Editor Reviews:

Description:
Welcome to TROMAVILLE, NEW JERSEY - a small American town, terrorized by criminals. The town's corrupt mayor sits idly by, while muggers, robbers and teenage punks victimize helpless citizens. Among the residents of Tromaville is MELVIN, a nerdy emaciated janitor at the local health club. That is, until he becomes THE TOXIC AVENGER!

A gang of thugs devise a cruel hoax that goes horribly wrong as Melvin is cast through a third story window into a vat of hazardous toxic waste. However, an unexpected metamorphosis takes place. As the chemicals take hold of his body, Melvin turns into the TOXIC AVENGER, doer of good, and brutal mauler of evil! The rest, as they say, is history! The excitement is non-stop as the hero sets out to single handedly wipe out the forces of evil that torment the people of Tromaville. THE TOXIC AVENGER is non-stop entertainment that will leave the viewers glowing from the fun.

DVD Features:

- Numerous Fan projects including cartoons, original short films, re-inactments and many more!

- Scenes from the hit stage show Toxic Avenger Musikill!

-Interviews with original cast members Robert Prichard, Dan Snow and Mitch Cohen, the original Toxie! - A rare and highly anticipated on-camera Interview with Michael Herz, Vice President of Troma and Lloyd Kaufman, President of Troma Entertainment and creator of The Toxic Avenger!

-Make Your Own Damn Movie film school in a box!

-Toxie in Africa!

-Original theatrical trailers For The Toxic Avenger, parts 1 through 4

- All featured in Tro-morphic Widescreen

Amazon.com:
The most widely known of Troma Films' stable of low-budget exploitation, The Toxic Avenger is an exuberantly crude poke at superheroes and monster movies, delivered with a healthy dose of cheap gags, splattery special effects, and T&A. It's also a genuinely funny film, and its no-holds-barred attitude has a grubby charm that eludes most gross-out comedies. The Toxic Avenger opens with an absurdly vicious crew preying upon Melvin, a nebbishy janitor. Their pranks land him in a vat of chemical waste, which transforms him into a lumpy monster that deals out gruesome revenge. Directors (and Troma company heads) Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz aim low in detailing "Toxie's" vengeance spree, and the subsequent carnage should please gorehounds. But they're also savvy enough recognize the film's limitations, and wisely camp things with plenty of slapstick. The result is a frantic and funny mess that should amuse even the most dour cult movie fan. --Paul Gaita

Rating : - "Skippy, don't forget your helmet!"
As a huge fan of goofy, campy, and frequently ultraviolent b-movies such as 'Pink Flamingos' and 'Street Trash', it goes without saying that I loved 'The Toxic Avenger.' So much of it defies good taste that it makes the movie more laugh-out-loud hilarious than it already is. And there is much to laugh at.

The story revolves around a Mama's-Boy 80s nerd named Melvin Ferd (Mark Torgl), who is the brunt of mockery and practical jokes around the Tromaville Health Club where he works, especially at the hands (and boobs!) of airhead blondes Julie and Wanda and their boyfriends Bozo and Slug (all of whom seem to spend a good 95% of their free time at the health club, while the other 5% of their time they seem to spend running over pedestrians for points [an infamous scene will demonstrate this early in the film]). When the gang decides to play a practical joke on Melvin and have Julie pretend to seduce him, it results in Melvin falling out of (more like DIVING head first of) the second story of the health club into a strategically-placed vat of toxic waste! But instead of going the Paul-McCrane-in-Robocop route and melting into liquid within second, he instead catches on fire, runs around Tromaville on fire with dramatic classical music in the backdrop, and hours later turns into a hideous creature of superhuman size and strength, the Toxic Avenger! As Toxie (his pet name throughout the series), Melvin has a sixth sense for evil and literally destroys evildoers wherever he finds them in increasingly bloody and graphic ways.

I'm fairly new to the world of Troma flicks and everyone seems to agree that this is the Troma masterpiece. Its filled with humor both intentional and unintentional, as well as some surprising social commentary (for one example, it seems to bring up the concern of environmental waste but at the same time lampoon those Al Gore types who obsess over it to the extreme and act as if it is bringing the apocalypse). There is a tremendous style in a lot of its presentation, and even a distinctly Quentin Tarantino-esque feel with its usage of poppy jukebox-esque tunes to such scenes as Melvin gleefully marching around in his tutu prior to seeing Julie, as well as the scene of Skippy the kid bicyclist riding around at night and...um...turning it in early. I was not surprised to read later on that Tarantino turns out to be a huge Troma fan and cites them as an influence, as these particular scenes in particular are so Tarantino-esque you'd swear he directed the film. It certainly contains enough sadistic, comical violence and black humor to be in his league.

In short, if you enjoy your movies with heavy doses of un-politically-correct happenings, inane ultraviolence, social commentary, and irony, look no further than this classic of 80s trash awesomeness.