Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV

After “two rotten sequels were made, sorry about that“, “Troma” inaugurates the new millennium with this fourth installment of the Toxic Avenger franchise (“This is the real sequel!”). Kaufman is in top form and launches into a turbocharged opening sequence featuring a gang of dorky terrorists called the Diaper Mafia invading a school for the handicapped run by a young teacher in a “delicate condition”.

And that’s only the first of dozens of scenarios skillfully contrived by the irreverent director in order to dump bucketloads of bad taste and politically incorrect content all over moviegoers. In fact, nothing, no matter how sensitive, seems out of bounds for this director: physical and mental disabilities, homosexuality, rape, abortion, racism, drug addiction, and religion all get tossed in the blender to produce a frenetic mix of zany sketches tied together by a paper-thin plot.

Still, despite the film’s backdrop of anarchy and persistent recourse to gore, nudity, and scatological elements, Troma demonstrates yet again it knows how to employ its distinctive foul-mouthed, hyperbolic style to paint a societal portrait not too far removed from reality – something that makes a good portion of Kaufman’s work far sharper and more interesting than a superficial glance might lead one to believe. But there’s also no shortage of the usual jabs at blockbuster movies (such as “This is an American made car. Every time they flip 25 feet in the air and crash down, they blow up!“, or where red invariably indicates evil while green is the prerogative of good), as well as a series of cool movie references (from “Citizen Kane” to “The Wizard of Oz”).

Among numerous scenes worthy of mention, a couple stand out: The meeting between Toxie and a foul-mouthed God (“Tell the Pope to stop talking about me, he doesn’t know me. He’s an asshole. And tell him that his hat looks f*****g stupid!“) and the broom fight between the two fetuses. Noted porn star Ron Jeremy is improbably cast here as Tromaville’s religious (but short-lived) mayor.

Keep this film far away from innocent eyes.