Product Details

• Actors: Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennifer Prichard, Cindy Manion, Robert Prichard
• Format: Color, Director's Cut, Special Edition, NTSC
• Rated: Unrated
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: TROMA ENTERTAINMENT INC.
• VHS Release Date: April 1, 1997
• Run Time: 101 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (98 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6304369204
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #377,021 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

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

The New York Daily News

"...we would watch it again in a minute!"

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Toxie Time, June 16, 2005

By 

Micheal Hunt (Hellbourne) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Toxic Avenger (21st Anniversary Edition) (DVD)

PLOT:
In a town called Tromaville there is a gym where a little dweeb named Melvin works. He's a geek who gets on all the cool kids nerves. They plan a prank on him that ends seeing Melvin fall out of a window and land in a barrel of Toxic waste on the back of a truck parked outside. But instead of killing Melvin, it turns him into a hideously deformed creature of super human size and strength that develops Troma-zones that make Melvin fight crime when needed. Melvin helps the people of Tromaville and cleans up the town of its crime, while also getting revenge on the kids who caused him to become what he is.

Review
TA is a dark comedy full of action, horror and comedy that will not be accepted by people who take things too seriously. It is an over the top, cult style film. It's a breath of fresh air to have a movie with actors who aren't trying to steal the spotlight, or use the film as a stepping-stone to further there acting credibility for future reference. This movie would never win any academy award. But that's what we love about because we hate the academy awards anyway. Toxie is just a great movie of the little guy that was always pushed around finds himself in a situation that leads to him finishing on top...and also some wacky, gross, disgusting, silly, over drawn, ridicules things along the way. It's a fun movie but not something to sit down with grandma to watch.

DVD
Finally I was able to sit down, kick back and relax and watch the Toxic Avenger clearly and as a bonus, uncut. I've had the first 3 Toxies on VHS for years, but the videos where bad quality, warn out and the image was always rolling and fading, the sound was dropping in and out... so even tho I've been a fan of Toxie for years, I felt like I was watching it for the first time.

The quality isn't super great, there is still speckles here and there, but it's clear enough not to worry about it, they polished it up as best they could and you'll only see the dust speckles if your purposely looking for them.

The sound wasn't surround sound, but it didn't matter, least it was clear and loud enough to understand what was being said.

Bonus Features
Like many of the Troma DVD's, TA is packed with great bonus features. There are 2 discs in this edition, but I think if they had have tried, it would all fit onto 1 disc.
- Interviews - There is heaps of interviews with Lloyd Kaufman (Producer/President of Troma) & Mitch Cohen (Toxic Avenger) plus many more of the actors and directors.
- Commentary - Interesting
- Intro to the movie by Lloyd
- The intro and outro used on the laser-disc version
- Fan films - Short films sent to Troma from fans inspired by Toxie, they're actually so bad there entertaining!
- Deleted scenes - Why did they cut these? Some of them and hilarious!
- Plus a heap of stuff you find on every Troma DVD like the tour of Troma, and how to make a movie things etc.


Cons:
- A lot of the bonus features look like where recorded off a VHS, but who cares, there only bonus features, the movie is fine.
- No subtitles -
- no out-takes, gag-reel, bloopers.

As you can see, the positive weighs down the negatives enough to show that Troma has once again presented a great movie with a great DVD package.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great and excellent movie, but fans should just stick with the original DVD release., March 10, 2011

By 

G. Watson "The Unknown" - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Toxic Avenger (DVD)

The Toxic Avenger is probably one of the best cult movies of its time and of course it brought Troma to life in every way possible. When I heard that this movie was coming out on DVD again and it was put in widescreen quality I thought "That's cool. Maybe they'll remaster it and give it a new digital makeover!" Man was I fooled. The 21st Anniversary edition packaging was cool but I played both the new one and the old one. The old one had a transfer that was way way better than the new one and the widescreen format didn't make much of a difference to the movie (than again Troma never did good transfers to their movies, but the original DVD of this movie has a way better transfer). The fullscreen transfer actually had a wider reach than the widescreen version. The extras on the new one are not much better than on the old one. even though it did include most of the stuff on the original version, some of the stuff on the original version was more helpful on the behind the scenes look to the movie. The new one showed mainly fans recreating classic scenes from the movie and the commentary track is different; the one on the original is way more informative. If you don't own the movie the two-disc version is at a cheap price but the original DVD release is cheaper and is definitely the better one to have.

Me, being a big fan of Troma, I did enjoy the movie, and I own the original DVD release. If you people are planning on upgrading to the 21st Anniversary Edition, you may be a little disappointed. I still give this movie a 5-star rating for the movie and for the original DVD release. But beware, as I say again, you may be disappointed with the new DVD release. I'd say only the elite die-hard fans will want the new version. I'm a die-hard fan but I'm perfectly happy with the original version. But the movie passes with flying colors. GO TOXIE!

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Hilarious and bloody, February 11, 2002

By 

web surfer - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Toxic Avenger (DVD)

I always wanted to see a movie where pedestrians are mowed down by cars, little old ladies are beat up, and guys get their arms ripped off and hands crushed. If this is what you look for in a movie, check out Toxic Avenger. Inredible stuff, I don't care about the poor acting (some of the worst I've ever seen), low budget feel, poor costumes, etc. This is a great flick. Any time you have a super hero born from chemical waste who beats up bad guys, scores with a blind chick, and makes his house out of garbage in the middle of a dump you know it's a legendary movie. Most memorable scene: guy at the gym gets his face smashed in by a stack of weights. Check it out ASAP.