"The Toxic Avenger - Unrated" - Review

In the corrupt, rotting city of St Roma, the chief industry is a heavily polluting pharmaceutical plant. It is here where widowed mild-mannered janitor Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage) works to support himself and his stepson Wade (Jacob Tremblay), until a horrifying accident transforms him into a toxic beast ready to avenge himself upon the town that has wronged them!

(Photo Credit: IGN)
This is a movie tailor made for me.
The original Troma "classis" is the cornerstone and touchpiece for their brand of trash, outsider mayhem and gross nonsense, I proudly have Lloyd Kaufman's autograph, and a copy of the film in a trashy DVD on my shelf. I've listened to the musical multiple times (the only one I've done so outside of the Golden Age classics) and just adore this kind of outsider art. And when Macon Blair (behind the fucking excellent underrated genre-bender "I Don't Feel At Home in this World Anymore"), star of "Blue Ruin" and "Green Room" was announced to finally be the one going ahead with this long-squelching remake, my interest was piqued.
With my bona fides out of the way, let's get this part done with: There's nothing quite so Hollywood was taking an underdog cult trash classic piece of punk outsider art and remaking it glossier and with bigger stars; though it has Kaufman (now best known to the kids for his appearences in James Gunn movies) and Michael Herz behind the producing wheels, it still was stuck in development hell. Oh Hollywood.
It was always going to lose some of that lovably incompetent, wild, anarchic jank in the transition. That being said:
I fucking loved this.
From the opening shots being an overly Gothic-lit office with "Award for Good Journalism: Melvin Ferd" (the name of the lead in the Toxic Avenger musical) and him being played by Shaun Dooley (Barnsley represent!) before a bunch of weirdly dressed, chicken-headed, clown-make-up clad, parkour-flipping goons burst in and start trying to murder: I felt that Macon Blair has the same love for this movie as I do.
What follows is bloody, stupid, punky, outrageous, bloody, gory, stupid, juvenile, bloody and campy, with lots of gore and stupid blood to push things to the limit.
Dinklage cuts a man's face in half, revealing a pulsating brain, with a radioactive mop.
The chicken man gets a fucking fantastic gross pay off.
Kevin Bacon (embracing his weird era in films, side note watch "Super" and he's super fun in "Elephant White") hams it up to the extreme with his deliberately snarling, cartoonish dialogue.
Elijah Wood, also relishing his weirdo era, plays a put-upon "Igor" esque brother to Bacon, complete with atrocious hair and cane.
Peter Dinklage proclaims: "Alright, I need to get my dick out!".
Said dick is actually Chekov's gun.
At a murderous "post-hardcore punk" concert, reaction shots consist of flashed titties and penises.
The transformation into the titular creature is a deliberately 50s style psychadelic throwboack with headshots and swirling screens, done to the Mozart monster theme, you know the one.
It still has the outright gall and audacity to be an underdog story, a corporate satire, and a commentary on the American healthcare system (not a subtle one, but, come on man... we're past this) in the final cut.
This movie is far better made than the original, but puts that budget and effort into being gross, stupid, ridiculous and capturing the Troma sense of humour, without the mean-spiritedness (well... almost...)
It's a niche movie for a niche crowd, but I am that niche crowd.
I was laughing a lot, and when I wasn't laughing I was beaming from ear to ear.
I want Blair to go very far after this, unpredictable career that he has.
I guess if you like stuff like "Wolfcop", "Hobo With a Shotgun", "Street Trash", "The Stuff" and "Demons", go for this!
Fuck yeah.

"Nobody 2" - Review

Long after his rough and tumble tangle with the Russian Mafia brought mild-mannered super-killer Hutch Mansell (Bob Odenkirk, which I still cannot get over) back into the game, he has been doing contract work for The Barber (Colin Salmon, nice) to settle affairs. But this has all alienated him from his family, so he decides to arrange a holiday! Alongside ballsy wife Becca (Connie Nielsen), gangly rebellious son Brady (Gage Munroe), endearing daughter Sammy (Paisley Cadorath) and unhinged father David (Christopher Lloyd); Hutch decides to head off to beloved theme park/waterpark of his youth Plummerville! But you can never fight the tides, and soon Hutch finds himself trying to simply enjoy his holiday and avoid the orbit of sleazy weirdo sheriff Abel (Colin Hanks), scuzzy owner Wyatt (John Ortiz) and mysterious maniac Lendina (Sharon Stone) - easier said than done.

(Photo Credit: Amazon Prime Video)
The first film is rather fun and a pleasant surprise where action movies are concerned, marketed largely successfully on it being from minds behind "John Wick" and Bob Odenkirk in the leading role. This one keeps that momentum going but also seems unsure where to go with it. Having Indonesian Timo Tjahanto behind the wheel adds an askew crookedness to standard Americana, which is welcome and adds to the quirk: it's a nice twist on the setup and brings spark to the tale. When blood and vicious gore of the director's previous efforts like "The Night Comes For Us" begins to get spattered across the faded All-American theme park and other such things, it's a tad jarring but spices up things.
Otherwise it's a rather busy movie, with lots of characters bouncing around the place, scheming, counter-scheming and having mini-arcs which get kind of dropped and forgotten about; and Sharon Stone's villain is given little guidance or things to do so sort of has to pull a Matt Smith in "Morbius" and make up quirk as she goes along (including a dance sequence); but the whole affair is bloody fun and comes into its own on a boat fight and during the finale at the theme park. Much like Hutch's holiday (hell, the film even uses Cliff Richard...) it's fun while it lasts, and it won't be as good as you remember when you look back on it, but enjoy the ride.
Plus RZA gets to be the samurai of his dreams in the final act and gets the best, pulpiest line against legal-requirement bad guy Daniel Bernhardt.