MOVIE REVIEW: THE TOXIC AVENGER

 

A janitor becomes a social outcast when a freak accident at a chemical factory turns him into a mutant. However, he soon uses his newfound superhuman strength to battle slimy criminals and a corrupt CEO.

Director: Macon Blair

Cast: Peter Dinklage, Jacob Tremblay, Taylour Paige, Julia Davis, Jonny Coyne, Elijah Wood, Kevin Bacon

Release Date: August 29, 2025

Genre: Action, Comedy, Horror, Sci-Fi

Rated R for strong violence and gore, language throughout, sexual references and brief graphic nudity

Runtime: 1h 42m

Review:

Remaking Troma's The Toxic Avenger initially sounded like a fool's errand, but Macon Blair's re-imagining manages to recapture the original's manic, over the top spirit while bringing a new spin to the material.  Blair brings a colorfully, cartoonish aesthetic to his film that fits the action perfectly even as it gets increasingly bloody.  The film's anarchic spirit is instantly apparent, and Blair manages to do a solid amount of world building before we get to the action in earnest.  The set up is fairly simple but those looking for a carbon copy of the original plot will be disappointed since this film is clearly trying to pave its own way.  This entry tries to establish a bit more of an emotional center to the proceedings thanks to making the main character a stepdad simply trying to take care of his stepson.  Peter Dinklage brings an air of gravitas to the proceedings even though he's clearly all in with the silliness on display, especially once he takes the mantle of the titular character.  It's all tongue in cheek especially in back half of the film as everybody is gleefully hamming it up in their respective roles. Kevin Bacon and Jonny Coyne serve as the dual villain's here and both are so incredibly over the top as a snake oil salesman and gangster.  Bacon chews up the screen every time his character pops up with circa 2000's Justin Bieber hair.  Julia Davis proves to be more than up to the task as his devoted assistant with her and Bacon having fun onscreen chemistry.  Taylour Paige is a bit more reserved than most of her screen mates as a determined whistleblower who ends up joining Dinklage's Toxie on his journey to expose Bacon's misdeeds after his heroic transformation.  Elijah Wood steals every scene he's in as the little brother of Bacon's brother and lackey who bears a striking resemblance to The Penguin from Tim Burton's Batman Returns. There are a few dead spots that pop up along the way with the action taking a tad too long to start up and the final act feeling overlong and unfocused to the extent that you get the feeling that Blair doesn't know how to wrap it all up.  That being said, it's hard not to appreciate how fun this iteration of The Toxic Avenger is and how it serves as a perfect tribute to the classic B movie madness of the Troma films as a whole.  

B

MOVIE REVIEW: THE MONKEY

 

When twin brothers find a mysterious wind-up monkey, a series of outrageous deaths tear their family apart. Twenty-five years later, the monkey begins a new killing spree, forcing the estranged siblings to confront the cursed toy.

Director: Osgood Perkins

Cast: Theo James, Tatiana Maslany, Elijah Wood, Christian Convery, Colin O'Brien, Rohan Campbell, Sarah Levy

Release Date: February 21, 2025

Genre: Horror

Rated R for strong bloody violent content, gore, language throughout and some sexual references.

Runtime: 1h 38m

Review:

The Monkey is a devilishly dark, horror comedy that delivers a gory collection of kills that never gels into an entirely cohesive film.  Osgood Perkins' adaptation of Stephen King's short story takes the most basic parts of that story to create an anarchic tale of death and destruction that only expands in scope as the story goes on.  Perkins takes a gleeful approach to each kill with each one taking full advantage of gooey blood and gore to a cartoonish degree.  There's nihilistic undercurrent that pervades throughout the film's runtime that might be off putting to some as Perkins offers no clear answers to what's happening or why.  It’s a demented joyride that leans into the silliness of the haunted toy conceit paired with the kind of adolescent trauma that peppered early era King.  It’s a different approach for Perkins, especially after last year's Longlegs was far more self-serious than this blissfully, bleak jaunt.  Theo James is tasked with carrying the lion's share of the load here in dual roles.  James delivers a fun, tongue-in-cheek performance that puts his level of commitment to the material on display, especially once his twin character takes center stage.  He's clearly open to anything that Perkins throws at him as he and his characters roll with the increasingly outrageous splatter fest thrown onscreen.  He shares the majority of his screentime with Colin O'Brien who plays Petey, his estranged son, with both sharing some solid chemistry together.  Tatiana Maslany is given painfully little screentime in flashback as the twin’s single mother.  Maslany manages to leave an impression in her limited screentime which leaves you wishing Perkins had made better use of her and the character as opposed to all the extended voiceovers from James.   It might have given the story and central character a better-defined emotional core which would have made some of the reveals more impactful.  There's plenty to enjoy, especially if you enjoy gratuitously gory deaths, The Monkey feels a bit too emotionally untethered to leave the kind of impact intended.   

B-

Cindy Prascik's Review of The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies

Dearest Blog, with a couple screenings of the final installment of Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy now under my belt, I shall try to present some thoughts. Coherence not guaranteed. (But is it ever?)

Spoiler level here will be mild-ish, no biggies, but if you prefer to go in totally blind--if that's even possible with a story that's nearly 80 years old--kindly defer reading until you've seen it.

Having made their way home, the company of Thorin Crabbypants defends its Kingdom Under the Mountain, but there's more than gold on the line when the battle expands.

Where to start...where to start...

Beginning at the beginning, BOTFA kicks off where Desolation of Smaug ended, with an angry dragon descending on the panicked citizens of Lake-town. For such frantic circumstances, the start of the film seems quite slow. Then there is The Thing that happens so quickly I have to wonder why The Thing didn't happen in the last movie, as (in Director Cindy's opinion) it seems more fittingly part of that one, and would have provided a more logical breaking point between numbers two and three.

The Thing is a pretty major development, but dropping it so soon makes it seem almost an afterthought. Once the movie gets rolling, it's not hard to see why filmmakers changed the name from There and Back Again...this movie is not about a trip; this movie is about a fight. While I wouldn't quite agree that it amounts to no more than an extended battle scene, there's definitely a lot of battlin' going on.

At nearly two and a half hours, BOTFA is the most compact of Peter Jackson's six Middle Earth epics, and it honestly does not seem long. Having said that, there are plenty of places it could have been cropped to make a better film, battles among them. (I might also mention the attentive viewer needs just so many shots of a dive-bombing dragon to get what's going on there.) Some CGI is inexcusably poor for a movie that cost so much to make; as with DOS, it's mostly noticeable in the movement of the Elves.

The few lighter moments are hit or miss, with Martin Freeman's wonderful expressiveness getting credit for the hits, and a bunch of flat, obvious gags featuring Ryan Gage taking blame for the misses. The character Tauriel remains a pointless addition, and her simpering looks at Kili and Legolas and Thranduil and...well...pretty much everyone are almost too annoying to bear. Finally, there's simply too little of 12 of the 13 Dwarves we've come to love over the course of the series.

On to the positives...Ken Stott and Martin Freeman remain the heart of The Hobbit, through three movies turning in performances that are consistently genuine, funny, and moving. I'd be remiss in my fangirling if I didn't note that Aidan Turner and Luke Evans are also terrific; this franchise will deservedly make big stars of both, and I couldn't be happier or more proud.

The movie's backed by the usual glorious New Zealand scenery, and the usual glorious Howard Shore score.

Obviously, this is another Jacksonized version of Tolkien; by this point, I'm sure nobody walks into these things expecting a faithful adaptation of the books. (If it were about real people, I'd say it's more "inspired by true events" than "based on a true story.") In many ways, it's Jackson's final thank you to the fans who have loved his vision of Middle Earth, with characters from the other films being name-checked or turning up in cameos and small roles.

Even if the battle scenes run on a bit, there's no shortage of nice fight choreography, cool weapons, and badass hero moments. It would be less than honest to pretend the story isn't stretched pretty thin; this is no Return of the King, and it won't be received as such by fans or critics.

That may feel like going out with a whimper instead of a bang, but in the end it's immaterial to me. Buoyed by my strong affection for the franchise, I have no problem accepting this as a fitting goodbye, and, as with all the other movies in the series, I'm confident my love will only grow with repeat viewings.

The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies runs 144 minutes and is rated PG13 for "extended sequences of intense fantasy action violence and frightening images."

I'm not sure this a great movie--and I'm not sure it's not--but I'm mostly happy with it.

Of a possible nine Weasleys, The Hobbit: The Battle of the Five Armies gets seven.

Now, if anyone needs me, I'll be petitioning the Tolkien estate to give PJ the Silmarillion.

Until next time...

Because...reasons

[Official Main Trailer] The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The “Official Main Trailer” of the 2nd part of The Hobbit has just hit the internet. It’s appropriately epic in tone and scope. It also gives us our first full looks at the Legolas subplot, Luke Evans and Benedict Cumberbatch's Smaug, check it out below….

[Trailer] The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

The international trailer of The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug has just been released and it gives you all kinds of peeks at the 2nd installment.

We get our first live action peeks and Evangeline Lilly and Luke Evans (Who looks like Orlando Blood from The Pirates of the Caribbean movies) along with Smaug. I enjoyed the first entry more than I expected but after watching it again, it did feel stretched out, hopefully this entry will have a sleeker feel….

MOVIE REVIEW: MANIAC

Elijah Wood steps into the role made iconic by Joe Spinell in this reboot of the 1980 cult classic featuring an artistic style that takes you into the killer's POV. When a mannequin store owner (Wood) meets an attractive artist (Megan Duffy), his psychotic impulses are awakened and soon he starts a murderous rampage across L.A. Piranha 3D's screenwriting duo of Alexandre Aja and Gregory Levasseur provide the script, with P2's Franck Khalfoun handling directing duties. ~ Jeremy Wheeler, Rovi

Director: Franck Khalfoun

Cast: Elijah Wood, Nora Arnezeder, Megan Duffy

Runtime: 89 min

Rating: Not Rated

Release Date: Jun 21, 2013

Genres: Horror

Review:

The original Maniac is one of those grindhouse nasties that really captured New York in the late 70’s early 80’s. It had a tangible sense of the grime and nastiness wrapped in its cheap yet disturbing dissection of a serial killer. I’d never say it’s a classic but it’s one of the better grindhouse films from that era. The remake, stylishly directed by Frank Khalfoun, is mesmerizing unsettling walk into the mind of a self loathing killer. Khalfoun’s decision to shoot the film from the killers POV works incredibly well. We hear his thoughts yet rarely see his face as he tracks his victims; the voyeuristic nature of it all is terribly unsettling. The kills themselves are incredibly gory and not for the squeamish at all. Elijah Wood is fully committed to the role even if it amounts to narration for the better part of the film. The film has a strong bit of polish but it does borrow heavily from horror classic but beats the mommy issues into the ground with its heavy handed approach. Some subtly would have worked in the film’s favor. Still it’s probably the most disturbing serial killer film I’ve seen since Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer.

B

[Trailer] The Hobbit

Continuing the blockbuster season of trailers, the first trailer for Peter Jackson’s The Hobbit was just released and it can best be described in the cheesiest of ways but it is in fact a return to Middle Earth…..