The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie

The previous two Toxic Avenger films managed a total 5 points out of a potential 20 from me so it goes without saying that Troma hardly have a fan here.

The companies most famous character returns for a third and perhaps worst outing. Here Toxie sells his soul to the devil in order to raise the money for his girlfriends eye surgery, and that's basically it.

Unlike part 2 there aren't even any purile gags to be found here and the whole thing is cringe inducing. If a 5yr old were given money to have a movie filmed based on their writing I'm pretty sure this is what it'd look like.

Toxic vomit, men in tutus, another awkward Toxie sex scene and random dog people are to be found and little else. Childish, dumb and I can't believe there is another one and that I'm going to watch it.

The Good:

Consistent cast

The Bad:

Simply not funny

Things I Learnt From This Movie:

Intestines make great skipping ropes

Tattoo removal in the 80's was savage!

Redneck Zombies was not a Disney film

I'm probably the only person that likes this installment. Even Kaufman himself doesnt care for it but I like this one. I can't really compare it to part II becuase c'mon..it's pretty much the same movie just a 2nd half. Toxie III is the 2nd half of an overlong movie that was split down the middle. It opens with an awesome scene a video store with Troma posters covering the place , some bonehead criminals pop in to cause trouble attacking the role Troma plays on consumer favorites like anything released by Warner Bros and MGM. It's also an attack on how mainstream chain video stores like Movie Gallery and Blockbuster are driving independent mom n pop video stores out which always have an awesome variety of movies..especially low budget horror on their shelves. Toxie bust in as a symbol of Troma's stance on cleaning up these corporations with some grissly death scenes..ahh how funny jump roping with intestines is. After this Toxie isnt having as much fun as he used to , he's resorted to stopping old ladies from cheating at cards..to getting kids to eat their lima beans. That annoying girlfriend Claire can get her eyes corrected with an operation..all Toxie needs is money. He signs a deal with Apoclypse Inc the corporation he ran out in Part II and gets her the operation.. And so Toxie becomes the most horrible thing of all..a yuppie. Clearly taking a stab at the Reagan era spoiled brats Toxie III has the least action in the series..in fact the entire middle is pretty lifeless until the chairman (again Rick Collins) reveals himself to be none other than the Devil himself and challenges Toxie to the Levels Of Doom. In the end..you'll just have to see it. Definitly not the best in the series..but hey..it's got it's moments see it anyway...but probably only really worth it in the Unrated Directors Cut since the R version omits most of the gore in the first half.

Continuing my descent into Troma's Toxic Avenger saga, I've arrived at the third film: THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE. In reality this movie is less a "Part III" and more a "Part II, Part II" because, as I've learned, writer/director Lloyd Kaufman originally intended for the second and third parts (as we know them) to be one big sequel instead of two small ones. He ended production with too much material and made the decision to split it into two movies. TOXIC AVENGER II makes slightly more sense now in retrospect. In that movie, the evil Apocalypse Inc. establishes itself as the big bad corporate villain with its eyes set on ruining Tromaville and the environment before disappearing while the Toxic Avenger toyed around in Tokyo for the bulk of the run time. In TOXIC AVENGER III, we return to that plot thread except now the timeline is all screwy. Let me see if I've got this straight…in PART II, Apocalypse Inc. goes full evil right from the start with an attack on the Toxic Avenger and all his blind friends. Before Toxie can retaliate, Apocalypse Inc. creates a diversion with rumors of Toxie's father living in Tokyo. After all that Japan business is concluded, Toxie returns home in time to stop a bomber/assassin that Apocalypse Inc. hired to blow up…something. At the start of PART III, we jump into Toxie cleaning up the damage Apocalypse has done to the town starting with a local video rental store that's being shaken down by Apocalypse goons.

Then we flashback (for some reason) to a week prior when the whole plot of PART III kicks off: Toxie feels guilty that he's not contributing financially to the toxic household (he and blind girlfriend Claire are living off her government assistance). Claire receives a letter in the mail promoting an experimental surgery that can restore her eyesight and Toxie get s a job at Apocalypse Inc. to foot the cost of the procedure. Let me repeat that: he gets a job with Apocalypse Inc. The evil conglomerate that murdered all his blind friends in the opening of PART II and tried to murder a bunch more people with a bomb on a motorcycle. He completely disregards their evil nature and gets a job with them as their spokesperson, and then he wonders why everyone in town has turned on him. The third film's subtitle, THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE, refers to Toxie's employment with Apocalypse and his eventual redemption when he realizes what everyone else already knew: Apocalypse is evil and he's a sell-out. The plot, while slightly more complex than that of PART II, is still incredibly simplistic and stupid. We know from the very beginning what's going to happen: it's all going to culminate in a final battle of the Toxic Avenger versus Satan. If the title wasn't obvious enough, the poster art featuring the Toxic Avenger duking it out with the Dark One should be a solid giveaway. Writing is not Troma's strength. Trust me, I get that at this point.

My point is that Troma works best when it goes full force into the crazier material: brutal graphic violence against criminals and scantily clad women. Seeing as how this and PART II were originally meant to be one complete film, it really feels like it wasn't split evenly in terms of content. PART II is almost entirely insane, creative (and often stupid) action sequences linked together with the most meager of story threads, and PART III is mostly poorly written story bookended with an action scene at the beginning (in the video rental store) and the final battle with the devil (which accounts for almost a third of the movie by itself). The entire middle section of the film relies on the subpar plot of Toxie working for Apocalypse and becoming a yuppie. This means that entire segment is dependent on Troma's brand of…ugh…"comedy." This fails because Troma's (or at least writers Kaufman and Gay Partington Terry) brand of humor is lame jokes you'd expect from an out-of-touch uncle. For example, one such "rip-roarer" comes with one of Toxie's earliest attempts at employment as an agent of the Internal Revenue Service. Toxie, with a suit and briefcase, approaches a home and he's run off when the family starts throwing anything they can find at the taxman (mostly clothes hangers and Easter baskets for some reason). Isn't it hilarious! People hate taxes! What about the part when Toxie awkwardly uses "Wall Street" lingo on the phone! Isn't that just so wacky! I didn't think so either.

If you can suffer through almost an hour of that, you arrive at the final battle against Satan who, no surprise, was head of Apocalypse the whole time. There's a glimmer of hope as he reveals his true form through some good ol' Troma effects. Once he arrives, Satan decides he wants to torment Toxie in the style of a video game as weakly foreshadowed in an early scene where Toxie is playing some arcade game with a generic title like "Five Levels of Doom." As cool as that sounds, any enthusiasm I managed to muster was quelled when I realized it wouldn't be anywhere near as cool as promised. Regardless, that final battle and opening video store fight are enough to find something worthy of recommendation here. This is definitely the worst Toxic Avenger film I've seen. There's no denying that. It has its moments: the Devil transformation, some of the gore effects, and surprisingly Phoebe Legere. She didn't contribute much to PART II but I enjoyed her a lot more this time around. It's probably because they actually gave her something relevant to do. She even gets a crack at an inspiring speech when she's not bumbling around wildly. But the bottom line is that THE LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE is a major fumble and fails to meet even Troma's already lower standards.

The third TOXIC AVENGER film (aka LAST TEMPTATION OF TOXIE, 1989) by Herz/Kaufman pair is not too interesting anymore because it seems to rely more and more on the inept "humor" that would be found in the many other Troma films, too, but which was much more intelligent and critical in the frist TOXIC. Still the third part includes even Satan and an internal moral fight of the protagonist mutant which are welcome additions to the dramatic structure of the monster story! There are some nice and even clever camera tricks and angles (like the school bus terror) and naturally lots of ridiculous sexual situations and (some) ultra gore, but when compared to the originality and great dialogue of the first movie and the ultra wild and still pretty fresh feel of the second part, this third movie seems more and more just a money taker and not so great a (trash) movie anymore. Usually if a sequel has many segments or scenes from a previous film (usually from part one), that tells something about the obvious lack of new ideas and in addition to this sequel in question, that can also be found among others in an awful Sonny Chiba sequel to his Japanese karate flick THE STREET FIGHTER (1974), THE RETURN OF THE STREET FIGHTER (1975). These films don't have anything else in common for sure but both sequels tell the same thing.

The best thing about Toxic Avenger Part III is the poster art. The film starts off pretty good with a fight at Tromaville Video. This is probably the highlight of the movie. Make sure you watch the Unrated version as the R Rated version removes almost all of the gore.

Once again Toxie has rid Tromaville of all evil, or so he thinks. What is an out of work superhero to do? Toxie signs a contract with Apocalypse Inc. To make enough money to buy his girlfriend an operation that will restore her eye sight. Corporate Toxie becomes blind to what is going on right under his nose in Tromaville. He's letting the bad guys takeover his town. His girlfriend convinces him to finally open his eyes, and he realizes that he's sold his soul to the Devil. To break the contract Toxie must play the Seven Levels of Doom and win or the Devil himself will rule over Tromaville and Toxie's friends.

This entry is the most disappointing of the series, and much like Part II, I really enjoyed this film when I was younger. Toxic Avenger Part III hasn't held up very well, and will probably have the greatest appeal to those who are viewing it for the first time.