Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV

Dir: Lloyd Kaufman, Michael Herz, Gabriel Friedman

2000

*

The original Toxic Avenger was bad taste but fun. There is nothing wrong with a bit of trash now and again, it sometimes puts cinema into perspective and knocks Hollywood down a notch. It serves a purpose, and when it is genuinely funny and uses satire to its advantage, it can be a beautiful thing. The first Toxic Avenger tapped into the fear of nuclear waste at a time when it was entering into the general public's consciousness, it was trashy but clever. The first sequel wasn't without charm but the third marked the end of the series for me. Eleven years later Citizen Toxie, The Toxic Avenger part IV, was released and I wondered what subject Kaufman and Herz (Troma) would tackle. A lot had changed in the 90s and the possibilities were endless. Also, Troma probably had more money and experience and could therefore produce a far more polished picture. Or so I thought. The truth is that Troma had no new ideas and basically cashed in on the nostalgic Toxic Avenger name. It is still trashy but it goes a step too far this time. For some unknown reason, people with mental issues and learning difficulties are the target of the film's humour, not that it is funny in the slightest. I had hoped that we'd see more gore, exaggerated characters exploring whatever was on trend in the year 2000 but instead it was those who can rarely defend themselves that were the butt of all the jokes. The reason is clear. Troma, Kaufman and team have no idea what substitutes as humour. Learning difficulties, morbid obesity, and rape aren't funny, I know it is Troma's aim to explore the unacceptable but this film doesn't even warrant a guilty laugh. It's nasty, and seeing that so many people accept and indeed enjoy the film, is a sad reflection on society's ideologies. I'm not taking the film too seriously though, it is hardly a cult classic and not really worth writing about but if your sense of humour hasn't progressed since you were seven years old (and that is a huge insult to seven years olds), then it might just be okay for you to watch. The idea of an alternative universe where acceptability is reversed was interesting, an opposite of Toxie (The Noxious Offender or 'Noxie') was a concept with legs, it is just that after all these years of making bad films (and making films about how to make bad films) Troma have learnt nothing and still can't direct/write/edit to save their lives. It's awful, and even die-hard Troma fans know it.