The Toxic Avenger (2023) review

After being informed by his physician that he has a terminal neurological disease and requires expensive medication to treat it, custodian Winston Gooze (Peter Dinklage) asks his employer Bob Garbinger (Kevin Bacon) - who owns a pharmaceutical company that's destroying the environment - for a more extensive insurance plan to cover the cost, and not only is he mocked for his request but he's shot and tossed into a vat of toxic waste which transforms him into a green mutant with super powers.  As a reboot of the Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman production from 1984, it does include some graphic visual effects - heads sliced in half, baddies getting disemboweled, etc. - but it completely lacks the same gritty and low-budgeted "charm" of a midnight movie, and tries too hard to be "irreverent."  The cast - which includes Elijah Wood playing Bob's deformed brother, Jacob Tremblay as Gooze's anxious step-son and Taylour Paige sneaking around as a whistleblower/investigative journalist - is far better than this deserves: the reason the original became a "cult classic" was precisely because the individuals who made it did not possess any actual talent.