The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989)

When Troma Entertainment created The Toxic Avenger in 1984, they stumbled upon a formula that would make them the kings of goofy, no-budget sleaze. With their combination of cheesy effects, bad acting, and general outrageousness, Troma makes the kind of movies that only a fan of Z-grade schlock could love.

And while Troma has never really reached mainstream success, they've had their share of cult hits. Their most famous, however, has remained The Toxic Avenger. It even got a few sequels, too. It was the broadcasting of the second and third entries into the franchise on USA Up All Night during the '90s that introduced me to — and made me a fan of — Troma. So let's dig in and see if they hold up as well as I felt they did when I first found them.

A few years have passed since Melvin Junko (Ron Fazio and John Altamura) became the mutated superhero known as "The Toxic Avenger" and cleaned up his hometown of Tromaville. Without any evil to defeat, he has to pass the time elsewhere. Thus, he's taken on a job working with his girlfriend Claire (Phoebe Legere) at the Tromaville Center for the Blind. But little does Toxie know that he will soon have an opportunity to resume his crimefighting career.

When Toxie's psychiatrist convinces him to search for his long-lost father in Tokyo, the evil chemical company Apocalypse, Inc. uses his absence to conquer Tromaville. And though Toxie is horrified to learn his father is not the man he had hoped for, he'll be even more horrified when he learns what has happened to his hometown.

When I look back on when I first started watching those late-night monster movie shows that I loved so much, I remember thinking that the Toxic Avenger sequels were awesome. But when I watched them again recently, for the first time in over a decade, I didn't think they were as hot as I'd remembered them being.

Specifically, the problem with the second one is that it feels hastily put together. The ending comes off as being rushed and shortened, probably a consequence of the movie technically being the first half of what was supposed to be a longer movie. I also got the impression that, thanks to Toxie's frequent expository narration, there were a lot of scenes that were either cut out or simply not shot. The movie's roughly an hour and a half long, but feels like it's only an hour. It's as if the movie just stops after a while.

The whole thing starts to fall apart once Toxie meets the Japanese drug smuggler he thinks is his father. The movie was having trouble as it was, but once their big fight scene is over, the movie doesn't know what to do anymore. There's this stupid scene where Toxie learns the art of sumo wrestling, which doesn't pay off until the very end of Part III, then he goes back to Tromaville and gets into a big overblown car chase, then it just ends. It's lame and just kinda sad, really.

Once again at the helm are Toxie's creators, Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz. I've basically just spent the last two paragraphs talking about all the flaws in the movie, but there are a handful of positives in Kaufman and Herz's direction. I thought they shot the movie very well, with the footage in Japan looking particularly good. They could have spent a little time in the editing room, however. A lot of scenes go on for far too long, and a lot of extended jokes just aren't funny to begin with. Those could have really stood to be either trimmed down or excised all together.

Part of the problem may be to blame on the script, written by Kaufman and Gay Partington Terry. Like I said, some of the jokes aren't as funny as the movie seems to think they are. And I didn't think the movie really needed to spend so much damn time in Japan. The whole thing probably could have been worked into one movie instead of two had Toxie's Asian adventures consumed so much of Part II. It's just so frustrating to see the movie fall on its face like it does, but it's more frustrating knowing that the potential for a decent enough sequel was right there and ended up being wasted.

The cast doesn't help anything either. I know Troma movies aren't supposed to have acting that's particularly good, but holy crap, does the cast suck. Whoever dubbed the Japanese actors was bad enough, but the worst offender is Phoebe Legere. If I were to compile a list of the worst actresses I've ever seen, Legere would be near the top. She's so awful and so annoying that if I never see her in a movie outside of the Toxic Avenger sequels, I'd be okay with that.

The cast wasn't a total loss, though. Ron Fazio is fun as the Toxic Avenger (though John Altamura does play the character in some scenes), and Rick Collins is so over-the-top as the chairman of Apocalypse, Inc. that you can hear him overacting even in the scenes in Japan. I mean, wow. Collins doesn't just chew the scenery, he swallows it whole. He practically turns overacting into a work of art.

Sadly, The Toxic Avenger Part II didn't hold up like I thought it would. Truth be told, I'm actually kinda disappointed. It just wasn't as entertaining as I remembered it being. Yeah, it has its moments, but the movie wears out its welcome after a while. So on the usual scale, The Toxic Avenger Part II gets two and a half stars. Hopefully Part III will hold up better than Part II did.

Final Rating: **½