The Toxic Avenger follows Winston, a down on his luck man with a back end job at a very valuable company called BTC. As he goes about his day with a mop in his hands, he yearns for a better life for both him and his step-son, whose parents are both absent. But things get worse before they get better as Winston soon discovers that he has a terminal brain illness and only has about a year left to live. Desperate and with only one place in mind that could save his life, Winston will have to find a way to get his employer, the egomaniac CEO Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon), to give him the resources he needs to live (or die trying). On the way, he finds himself allied with J.J Doherty (Taylour Paige), who is trying damndest to reveal the sins of BTC to the world. In the midst of this journey, he turns into the Toxic Avenger, a creature of hideous looks but someone who with deadly powers who may just be able to serve justice to those who deserve it.
Peter Dinklage does well (as always), bringing the heart and ferocity that a role like this demands. He’s still able to deliver and be in line with the tone that the film gives off while often remaining empathetic. As the titular character, he opens up to the audience (and the other characters) to ask for help in his plights in a way that makes him endearing. He is a great leading man that any film would be glad to have. And this film fits his endearing self well as he puts his heart but also humour into this role with ease.
Taylor Paige does well to stick out from these absurd and cartoonish characters with the villains, henchmen, gangsters and the wife of Bob Garbinger all being quite exaggerated. She initially has a very separate story that only happens to collide with Winston’s but they end up being united by the main goal of combating Kevin Bacon’s company’s unethical, reckless creation and sale of substances that are supposed to help people but instead have been killing them. While delivering a convicting performance, she stands out tonally compared to other actors, offering genuine emotions in an odd way compared to other characters.
The film establishes itself quickly as a spoof movie which puts it in the vein of Naked Gun. Here, the plot becomes an excuse to create crazy scenarios and, for this film, it’s focused on the absurd characters and people that the Toxic Avenger has to defeat in more and more grotesque ways. The bulk of the entertainment comes from this style of humour as the film puts Winston in ever-changing scenarios that test his abilities and involve a lot of carnage for those who get in his way.
The filmmaking does have depth and creativity with details that give the film its unique tone. Even before we seen the absurdity of the supernatural action, we see a decrepit and ugly world through the abuse of a cat and Winston’s struggles in taking care of his stepson. The way that the film is presented really helps us understand that he is struggling. We see how gross his workplace is, the shake in his pour of orange juice and the burnt toast that he serves his stepson, Wade, shows how unable he is to handle everything. It makes his desperate measures in wake of a terminal diagnosis that much more believable as a character.
The title cards are another fun detail that serve as small jokes throughout the runtime. The title cards and use of music is often ironic, leaving room for absurd visuals to be layered over it. There is not as many creative visuals as I would’ve liked considering the amount of creative VFX gore and makeup prosthetics for both Winston and the people he maims but it’s still very present. An interesting dynamic in the performances is that some characters play it as if they are in a more serious superhero film and others know what is happening in the world is absurd. In particular, they keep Jacob Tremblay’s innocence prominent. He hopes that Winston would have never committed any violence and, at first, is afraid of his new appearance. Yet in another parts of the film, child characters witness extreme PTSD level of violence and never comment on it. The former characterization of Wade is played for laughs which pays off but no one ever seems too disturbed by the violence Toxie unleashes. Could these be some comment on America’s tolerance for violence and violence enacted by the powerful and the focus that can come on simple media appearance? I couldn’t say for sure but it doesn’t seem too farfetched.
The film has a great sense of pace where it’s able to constantly put characters in a peril that makes them go into even more entertaining and crazy situations. Standout momtents for this include the first action scene where Winston as the Toxic Avenger is able to violently end a hostage situation. Surprisingly, the film feels like it’s heading towards a definitive and meaningful finale. It never feels like we are going in circles with these settings or characters without purpose. The large cast also contributes to that entertainment but also leaves loose threads. Jacob Tremblay as the son and Kevin Bacon both deliver stand out performances but get lost in an ensemble of other bad guys which makes Tremblay’s Wade a harder character to get invested in. Elijah Wood gets a very fun role with a look reminiscent of Riff Raff from Rocky Horror, as the creepy brother of Bob Garbinger. His character represents the goodness of those in power and how the influence of someone with a good heart can make a world of difference. He isn’t always getting the funniest lines or action in the movie but his screen prescience makes a world of difference in what could have been a flat character.
The film’s overall themes criticizing capital power and the health industry is shallow but layered in humor and irony. It justifies its shallow analyzation as part of the joke but also makes Kevin Bacon’s socially inept ego maniac of a CEO funny enough to ensure he as a symbol of corporate greed and environmental irresponsibility. His defeat is a simple goal and ideal for us to follow but it makes the film that much more engaging knowing what kind of real life implications companies like BTC have on American and Western healthcare and how profits can certainly be put over people when it comes to matters of both health and violence.
The Toxic Avenger is available in theatres on Friday, August 29th, 2025.
