March 21–28, 2002

movies

Re-Genre-ation

Two sequels try to reinvent the wheel.

By Sam Adams

Toxic Avenger IV

Directed by
Lloyd Kaufman
A Troma release
Opens Friday
at the Roxy

recommended

TOXIE AT THE ROXY: Toxic Avenger IV opens Friday.

The logo of Troma Entertainment proudly proclaims "Movies of the Future," but it’s pretty clear that Lloyd Kaufman and company aren’t averse to living in the past. For one thing, Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV marks the third time Troma has spun off a follow-up to the movie that put them on the exploitation-film map. (The film opens with narration that apologizes for the "rotten" quality of its two immediate predecessors and promises, "This is the real sequel.") For another, Troma’s brand of low-cost, anything-for-a-laugh (or a retch) filmmaking has largely gone the way of Super 8; as the cost of filmmaking continues to drop, the price of making a movie that sticks out above the ever-thickening herd paradoxically continues to rise (especially since, Blair Witch notwithstanding, genre audiences seem particularly averse to any variation from the tried and true, or at least any variation that doesn’t involve larger explosions and higher body counts). It’s hard to label as "clever" a movie that within its first ten minutes features a villain dressed as a giant baby shitting his diaper (in loving and extended close-up) and then being suffocated with it, but you have to admire Troma’s dedication to principle. Like most films in Troma’s stable, Citizen Toxie assaults every boundary it can locate, deliberately assaulting good taste with the gleeful abandon of a 6-year-old who’s just learned his first curse word. What, thankfully, they understand is that the glee is as important as the abandon — unlike the Farrelly-inspired wave of bad-taste comedies (but like the Farrellys themselves), Troma movies are almost never mean-spirited, even if their aggressive stupidity can wear a bit thin. (It’s one thing to gratuitously feature naked boobies at every available opportunity; it’s another to apparently base one gag on the James Byrd killing, or set another in an abortion clinic.)

There is, oh yes, a story, in which Toxie — a former New Jersey janitor transformed by toxic waste into a guardian of the downtrodden — is swapped with his evil alternate-universe twin, causing mayhem in both worlds (including the inevitable, and fairly well-executed, Charles Foster Kane gag), and including appearances by such fellow crimefighters as Sgt. Kabukiman, NYPD (another Troma fave), Dolphinman and the Masturbator (don’t ask), and the standard cameos by Ron Jeremy, Al Goldstein and Motörhead’s Lemmy. But the movie is most fun for its incidental gags, such as when Toxie makes his entrance by busting out of the substantial chest of a member of the "Really Real Bikini Team," almost certainly a slap at the Troma-pillaging antics of the Bikini Bandits crew. Watch and be warned, but watch all the same. (Incidentally, Kaufman and crew will be on hand for Friday night’s 7:30 p.m. Roxy screening, and special Toxie bashes are planned at 15th and South’s Tritone on Thursday and Friday, not to mention a signing at the 15th and Locust TLA on Friday from 4 to 6 p.m.)

Blade II

Directed by
Guillermo del Toro
A New Line release
Opens Friday at area theaters

With a lot more money and a lot less imagination, Blade II does nothing to rework its genre except amp up the pace and throw in a couple of video-game effects. Wesley Snipes, a talented actor whose dick-swinging desire to be a humorless action star would be tragic if it weren’t mainly annoying, reprises his flavorless performance as the half-human/half-vamp vampire hunter. Stealing a page from Aliens — not to mention a look from Alien3 and a cast member from Alien: Resurrection — Blade II finds Blade (Snipes) joining forces with the hated vampires to take on an even more dangerous foe: the mutated Reapers, led by one Jared Nomak (Luke Goss), who feast on vamp and human alike. Director Guillermo Del Toro (The Devil’s Backbone ), who handled genre material with aplomb in the kicky Mimic , falls into line with the slam-bang tactics that have come to dominate (and just about destroy). Recent additions include the vague nod to dance-club culture (which no doubt makes for stronger overseas performance) and the occasional offhand reference to Snipes’ race. (Ron Perlman, who, as the film’s baddest good guy, has the fun that Snipes denies himself, starts one conflict by asking Blade, "Can you blush?") But with its foreordained character types and prefab scenarios, Blade II feels more like a Mad Lib than a movie.

(sam@citypaper.net)