The Toxic Avenger Part II

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.

Words I would use to describe this movie:

Zany. Madcap. Gory. Cartoonish. Babe-a-licious. Ultra-low-budget. Corny.

I don't recall the first one being so ridiculous. There's kind of a plot, but not really. There's kind of an antagonist, but not really. The stakes are high, sort of. To be honest, I can't really think of a reason to recommend this movie to you. You'll likely be disappointed if you enjoyed the first one. It pains me to say that, because I have a fondness for all things Troma. One gets the sense from watching this movie that it's a movie in search of an idea; perhaps that explains why there are 5 writers credited under "additional material written by." It definitely seems like the kind of script where people were throwing riffs in around an idea instead of there being one or two people with a clear vision of the story.

Tons of beautiful Japanese girls in the movie (including Mayako Katsuragi), plus the uber-sexy, innocently naughty Phoebe Legere.

You may find it charming, as I did. There isn't anything memorable here. There are some funny kills.

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!

Have never seen the first film so this part two is hilarious. Some gore and splatter shots were quite well worth the money i spent on it. Will try and check out the rest of the films if they are still available. Cheers

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