Toxic Avenger Part II, The |
  • USA • 1989 • 102m •   • Directed by: Michael Herz, Lloyd Kaufman. • Starring: Ron Fazio, John Altamura, Phoebe Legere, Rick Collins, Rikiya Yasuoka, Tsutomu Sekine, Mayako Katsuragi, Shinoburyû, Lisa Gaye, Jessica Dublin, Jack Cooper, Erika Schickel, Bonnie Garvin. • Music by: Barrie Guard.     The Toxic Avenger is lured to Tokyo, Japan by the evil corporation Apocalypse Inc. So while the Toxic Avenger is fighting crime in Tokyo, Apocalypse Inc. spread evil in Tromaville.
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Review:
The year 1989 came around and Kaufman and Herz decided to make sequel and a quick buck as well, and thus 'The Toxic Avenger: Part II' was born. There are a lot of fun moments here with this sequel, but Kaufman and Herz decided the more over- the-top this is, the better the film will be. That's not always the case, as is here with Part II. Instead of telling a somewhat cohesive story from start to finish and furthering along the Toxie character in their own Troma way, Kaufman and Herz decided to drag out gross out and gooey scenes too long and put together a bunch of schlocky-silly skits together with blood and guts, rather than keep the story flowing.
Don't get me wrong, there are some genuine good moments here, but they wear out there welcome rather quickly, even when the crew heads to Japan for a change of scenery. After the events of the first film, Toxie lives with his girlfriend and works at the center for the blind. The town he lives in is free of the bad guys, where everyone lives more or less a hippy lifestyle. Low and behold though, the evil people at Apocalypse Inc., the evil corporation whose sole purpose is to pollute the Earth has a new sinister plan.
However, they know that The Toxic Avenger will stand in their way of their cruel schemes, thus they try to kill Toxie. Meanwhile, Toxie is dealing with his own personal demons in addition to brutally killing the bad guys. He has sever depression and wants to know who his real father is, which sets him out on a journey via windsurfing to Japan to locate his father. It seems like Troma would have quite the character study here, but let's get serious for a minute. This is Troma, and Troma is mostly just interested in more nudity, gore, and violence.
One of the unfortunate things here is that Kaufman and Herz throw all the playing cards on the table in the first fifteen minutes of the movie in one long action scene of destruction, and the film never recovers. They literally blew their wad too early. There are a few later scenes that pack this kind of action, but it is very short lived with long gaps of slow pacing problems. In the end, I still love that this sequel is part of the whole Toxie franchise, but it's very inconsistent and riddled with trying to go the extra mile than telling a cohesive story.
Review by Bryan Kluger from the Internet Movie Database.
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