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5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The TRUE sequel - the best film!, April 22, 2003
Lloyd Kaufman is a genius making masterpieces on a budget that would barely be enough to pay for one day's catering on an average Hollywood producton and he does it for thirty years now. In a world where low budget independent filmmaking means manymultimillion dollar productions by subdivisions of Warner and Disney, Lloyd Kaufman survived for three decades (and counting) with his truly independent filmcompany Troma and in doing so directed, produced and/or wrote dozens of brilliant films. (For which he received a lifetime achievement award at this year's edition of the prestigious Amsterdam Fantastic Film Festival.)
CITIZEN TOXIE: THE TOXIC AVENGER IV is his latest and even better than even those brilliant masterpieces as TROMEO AND JULIET and TERROR FIRMER. I am not going to give away anything of the story, too much is happening in any case to even begin to tell you about in a few lines, but it is SO wonderful you just have to see it for yourself. Dave Mattey is ondoubtly the best Toxie of all four films, Heidi Sjursen his best (in this case) Sarah, and even though the budget of the film is not much more than that of the first one, made almost twenty years ago the production value of this one is unbelievable! This exact same film made by one of the Official Indepentents (Miramax, how independent can one be?) would have cost at least ten times this amount. And then - they would never have the guts and the intelligence to come up with this totally awesome film in which more aspects of our messed-up world are tackled that they could cram in their entire catalogue.
Apart from a film you can't afford to miss, this 2-disc-DVD-set (and look at the rediculously low price!) provides you with SO much more. There are no less than three full-length audio-commentaries. One by director Lloyd Kaufman, and his commentaries are always at least as entertaining and insightful as the feature itself. This particular one even includes a soundsample of Troma co-founder Michael Herz!! The second one is a wonderfully compiled track with contributions by the most important stars of the film, including Troma Action Hero Joe Fleishaker, star of many of Kaufman's past movies.
Another track is by the editors of the film and provides even more info on how such a brilliant film could be made under conditions that are difficult to say the least. At any rate - much more is there, such as loads of deleted scenes (with or without commentary), talks with the cast and crew, footage of CITIZEN TOXIE-premieres around the world, tons of hidden easter-eggs and much, much more. Apart from all this there even is a complete second feature: the 135 minute behind-the-scenes documentary APOCALYSPE SOON, which also comes complete with it's own deleted scenes! This is NOT the usual "he is wonderful, he is great, he is the best" docu - as the audiocommentaries do it provides a no holds barred look inside the hard-working-low-paying world of independent cinema. These people are HONEST, and where do you get that on your DVD-extra's??
There is no doubt this is the very best DVD-presentation of a movie ever - over six hours of Tromatic entertainment, and I'm not even counting the multiple viewings of the film itself with the various audio-tracks! Count those and you need a week to take in all information this instant interactive encyclopeadia provides.
If you haven't seen the other installements of THE TOXIC AVENGER, not to worry as everything you need to know is worked into the movie, without it being boring for those who are familiar.
Don't rent this one, don't watch your friend's copy but support independent cinema and buy our own copy. You never received so much value for your bucks!! (Except maybe when you bought Lloyd Kaufman's latest book MAKE YOUR OWN DAMN MOVIE).
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2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
I wish I could give it more stars, February 4, 2004
A long time fan of Troma, I was very excited about the next installment in the Toxic Avenger series. Let me just tell you that I have seen a lot of weird, messed up, and down right insane movies, but this one has got to take the cake. They spared absolutely no expense in trying to offend every person, political group, organization, and anything and everything basically under the sun. It made me proud. I was even shocked at the extent they went, and that is REALLY hard to do. Just when I thought they had covered all aspects of humanity they would add another tid-bit of juicy offensiveness. I was very impressed with the effort that they had obviously put into this film, in excluding nothing from it's insulting and vulgar attacks. It's hilarious, full of cheese, and has plenty of violence. The plot is simple: Toxie gets mixed up with his evil twin Noxie and they end up in each other's different planes of existence-let the fun begin! Fans of troma and Toxie will cherish this movie, after I rented it I had to own it. It also has plenty of extras on the DVD, including a troma trivia game. This movie is bound to shock even the most desensitized viewer, as it did me, and delight all you morbid peoples' funny bones! Definitely a classic, and definitely worth it's weight in gold.
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5.0 out of 5 stars
These drugs are gonna blow my a$$ off!, November 16, 2008
Once again we are back for another Toxic Avenger review. After two rather lackluster sequels (which I, surprisingly, enjoyed), Lloyd Kaufman and crew return with the hilarious, gory, and very violent Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV.
What seperates Citizen Toxie from the other sequels is the care that was taken with this sequel. Sure, Toxie 2 and 3 were labors of love, as all Troma movies are, but they were missing some key ingredient that made the original Toxic Avenger so fun and enjoyable- a truly cohesive story... well, as cohesive a story as a Troma film can have. For instance, the thing about Toxie 3 that made no sense was his willingness to get involved with the Apocalypse, Inc company after all the evil they did in Toxie 2. Plus, those films were less about Toxie doing what he does best- fighting crime- and more about stunts and gags that truly felt way too long and way too often, whereas the fight scenes in Toxie 2 felt more like an obligation instead of something that truly belonged. It was almost like, with these sequels, Kaufman said, 'okay, let's try to develop the character of Toxie even more!' when, truly, there isn't too much more you can expand on about Toxie. He's a hideously deformed creature of superhuman size and strength- what more can you do with that?
And that's what's great about this film, is they don't really try to do much more in terms of changing Toxie's character and persona and instead simply show Toxie fans what we want to see- bad guys getting violently killed, and the frailty of the citizens of Tromaville when it comes to loyalty to Toxie.
The film opens with the Diaper Mafia invading the Tromaville School for the Very Special. What follows is a mix and mash of 'special' people being killed, and Toxie showing up and avenging their deaths. Enter Tito, The Retarded Rebel, one of the funniest characters in any Toxie film, if not the funniest.
After a huge explosion destroys the school, Toxie is transported to an alternate dimension, called Amortville, while his evil doppleganger, Noxie, or The Noxious Offender, ends up back in Tromaville. Noxie wreaks havoc in Tromaville while Toxie tries to figure out a way to get home, all the while battling Evil Kabuikman, Evil Mad Cowboy, and a host of other characters.
One of the best ideas Troma could have had with this film was to include many more colorful characters outside of Toxie and Sara (who finally goes back to her real name, after being called Claire in Toxie 2 and 3.) We have Sergeant Kabukiman, NYPD, who is hilarious as a drunk superhero who pretty much has no powers. As mentioned before, Tito, the Retarded Rebel, is absolutely hilarious and had me laughing in every scene he was in. Then we have Sweetie Honey, who some will either love or hate, but I can't imagine anybody hating her- she's another hilarious addition to the cast. On top of the other superheros, including Mad Cowboy, Vibrator, Dolphinman, and Mastur- er, well, if you're reading this, you can probably guess what comes next.
The effects in this film, too, are excellent, aside from one headcrushing scene, in which using a watermelon really didn't work for Troma here. But we have disembowelments, a cross through the throat, gunshot wounds, and a magnificent head crushing scene involving a Bible and a State book. Troma really outdid themselves with some of the effects here- just wait till the awesome hospital slaughter scene. This film will definately not disappoint gore hounds.
The comedy is certainly in every reel of this film. There's jokes ranging from retard jokes to certain, um, 'favors' performed by the lovable old Chester, who can be a little bit TOO lovable. Tito has some of the best lines in the film, including, 'These drugs are gonna blow my a$$ off.' I laughed all the way through this film- even most straight up comedy movies fail to do that nowadays, and combining the blood and guts made this just eye candy for me.
Certainly, however, this film is not for everyone. It takes a special person to appreciate a Troma film, and I am more than proud to say that I love these movies, no matter how weird people might look at me for it. However, I have only seen the unrated cut, so I couldn't tell you what is so different between the rated and unrated cuts, but I can imagine, after seeing the rated Toxie 2, that it probably butchers the film.
This is a definite buy if you enjoy these kinds of movies. It has everything a Troma fan could want.
And yes, if you are worried, there is nudity. Plenty of it.
Plus, the making of the film, Apocalypse Soon, is almost 3 hours long and is very entertaining to watch, making this package a completely loaded DVD worth your time and money.
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