USA 2000 109m Directed by: Lloyd Kaufman. Starring: David Mattey, Clyde Lewis, Heidi Sjursen, Paul Kyrmse, Joe Fleishaker, Dan Snow, Michael Budinger, Lisa Terezakis, Barry Brisco, Debbie Rochon, Ron Jeremy, Corey Feldman, Trent Haaga. Music by: Wes Nagy.
When the notorious Diaper Mafia take hostage the Tromaville School for the Very Special, only the Toxic Avenger and his morbidly obese sidekick Lardass can save Tromaville. However, an explosion results in some unforeseeable consequences, creating a dimensional tear between Tromaville and its dimensional mirror image, Amortville. While the Toxic Avenger (Toxie) is trapped in Amortville, Tromaville comes under the control of Toxie's evil doppelganger, the Noxious Offender (Noxie). Will Toxie return to Tromaville in time to stop Noxie's rampage or is he doomed to remain a second-class citizen in Amortville forever? How did Toxie's wife Sarah become pregnant with two babies from two different fathers? Will Tito, the Retarded Rebel, ever get over his teen angst and become a productive member of society?
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Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV starts as a gang of terrorists known as the Diaper Mafia led by Tex Diaper (co-writer Trent Haaga) storm the Tromaville school for the very special & hold a class of very special kids & they're teacher hostage. The Toxic Avenger (David Mattey) & his sidekick Lardass (Joe Fleishaker) are on the case, they confront the gang in an attempt to rescue the kids but discover Tex has rigged a bomb to explode. Which it does. The resulting explosion opens an interdimensional hole in which the Toxic Avenger is transported to Tromadu, an exact opposite of Tromaville while his evil opposite from Tromadu known as the Noxic Offender ends up in Tromaville. Still with me? Good. The Noxic Avenger starts to systematically slaughter the residents of Tromaville & cause mayhem the Toxic Avenger finds himself in a place where he is considered evil, he must find a way back to his beloved Tromaville & stop the Noxic Avenger & his reign of evil...
Co-written, co-produced & directed by Lloyd Kaufman this is the fourth, & to date the last, Toxic Avenger film & is a huge improvement on the first two sequels especially Part III. The script by Kaufman, Patrick Cassidy, Gabriel Friedman & Trent Haaga feels much more like the original film with a decent & at times amusing blend of gross out humour & outrageous gore that has something to offend most. From poking fun at retards in a scene when the Diaper Mafia burst into their class with machine guns & their teacher says duck to which they all start quacking & flapping their arms! The collection of lame superheros like Dolphin man & Master-Bator who can shoot massive amounts of white sticky liquid from his crotch area! There's plenty of the usual childish juvenile Troma bad taste humour with lots of fart gags, making fun of people with disability, toilet humour, male prostitutes & large mutant penis monsters who try to rape Toxie up the rear, there's something here for everyone & I thought the way everyone referred to the retards as 'special' was funny. The gore & violence are also back in this entry, everything is turned up to the max & there's a real energy running through this one almost as if the filmmakers actually cared about the finished product, not something I could say with regard to that many Troma films. The story is fun, it moves along like a rocket & is a pretty entertaining & funny film if you have a slightly twisted sense of humour. All that rubbishy narration is gone as well & the film has proper dialogue.
Director Kaufman surely hasn't made a better film? This one is actually quite competent with reasonable special effects, a nice sense of fun. Another Troma character Sgt. Kabukiman makes an appearance while the Toxic Avenger himself looks different this time around with a much better make-up job. The gore is back big time, there are numerous crushed heads including an old lady having her head run over, people have there intestines ripped out, someone has their arms ripped off, someone has a stake shoved through their throat, there's loads of blood as dozens of people are killed, limbs are severed, tongues & eyes are pulled out, people are gunned down & Mad Cowboy gets put through a meat mincing machine with blood spurting results plus a whole load more as well. There's plenty of nudity as well with enough lesbianism & sex to satisfy.
Technically the film is alright, when compared to a multi million dollar Hollywood production than it's not going to hold up that well but for a Troma film this is Oscar worthy stuff. The acting was OK, again considering this is Troma.
Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV is much better than the usual Troma film & is a fairly decent watch on it's own, maybe not quite as good as the original but it's up there, definitely worth a watch for those with a questionable sense of humour & those with the stomach. The other Toxic Avenger films are The Toxic Avenger (1985), The Toxic Avenger, Part II (1989) & the truly terrible The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie (1989).
Review by Paul Andrews from the Internet Movie Database.