‘The Toxic Avenger’ reboot finally arrives, worth the wait
Photo courtesy of CINEVERSE Peter Dinklage provides the voice of Toxie in the unrated film, ‘The Toxic Avenger.’
Anybody familiar with “Game of Thrones” knows Peter Dinklage is no stranger to violent roles. There were plenty of beheadings and bloody deaths during that show’s run on HBO.
Well, Dinklage is back. This time, he’s starring in “The Toxic Avenger,” a mutant vigilante of sorts who got stuck in the sludge.
Director Macon Blair’s reboot of the classic 1980s cult superhero was shot four years ago and had its festival premiere two years ago, but for a long time, no theatrical distributors would bite.
The cast includes Dinklage as Winston Gooze, Kevin Bacon as Bob Garbinger, Elijah Wood as Fritz Garbinger, and Jacob Tremblay as Wade Gooze. Dinklage provides the voice for the eponymous superhero, with Luisa Guerreiro serving as the suit performer.
It had bona fide actors, especially with Dinklage as the tutu-wearing, mop-wielding, chemically-altered title character, and Bacon and Wood as a villainous duo. But the buzz was it was just too weirdly violent for theaters.
Now, Toxie, as he’s affectionately called, has emerged. Production company Legendary Entertainment struck a deal with Cineverse earlier this year to give “The Toxic Avenger” an unrated run to put its gory glory in theaters.
The film’s plot features the “Game of Thrones” star Dinklage as a sad, down-on-his-luck janitor and single step-dad trying to win the approval of his stepson, played by Tremblay, who co-starred as a child with Brie Larson in her Oscar turn 2015’s “Room.”
An accident leaves Gooze mutated into the title hero, who is at first horrified by the buckets of blood brought on by his supercharged mop, before embracing the righteous violence. “I didn’t want any of this,” Toxie said after being unveiled to audience members. “I’m a monster.”
After Toxie’s transformation, Dinklage provided only the voice while Luisa Guerreiro performed in a suit that fit the practical-effects style Blair insisted on embracing.
Tremblay was just 14 when the film was shot. He’s 18 now for the release.
Wood’s character Fritz is ashen, hunched over and mostly bald with long strings of hair. He has notes of Danny DeVito’s Penguin from “Batman Returns,” Riff Raff from “The Rocky Horror Picture Show” and Wormtongue from Wood’s own “Lord of the Rings” films. In other words, it may be the least Elijah Wood role he’s ever had.
One promo showed armed political extremists taking hostages downtown at Miss Meat — which resembled an old McDonald’s with a big red “M” replacing the golden arches.
“Somebody do something!” a woman shrieks as police arrive on the scene. Enter Toxie, the mop-wielding mutant who seeks justice in this unhinged, blood-splattered reboot of the cult classic. Gross, gory, and glorious.
“Wait, wait, stop!” he yelled, busting through the door of the fast-food joint. “Relax, OK.”
The bad guys weren’t quite sure how to react.
“Sometimes, you’ve got to do something,” Moxie quipped in another scene while battling a bad guy. He then rips off the arm of a would-be gunman.
Another villain screams, “Who the (expletive) are you?” Toxie replies, “Just some dude with a mop!” One swipe of the mop and it’s total bloodshed and his mouth is obliterated. A second swipe and his head bursts.
Audiences who have attended screenings have seen frequent walkouts. The poster and the people who went to theaters with them ultimately left around 40 minutes later. Fans claim the walkouts are due to the heavy dosage of gore in the movie.
As some reviewers indicate, the remake appears to be quite faithful to the original feature, while depicting gore on screen, and is deeply entrenched in the splatter subgenre of horror.
As mentioned above, the new “Toxic Avenger” movie serves as a reboot of The Toxic Avenger film series, which includes the 1984 feature, The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989), The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989), and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000).
This “Toxic Avenger” is bonkers and bloody delightful. It’s simply an unhinged off-color extravaganza that took too long to debut in theaters.
Rating: Unrated
Runtime: 102 minutes
Grade: B
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Greg Williams is a reporter and Weekend Editor for The Sentinel. A Mifflin County native, he has been writing for The Sentinel since 1991.



