At this present time I'm not sure when I'll get to see the new Toxie movie. I felt it was a great time to review the classic Toxie movie franchise.
The Toxic Avenger (1984 version)
I wanna paint a picture so everyone could better understand things. Before Troma became the way it is. They were in the process of figuring out their film production style. Following the original Toxie movie. Who also ended up becoming their famous mascot character. Troma became these over the top violent disgusting films.
You really won't find movies like these from bigger movie companies. The surprise success led to a lot of things for Troma. The actual story is an janitor named Melvin simply doing his job. When a group of rather toxic people does an mess up prank that ends horribly. Melvin freaks out to jump out an window right into a barrel of toxic chemicals.
This led to Melvin becoming the famous super hero from New Jersey. Don't think of Toxie simply beating up the bad guys. Either leaving them defeated on the ground or take em to the police. No this guy flat out kills the bad guys!!! Yes Toxie gets revenge on those that caused his transformation. You may see things you'll be really surprised gotten allowed into the movie.
Then again this was from a smaller movie company with a small budget. Which makes a lot of the special effects impressive. There's some mess up comical moments if you're into that style of humor. Ultimately Toxie takes on an corrupt mayor. He ends up becoming hope for Tromaville. Just him taking out the bad guys dramatically changed things.
I would say this is the best of the original Toxie movies by far. It simply held up the best with everything considered. Toxie quickly steals the show in majority of scenes he's in. Imagine a more nice guy Jason Voorhees. He does end up with a girl friend who I'll discuss more about later on. This also the only Toxie movie to predate my existence yeah!!!
This suddenly becomes an inspiring story. A guy no one took seriously ends up being the very hero his town needed. It's easy to compare him to the ninja turtles. Since both were mutated that ended up being heroes. Which further explains Toxic Crusaders existence!!!
This was years before Deadpool movies. It's a huge surprise people didn't realize how truly ahead of the curve Kaufman was. I simply loved the scene he puts one of the bad guys into a trash can. Then punching on his privates in a comical boxing style now that's funny lol. I can't compare this to a lot of movies either.
One of the closest examples being Brightburn that's an evil Superman concept movie. The Toxic Avenger is a movie you gotta see to believe. There's several ways you can watch it free. I also felt one of the best actors to play the character as well. This is a great start to such an unusual super hero movie franchise.
The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989)
This is a rather unusual situation. Originally going to be an four hour movie. Eventually a decision was made to split it into two films. This is exactly who we ended up with two Toxie movies the same year. Such a strategy kept getting reused with Jackass movie franchise.
For some weird reason, they changed a few character's names. For Melvin aka Toxie, his original last name was Ferd. For a weird joke, they changed it to Junko. His girl friend originally was named Sara now goes by Claire. She is a blonde blind woman that's kind.
For me, this was a good ratio what I personally wanted within an Toxie movie. You could even say this always was my favorite Toxie movie. Not because along with Part III came out the year I was born in. Don't worry I'll explain exactly why soon enough.
This also was a movie debut for Michael Jai White. He appeared in several comic book franchises including the live action Spawn movie. By this point, Toxie seen as a hero in Tromaville. Apocalypse Inc. clever name right? They are trying to cause trouble for the people of Tromaville.
They do play off Toxie's dad left him. For a short while Toxie thought this one corrupt Japanese businessman was his dad. Yes Toxie goes to Japan!!! You can tell they were going more comical as well. You still get some rather over the top violence.
This guy was an boss in the Yakuza. Yet he goes by the name of Big Mac!!! Just doesn't quite get as dark as the original though. They even go after Toxie's girl while he's busy dealing with them over seas. All of a sudden Master Pain aka Betty from Kung Pow!: Enter the First isn't that scary!!!
Melvin's real dad does show up to help explain things. The chairman attempts to make an escape. There's a crazy twist regarding him in the next Toxie movie. I could see why some people don't like it. Either to them the beginning of the decline or simply too weird of a movie.
They had Toxie from New Jersey travel all the way to Japan!!! You knew Troma had to parody several Japanese stuff including Godzilla. This was such an unexpected concept. We're going from West to East then finally back again. I respected they fully went with the concept.
I felt this was one of the best Toxie movies hands down. You aren't suppose to fully take em seriously. After all, you could laugh at some of this. I do think this version was largely inspired for The Toxic Crusaders cartoon show. This is great when you wanna see a very out there super hero movie.
The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989)
This is a direct follow up to the last Toxie movie. Continuing after the conclusion, Apocalypse Inc. strikes again. Toxie wants Claire to have her surgery but can't afford it. He gets suckered by the chairman to work for them. He is being forced to be an bad guy just so his girl can finally see.
The title is a parody of The Last Temptation of Christ I'm not kidding. This is the hardest Toxie movie to accept or roughly take seriously by far. I don't wanna see they used the worser footage to make this. Who would ever thought this Toxie movie get this bizarre?
Toxie eventually discovers the chairman's true identity is you won't believe if I tell ya. The Devil himself yeah we're going straight to the damn!!! All of a sudden I'm reminded of Saints Row: Gat Out of Hell. Which also involved taking on the Devil. Toxie accepts a series of challenges.
Which plays out like challenges within an video game. By this point if you're still watching. They go far with how unfair these challenges are. One of which Toxie ended up getting help. Which led him to beat up the Devil!!! This felt like the last entry surprisingly it isn't.
The Devil looks like an member of the band Gwar!!! Recently Gwar appeared on The Angry Video Game Nerd show. They also so happened to be Beavis and Butt-Head's favorite band. It's a rather unexpected demonic appearance. Simply go look it up you'll instantly understand what I'm trying to say.
I personally considered this as a huge mess of a Toxie movie. The actual pacing makes it harder to understand what's fully going on at times. I felt Part II done better with the pacing. All of a sudden the name of that organization makes sense. I don't wanna rub anyone especially Kaufman the wrong way.
This felt like an desperate attempt to save footage than anything else. It's almost like they had to quickly come up with something. To tie in all that reminding footage. It may also because they went too big with Toxie taking on the Devil. It still was interesting Toxie willing to do bad things to help his girl out.
I felt this is more of an required taste kind of movie. Unless you are bored or wanna see something truly mess up that doesn't make much sense? In all honestly, it wasn't Toxie's best showing by any means. I will give credit the Devil getting defeated with difficult to watch.
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (2000)
There's a huge time gap just beaten out by the recent Toxie movie. This also was before more movie franchises outside horror. Started to do sequel movies that ignored other sequels. Therefore being a direct sequel to the original. This was early 2000 beating out a few decades before such an strategy became main stream.
I gotta mention porn star Ron Jeremy in the movie. Jeremy gotten into trouble with sexual assaulting women years later. He also appeared in Postal III for reference purposes. Trent Haaga best known as Killjoy in majority of Killjoy movie franchise in the movie.
He's also one of the writers for the film as well. We're talking five people wrote this Toxie movie. Toxie was dealing with the Diaper Mafia what did you expect at this point? Troma going in full over the style. Something rather unexpected happens. Which caused Toxie to swap places with Noxie.
Which is short for The Noxious Offender. An evil Toxie from an parallel universe yes we're going there. This reminds me of a particular episode of SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron. Where the duo suddenly ended up in an parallel universe. Where they were among the bad guys.
In both cases, they get to face off with their alternative evil counterparts. Noxie comes off as a big jerk like in Superman 3. When Superman suddenly doing terrible things before he fought himself. Which led to Superman facing Nuclear Man in Superman IV respectively.
Of course Troma makes the big fight more mess up than it needs to be. Noxie slept with his girl friend. Inside two babies facing each other. At the same time, their fathers are duking it out. I really wish I was making this up. Noxie gets transformed back to Melvin then escaping.
Noxie's baby loses leaving only Toxie's baby inside. Indirectly, Toxie was forced to do bad things in the previous Toxie movie. But that ultimately was for a good cause to help his girl being able to see. It's a bit chaotic how the two finally meets each other.
Which to some might bag more questions than actual answers. This is a very Troma style Toxie movie. They allow such mess up stuff to happen. We have the Mafia in diapers terrorizing people that speaks volumes. Considering he fought the Devil in the last Toxie movie.
I would say one of the best looking Toxie appearances to date. Sadly followed by Noxie's appearance not an fan of. I even preferred how Toxie looked in the cartoon show. Which is kinda mess up logic in and of itself. Personally that's how I felt about Noxie's look in general.
It was difficult to imagine how could they possibly follow that? Simply putting Toxie against himself was a rather risky move. Obviously I prefer Toxie over Noxie. Noxie comes off like an poser with similar clothes and jewelry. I also gotta mention Toxie has a side kick this time around.
Lardass I'm not kidding that's his super hero name. His actor Joe Fleishaker was in several Troma films before passing away in 2016. I felt he was the more rememberable in Poultrygeist: Night of the Chicken Dead. A truly disgusting movie I can't recommend for people with weak stomachs.
I felt this is one of the better Toxie movies. Clearly better than Toxie 3 for sure. I still have reasons to prefer the first two Toxie movies over this. It's unclear why this ended up becoming the last original Toxie movie. It's a weird smaller multiversal super hero movie.
You only see two universes I felt that was fair to say. I will say it's a rather interesting one to end things on. It already was a tough sell trying to top Toxie facing himself. There isn't many places they could go at this point. It actually would've been worst had this tie into the other sequels.
Conclusion
Toxie isn't the most ridiculous super hero movie franchise coughs Marvel Cinematic Universe. But it's a rather unique take for smaller budget super hero movies. After seeing a short review of Kaufman reviewing the newest Toxie movie. It further moved higher on my list to see this year.
It sounds like the movie franchise is back!!! I would say stick with the first two Toxie movies. It's up to you regarding the last two Toxie movies. Even the worst of them is better than Toxic Crusaders: The Movie to me. Toxie is meant to be over the top violent comical super hero movie franchise.
The right people may even marathon these Toxie movies. Hell if I could I would love to join in on that fun. I highly doubt that'll ever happen though. I also wanna mention Troma still around. They gave support to the newer Toxie movie. Along with Fullmoon Productions still making low budget movies.
Troma always been about making movies no one else wanna make concept. Which is exactly why they only appeal to particular people. It's also amazing how well they used the budget within these Toxie movies. Honestly, if you're willing to check any of them out please do.
There's a chance you might end up loving em like I do. Toxie is a vastly different kind of super hero. Some might compare him to The Punisher. Both widely known killing off bad guys with Marvel comics connections to name a few. Two incredibly different characters though.
I don't recommend checking Toxic Crusaders show as well as the older games based on it. I am excited for the upcoming Toxic Crusaders game though. This ended up becoming a huge year for Toxie I'm happy!!! I'll do what I can to help support the franchise.
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