The Toxic Avenger (1984)

Directors: Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman

Writers: Lloyd Kaufman, Joe Ritter, Gay Partington Terry, Stuart Strutin

Composer: ???  Delmar Brown?  Theme music by Mark Hoffman & Dean Summers

Starring: Andree Maranda, Mitch Cohen, Jennifer Baptist, Cindy Manion, Robert Prichard, gary Schneider, Pay Ryan, Mark Torgl, Dick Martinsen, Chris Liano, David Weiss, Dan Snow

More info: IMDb

Tagline: He was 98 lbs. of solid nerd until he became...

Plot: Tromaville has a monstrous new hero. The Toxic Avenger is born when mop boy Melvin Junko falls into a vat of toxic waste. Now evildoers will have a lot to lose.

My rating: 5.5/10

Will I watch it again? NO.

I swear I'm going to stop hurting myself by watching Troma movies.  There's one thing that most of them have in common and that's that they're loud and obnoxious.  This one is less so than most but it's got its moments where I have to turn down the volume.  There are some really funny moments but they're really quick.

How about the scene early on when the idiotic gang terrorizes the fast food restaurant and the guy shoots Sara's (Maranda) seeing eye dog which sends it sliding across the floor?  Hilarious, but it only lasts for a split second.  There are hints at quality film making like with the big car chase with Toxi on top.  The exterior shots of the chase are nicely done but it's the intercutting with the closeups of the actors and how that's handled that gives it the amateurish look.  In the end, it was sort of nice revisiting something I haven't seen in nearly 30 years but I could tell early on it was probably the last.