It may be possible to be bad yet entertaining at the very same time!
The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989)
Directed By: Lloyd Kaufman & Michael Herz (The Toxic Avenger)
The Prologue
As anyone who’s ever heard of Troma knows, the company was pretty much built on the cult classic from 1984 The Toxic Avenger. So needless to say Troma knew where the bread and butter was for their company. So in 1989 Troma finally got around to the sequel, The Toxic Avenger Part II. And while the results are somewhat mixed, one thing that hurt this movie is how hard it is to find it uncut. The Director’s Cut isn’t even really uncut and most the gore is gone. So since I don’t have the box set, that’s what I had to go with. And it kinda hurts things overall.
The Movie
So after Toxie did away with all the evil in Tromaville in the original film, Tromaville and it’s wacky citizens were all at peace! Even dancing in the streets! Toxie was helping his blind girlfriend, Clair at a center for the blind, and all was well and good. UNTIL! The evil Apocalypse Inc. comes to town and works up a secret plan to lure poor Toxie off to Tokyo to find his father as they reek havoc while he’s away! Will Toxie get smart and make it back to save the day?? Will the city be taken over by this comic book style gang of villains?? Will anyone care?? What the hell do you think?? Of course not! But it’s still kinda fun.
So as you’d guess everything here is done in an over the top manner and rude manner that you’d come to look for with any Troma movie, so that’s expected. What I didn’t really like however was the acting and annoying ways of Toxie’s blind girlfriend, Clair. Not only was she a recast from the first film but she just doesn’t seem to fit here for me. Sure she’s hot, but I’d still take the original Clair over this one any day of the week. Toxie also doesn’t sound like James Early Jones at random times this time around, and that kinda sucks for people who loved that part of the original.
Toxie being in Tokyo, while funny at times, wasn’t as great as you might thing. I dunno why really but this factor just doesn’t click very well for me. This was clearly the time when for sequels everyone figured it was OK just to send the star of the film to another place. It says a lot that they were already doing this for part 2 of a franchise. But at least they didn’t send him to space or the hood. However, I bet we’d have liked Toxie in the hood a lot more than Tokyo!..Or at least I would have but that’s just me. There’s a few laughs anyway, just not to the amount that it covers up the mistakes or sells the plot that well.
Oh, and speaking of a plot. The one here is a little cookie cutter and kinda anti-climatic. That of course is due to the fact the original cut of Toxie 2 was four hours long so they naturally did a smart thing and got a two for one out of it by cutting it in half and putting out the second half as part 3. So I guess any sudden solution to this one and feeling of emptiness once the credits roll could always be credited to that fact. It’s not like it matters that much. I don’t think anyone watches a Troma film for a masterpiece, just a good time. And you KINDA get that at times with Toxie 2. You at least get a bad ass theme song!
So in the end with The Toxic Avenger Part II, you get a movie that kinda has it’s moments. You may chuckle from time to time. Then of course you might roll your eyes and snooze off from time to time as well. Probably not the greatest in the Toxie franchise as I’m still a big fan of part 1. But we’ll see how it holds up as I get through part 3 and 4 this week. But for part 2, it may be worth watching if you just love Troma and The Toxie Avenger, but don’t look for anything too groundbreaking here.
The Conclusion
Well…it is what it is my friends! It’s Troma, it’s The Toxic Avenger, it’s crude, and it’s in kinda bad taste, BUT a few of you will like it I’m sure. But a lot of you will probably not. Soo it’s just all depending on your personal taste in films when it comes to this old school movie here. I’d lean towards saying it’s worth a watch, but I’ll freely admit it’s not that good, just kinda entertaining in a very odd way.
The Rating (5/10)
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