Atomic College 2

This sequel to the 1986 cult classic "Class of Nuke 'Em High" is a rather disappointing film. The action takes place at the Tromaville Institute of Technology or T. I. T. For short. College newspaper reporter Roger Smith (Brick Bronsky) strikes out with all the ladies. He volunteers for a sexual experiment to score and a get a nice $8.00. Roger falls in love with Victoria, a subhuman being that is part of the experiment. The subhumans have lips in their navel. When Roger discovers this he is put off, but his love for Victoria reigns supreme.

There is a problem with the subhumans eventually melting down. Roger must find a way to save his love before she turns into a big pile of goo.

There are some cool things about this sequel like Tromie the giant mutant squirrel, but Class of Nuke 'Em High II is just an attempt to cash in on the popularity of the original film. Although Troma has produced some real duds, they've also made some the best B horror movies too. For hardcore fans only! If you want to watch some good sequels to Class of Nuke 'Em High skip straight to Return to Nuke 'Em High Volumes 1 and 2.

Before I start, I feel I should reveal that long ago I was a Troma fan. I loved movies like "The Toxic Avenger" and "Troma's War". But the last Troma movie I liked was "Tromeo & Juliet" - after that, with movies like "Citizen Toxie", "Terror Firmer", and "Poultrygeist", I just didn't find their brand of humor funny anymore. They now seem to be trying too hard, screaming in our ears "HA HA, ISN'T THIS FUNNY?" Anyway, when I got my hands on "Class Of Nuke 'Em High Part II", I decided I would give it a chance, seeing it came from Troma during the period that they were at their height.

Unfortunately, I found this older movie to be just as bad as the product Troma is currently putting out - possibly even worse. The screenplay credit lists SIX writers, which should give you some idea of what a mess the final product is. It's such a mess, that the movie often depends on a narrator to explain some of the characters and what's going on. But there's still a lot about the movie that will have you scratch your head. Every character is basically running around screaming and not much more. None of this is funny, and nothing about the movie is funny, unless you find the idea of a library named after President Nixon funny. There's also an awful music score, and a feeling that the director is trying to be grotesque in every shot.

There's one good thing in the movie. There are some stop-motion animated sequences, and they're quite good for what was a very low budget. But even if you're interested in animation, you should still skip this movie.

A perfectly good entry in the Nuke 'Em High series. Lots of toxic goodness for everyone. I've seen some terrible movies made recently which don't come close to these sub standards of movie making. But seriously it not serious and that why you watch this stuff, its time to chill out and laugh. Exactly what I wanted it to be.

My review was written in March 1991 after watching the movie on video cassette.

Troma will have a hard time booking this unwarranted sequel, an incoherent mess that plays more like a trailer than a feature. Curiosity seekers in video stores represent the target audience.

Press kit ludicrously credits director Eric Louzil with discovering Kevin Costner. Actually he held back the thesp's career by hiring him for a couple of exploitation films a decade ago. Louzil demonstrates here that he has no feel for satire or comedy, absolute prerequisites for a Troma pic. Instead, most scenes consist of people running around aimlessly.

Beefcake star Brick Bronsky narrates a film-long flashback, a necessity given the lack of exposition in the live action. He's writing for the campus paper at Tromaville Institute of Technology, a combination college/nuclear power plant. Mad scientist Prof. Holt (attractive Lisa Gaye wearing piled up hairdo exaggerated from John Waters' "Hairspray") has created a race of drone subhumanoid workers, including beautiful Victoria (Leesa Rowland).

Unfortunately, they are subject to an ailment that causes them to melt into green goo. While Holt is working on the antidote, a squirrel turns into a Godzilla-type monster and stomps on some obvious miniatures.

An unfunny running gag insistas on the subhumanoids having mouths where their belly buttons should be. This is an excuse for plenty of topless footage of starlets, including porn star Trinity Loren. Production is so sloppy that a scene of bald subhumanoids has one of them portrayed by porn actres Sharon Mitchell with her normal hairdo.

Lead cast members have trouble reading lines and the dumb sound effects aren't very funny. Makeup and stop-motion effects are strictly amateurish.

Class of Nuke 'Em High Part II: Subhumanoid Meltdown (1991)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

The Troma school from the first nuclear disaster has been cleaned up and now it has been turned into a college. Wannabe reporter Roger Smith (Brick Bronsky) covers the story of what happens to the school that turned it back into a nuclear disaster as well as a giant mutant squirrel that breaks loose.

I honestly wasn't the biggest fan of the original movie but there's no question that it's a lot better than this sequel. I'm sure Troma die-hards are going to love whatever they put out but to me this sequel is just a complete waste of time. You'll notice during the opening credits that there were six people credited with the screenplay but perhaps a seventh pair of hands would have helped things.

The first film, like Troma's THE TOXIC AVENGER, was just an offensive, gory and over-the-top film that mixed horror and comedy. Say what you want about Troma's style but these early politically incorrect films were a lot of fun. It seems that the sequels to THE TOXIC AVENGER and CLASS OF NUKE 'EM HIGH were greeted with a lot of hate because they weren't as outrageous. In the years since there release it seems to be that Troma had to deliver a more "R-rated" film and that's what happened.

With that being said, there are all sorts of problems here including the film just being a complete mess and it really does seem like they had no idea what they wanted to do with the picture so they basically took the first film and re-made it but without the laughs and humor. The film features all the bad acting and bad special effects that you'd expect from Troma but it's just not funny or entertaining this time out.

What was really awful was the non-stop narration, which was just annoying after a while. It also didn't help that the characters were all forgettable and that includes the giant squirrel.