger

Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage) is a harmless “non-toxic” janitor who unwillingly turns into a mutated superhero when he falls into a vat of acid. Rechristened as The Toxic Avenger and wielding his nuclear ooze-covered broom, Winston strives to fight evil and uncover a wider conspiracy behind the pharmaceutical company that ruined him.

Anti-Big Pharma satire retains the blood-oozing comedy of the original. A remake of Lloyd Kaufman’s low-budget cult hit of the same name, Macon Blair’s highly anticipated (and heavily delayed) The Toxic Avenger is largely faithful to its source material. It’s bonkers through and through from dying characters delivering a punchline after every bullet and Dinklage’s eponymous hero fully exercising the film’s “uncut, unrated” nature by ripping out arms and guts of evil pharma industrialists, reckless punk rockers, and men’s rights activist anarchists. In one particularly brutal scene, “Toxie” even rips out a man’s intestines from his tooshie. Whether or not you laugh at this orgy of blood and pus, you’re bound to be appalled.

All its VHS nasties-influenced tomfoolery aside, what sets the new Toxic Avenger apart is some unexpected warmth. The original’s budget constraints and midnight screening audiences ensured plenty of amateur actors who suited their bits with or without any nuance. Macon Blair’s remake also allows its A-list actors to have a lot of fun, from Kevin Bacon turning into a self-obsessed Musk-Bezos type to Elijah Wood basically playing Batman’s Penguin with an army of face-painted minions. And yet, the campiness is balanced with some heart, thanks to Peter Dinklage’s balancing good-natured naivety with drunken hilarity as Winston/Toxie. You’ve seen the Emmy winner as the tragic hero Tyrion Lannister in Game of Thrones, giving his all as a tragic hero; the same goes for The Toxic Avenger. An actor of his standing in a film so knowingly silly could’ve just dubbed over his costumed stunt double and cashed his paycheck. But it’s truly exciting to see Dinklage being committed to the bit as he reasserts his new identity, seeks his healthcare benefits from his parasitic employers, and ultimately strives to be a good father to his angsty teen son (Room breakout Jacob Tremblay). The Toxic Avenger’s abundance in ketchup blood and phallic jokes is enough to rope in fans craving some gonzo sadism, but it’s Dinklage’s acting prowess that can ultimately win over the shy prudes in the audience.