I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review the remake of the 1984 b-movie classic “The Toxic Avenger,” and let you know what cocktails were selling like hotcakes the year the original movie was released.
Click HERE to listen to Shane and me talk about allergies and the movies, Charlie Sheen’s apology and more Canadian comedy on “SNL.”
For the Booze & Reviews look at the bad taste of “The Toxic Avenger” and some cocktails with good tastes to enjoy with the movie click HERE!
I join CTV Atlantic anchor Todd Battis to talk about the dark comedy “The Roses,” the relationship farce “Splitsville,” the gritty crime drama “Caught Stealing” and the rebirth of “The Toxic Avenger.”
SYNOPSIS: In “The Toxic Avenger,” a remake of the 1984 Troma Films gross-out classic, Peter Dinklage plays a down-on-his-luck janitor transformed by radioactive gunk into the mutated superhero, The Toxic Avenger.
CAST: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, and Kevin Bacon. Directed by Macon Blair.
REVIEW: A modern-day adaptation of the goofy and gory 1984 film of the same name, “The Toxic Avenger” updates the story, but maintains the original’s glorious bad taste.
At the heart of both films is an underdog janitor who uses his newfound powers to fight corruption and abuse of power, but the circumstances are different.
Originally, the main character Melvin (Mark Torgl) was a bullied outcast who, once transformed by a dip in a vat of toxic waste, meted out vigilante justice to get revenge on the baddies who terrorized him and his hometown of Tromaville.
In the new movie Peter Dinklage is Winston Gooze, janitor for corporate behemoth BTH by night, single father to a teenage son Wade (Jacob Tremblay) by day. Diagnosed with a terminal illness, he’s terrified of leaving his son without a father. In desperation he approaches BTH head honcho Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) to beg for help. In short order he finds himself left for dead in a pool of BTH toxic goo which transforms him into The Toxic Avenger. With his trusty mop, Winston fights to create a future for Wade.
There may be a deeper emotional core to the contemporary Toxie tale, but along with the family drama comes wonderfully over-the-top juvenile humor, exploding heads and bloody mop wounds that need to be seen to be believed.
Director Macon Blair is reverential in his handling of the material. He embraces the shocking schlock of the original, with a cavalcade of practical effects and ridiculous jokes that ensure the spirit of Troma Films lives on. It’s a gory good time with a better-than-expected cast (Dinklage, Bacon and Elijah Wood are having fun here) that doesn’t cater to a mainstream audience.
Fans of midnight movies will be in on the joke, all others, approach with caution.
I join the Bell Media Radio Network national night time show “Shane Hewitt and the Night Shift” for “Booze & Reviews!” This week I review the remake of the 1984 b-movie classic “The Toxic Avenger,” and let you know what cocktails were selling like hotcakes the year the original movie was released.
