The Toxic Avenger Part II

Toxic Avenger part II receives a lot of flak from reviewers, and I am not surprised: Troma, in their foolishness, decided to sell the R-rated version on DVD with cover boasting an unrated cut. Ignorant consumers naturally thought this WAS the unrated cut, which is but a pile of forgettable dross with all the gleeful violence and nudity cut out by the MPAA. (and most inexplainably of all, the fate of the Japanese thug girl is completely removed, which doesn't contain any hardcore violence in the first place!) Unfortunately (or fortunately, rather) I have only heard about the notorious censored version, as I myself got the Tox Box which contained the TRUE unrated cut, and trust me when I say that it is almost on par with the first movie. The first film was a huge hit in Japan, and Troma received additional sponsorship from that very country, which is why they went there to make their film. Naturally, the plot to get Toxie to Japan is absolutely ridiculous, but that's Troma for you.

Personally, I rate this film actually higher than the first, mostly because of the much higher production values which do indeed show: gone are the pumpkin-head children and cheap gore effects, as this time we see some genuine splatter, such as a man being squeezed to death in a wheelchair, literally causing him to spill his guts...or a man being chopped up by a very distracted fish marketer!

The Toxic Avenger, Part II (1989) by the Troma lunatics Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman continutes the adventures of Toxie, a nuclear waste mutant monster hero, and his attempts to maintain peace in his home town, a world of its own (especially in Part I), Tromaville. And so on. Unlike the first film with many clever and satiric elements in it, the sequel concentrates more on the not-so-clever humor and jokes and extremely over-the-top ultra gore and violence that have often been censored (the Japanese VHS, the US Tox Box DVD set and, surprisingly, the Finnish videotape RE-release are as uncut as possible & director's editions) and for a better reason than in Part I. The effects are quite splashy and nasty. There are some genuinely funny moments and bits of dialogue (especially dealing with the Japan/USA territory and cultural differences and also genuine acceptance of foreign people, something that, for example, many Hong Kong exploitation films rarely achieve or dare to do) but the spark of freshness is gone. There is also a James Bond spoof that may be funny for some; at least the long chace is well shot even though the budget for the sequel was notably higher than in the first film. Ultra gory, ultra toxic and often ultra stupid but honest trash cinema.

Troma really are the pits, I was debating whether Troma or Fullmoon made the worst movies but I think I can confidently say that Troma takes the title.

With an immense catalogue of movies they're known for The Toxic Avenger and Class of Nukem High franchises above all else and I'm shocked to say I haven't seen them all.

Made 5yrs after the original Toxie gets not one but two films in the same year and this second outing is a marginal improvement on the embarassing (Yet somehow cult) original.

Toxie ventures off to Japan to find his real father while the evil Apocalypse Inc take over the town in his absence. So yeah, there is the "Plot".

Full of madcap slapstick humour I'd say about 90% of jokes not only miss the mark but miss trip backflip land on their head and urinate themselves. I like that type of humour, but it's so purile and you can tell that it was written by Kaufman! Yes if you've read any other reviews he's been mentioned in you'll understand that I think he has the talent of a Kardashian.

Interesting nugget of information, the film briefly features Michael Jai White in his very first on screen role! I'd imagine he's not proud of that but I'm sure it got better after that...............oh wait, his second role was The Toxic Avenger Part III? Poor sod!

The Good:

A couple of laughs

The Bad:

Simply not funny

Alike every Troma film it just all looks so terrible

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Dancing in the street is a principal activity

Nobody wants to see their father in a diaper

I actually appreciate how they manage to top themselves in absurdity from the last movie. What makes this film stand out is how stupid its plot is. It features the Toxic Avenger finding out his father lives in Tokyo, but it's a ploy to lure him away from his home town, so an evil corporation known as Apocalypse can take it over. What makes this really dumb is how this guy actually intends to go to Tokyo and just ask around for his dad. I think that's like the biggest city on Earth! How did anybody know these two would find each other? It gets even dumber in the climax. The villain shows off a chemical that can destroy the Toxic Avenger, but then he sends his henchmen on him.

Yeah, they just spend ten minutes of him fighting the henchman, even though this is all completely pointless because his fake father could just use the chemical on him! I don't know what emotion this movie is trying to give. There were a few entertaining little moments. I liked it when he said that if the town was destroyed, there wouldn't be a Toxic Avenger III. Granted, that's a bad thing. The original film, while not good, at least set up some interesting characters and made more sense with its wackiness. Unless you're a Troma fan, you can just skip this one. *1/2

Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz are not directors of Oscar awards caliber due to their version what they consider entertainment. The kinds of movies they make lean on the edge of soft core pornography with the amount of gratuitous sex involved. This however only amplifies those who enjoy movies in this kind of raunchy genre. Considered among their best work though was The Toxic Avenger (1984). Not because it was deep in any aspect, but because of the pure spectacle the movie created with its limited budget, gory practical effects and simple story of seeing good triumph over evil. It was their way of doing a superhero story in the style they knew best. With that success in viewership, the two felt it was time for a sequel five years down the road. Maybe sticking with one was enough.

The story continues a little time after the events of the first. Melvin Junko now known as Toxi (John Altamura) has rid his home of all the evil from Tromaville. That is until another evil entity enters the picture under the name Apocalypse Inc. Headed by the chairman (Rick Collins). In order for the company to take control the last place they need to conquer is Tromaville and they need Toxi out of the way. With that, they trick him into traveling to Japan to find his estranged father. This time, this sequel was penned by Kaufman and now Gay Partington Terry who helped provide additional material to the first film. The second entry isn't far worse than the first but it is not easy to get through a lot of the time. Continuity is a bit of an issue here.

For one, Toxi's original love interest Sara (Andree Maranda) doesn't appear here. Instead, his new interest is Claire (Phoebe Legere), who also happens to be blind. So what was the point of renaming the character? The continuity seems to be unchecked here. Additionally, the story is lacking being that the original film had a basic idea which was understandable and got to the point. This particular entry has less of a story as the main characters are boiled down to one dimensional individuals with no real depth. The Apocalypse Inc. Company is just an idea. It has no real weight in the story as the people behind it have no significance either. Again though, this is probably what Kaufman found to work in the original and just amplified it more. Worser still, the run time is unnecessary as the extra twenty minutes pads out the experience.

Scene after scene it feels like things carry on for far too long. Fight sequences drag, dialogs feel like they go nowhere, while car chases go on and on. Either the pacing needed to be sped up or the run time needed to be cut. The acting from the main cast is as campy as one would expect after seeing the original film, which at this point is okay and expected. John Altamura as Toxi looks very much like Mitch Cohen of the first movie. Phoebe Legere as Toxi's new girlfriend is fine too. Rick Collins as the chairman bares his teeth for almost every scene he's in. Rikiya Yasuoka who plays Toxi's father does the same thing by over exaggerating his facial expressions. Helping Toxi find his father in Japan is Masami (Mayako Katsuragi) who is played okay for an actress with broken English.

Believe it or not, this was also the film debut for Michael Jai White who would later play in Spawn (1997). Visually speaking Kaufman kept the over the top gore and practical effects which come into play for this film. It is still quite grotesque and disgusting but that is what gave the first film its charm too, so credit is due there. The camerawork fits in line with keeping the effects realistic but that's about it. James A. Lebovitz who did an okay job on the first seemed to have missed the mark here. While the some of the settings take place on the streets of Japan, there's nothing that exciting to see or watch when it comes to the action. Even more interesting is that the music improved a little with the help of composer Barrie Guard actually creating a recurring theme for Toxi but overall, since there is no official score it is still not that noticeable.

While acting and practical effects remain the strongest attributes of the franchise in terms of likability, the rest of the feature is hard to get to the end. Music and cinematography aren't that special with really bare bones storytelling. Plus, the runtime and pacing make it painfully slow to watch.