Leofwine_draca THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II is Troma's energetic follow-up to the first movie, which itself was something of a cult hit. I found this more enjoyable in some cases, because it does away with the stupidity of plotting and instead focuses on dishing up B-movie ingredient after B-movie ingredient. There are cheesy one-liners, lots of bad, over the top acting, and endless action sequences as Toxie beats up one goofy henchman after another. The gore is plentiful, cheap, and splashes about all over the place, and the special effects are endearingly bad. The shift of milieu to Japan makes for some interesting situations. You know, I think this might just be the best of the four-part TOXIC AVENGER series.

brando647 Time to continue my self-introduction to the world of Troma Entertainment. Reacting to vague memories from childhood of the "Toxic Crusaders" cartoon, I've taken the liberty of ordering the Toxic Avenger film series so I can see where the character originated. Plus, until now, I haven't dove into the world of Troma before. I started with THE TOXIC AVENGER and found it simplistic, crude, often stupid, but also fun and with a great indie filmmaker spirit shining through. From there, I've moved on to the second adventure of the "first superhero from New Jersey" where he travels to Japan in search of his estranged father. I don't know what happened in the five years between the release of the first film and the second but somehow the filmmakers have gotten worse at, well, movie making. What's strange about THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II is how that actually made the movie more fun than the original. The first film maintained, at least, a linear progressive storyline: local loser Melvin is tormented by the bullies of Tromaville, a prank goes awry and he becomes doused in toxic waste, and he becomes a superhero, cleaning up the local evils while defending his good name against those who believe him to be a monster. In PART II, Lloyd Kaufman and fellow screenwriter Gay Partington Terry decided people were more interested in the gory, fantastical violence than the "plot" and focused their sequel on just that. Maybe they were right. They definitely pushed the limits.Start to finish, TOXIC AVENGER PART II is just a series of excuses to engage in fight scenes and give the Toxic Avenger chances to get creative in how he murders villains. The first twenty minutes or so of the movie are one giant action sequence when the movie's villains, Apocalypse Inc., unleash a small army of thugs on the Tromaville Home for the Blind in hopes of running off/killing its inhabitants and turning it into yet another toxic waste disposal site. Of course, the Toxic Avenger works there with his girlfriend Claire (Phoebe Legere) and the deaths of his blind friends sends him into a rage. It's an excessive opening sequence where he slaughters all manner bizarre henchmen including a martial artist, a cross-dresser (of course, because it's Troma), a little person (of course, because it's Troma), some sort of man/dog mutant, gangsters, a man in Native American garb, etc. Each one getting their own bloody mutilation. At more than 20 minutes, it's like sitting through a low-budget special effects company's sizzle reel. Remember, this is before the movie even really officially begins. Once we finally into what passes for an inciting incident, Apocalypse Inc. devises a plan to lure the Toxic Avenger away from Tromaville long enough to get their stranglehold on the population and ruin the environment (or something like that). They use the Toxic Avenger's psychiatrist to convince him he needs to travel to Japan and find his father, and the movie finally starts trudging forward.Most of the movie's runtime is devoted to the Toxic Avenger maiming his way through Tokyo. With a higher budget and a positive response to the original film in Japan, Kaufman saw the chance for some production value. He throws in any local culture he can with the Toxic Avenger and his new friend Masami (Mayako Katsuragi) acting as our tour guides. But again, it all serves one purpose: get us to the next fight sequence. The new locale lets the filmmakers have some fun with our hero taking on ninjas, kabuki men, another cross-dresser (this one in school girl garb because Japan?), and some bizarre fish-man hybrid. I don't know, man, it's just weird. Whereas the first movie was still pretty grounded in the real world, PART II dives into goofy cartoon territory. In addition to those dog and fish mutants, Kaufman and crew make the deaths less brutal with the utter stupidity in the fight sequences. A little person compressed into a basketball, decapitated men dancing through the frame, the Toxic Avenger using starfish and swordfish as weapons in a street fight; the movie is loaded to the brim with this stuff. It's a far cry from the more hard-hitting brutality of the first movie where he'd drop gym weights on a drug dealer's head or rip a robber's arm off and beat him with it. The reason I enjoy PART II over the (arguably superior) first is because of this excess though. It knows what it is.THE TOXIC AVENGER PART II is not a good movie. It's not even really a movie. It's somehow less of a movie than the first was, but it seems to understand that "plot" and "progression" aren't its strong points so it overcompensates with the craziness. It distracted me from the fact that absolutely nothing of interest happens in this movie by throwing a series of over-the-top fight scenes at me until the end credits. It helps you accept that the Toxic Avenger is done with a crappy rubber mask this time and that all of the dialogue is dubbed (badly). This movie is overwhelmingly dumb and it could've ended about twenty minutes sooner but, as far as my experiences with Troma are concerned, it's more entertaining.

westside-surfer I watched part 1 a few days ago and totally blown away, so much that I craved a second helping. Toxic Avenger goes to Tokyo, the land of weirdness, has to be cool, right?At the start something immediately stuck out. They slapped a Halloween mask on the Toxic Avenger. It seriously looks as if the make bought a mask at Target. Part one got Toxie's look perfect. How could they screw up this bad? And not just the face, his entire outfit looks slapped together.The beginning opens up with some gory awesomeness. It's looking to be a good movie. Everything is looking good until Toxie goes to Tokyo. At that point the movie really takes a plunge. There's a few over-the-top scenes were great to watch. Everything in between those scenes seems slapped together on the spot. Maybe the film crew felt out of place in Japan.It just didn't have the confidence of the first one. Actually, scratch that, part one is the only true Toxic Avenger movie. Part two should have paid for its dishonor in the true Japanese fashion by disemboweling itself for shaming a classic.

whammy666 After I saw the Toxic Avenger I rushed to the video store to rent this. I could not wait to see Toxie bash more bad guys in another fun, gory, nude filled film from Troma. However, I it was quite a letdown. Well, I rented the R version, in which the gore is absent. Unrated is a lot better, some awesome gore in the opening scene. "wheelchair" kill is awesome. SO there is some good gore, some good action. What's wrong with this film you ask? No original actors. TOxie obviously changed actors. Toxie gets a new, uglier, more annoying girlfriend, Claire. She is nothing compared to Sara. Claire is just...annoying. But thank God she is not in it too much, since he is in Tokyo most of the film. The girl he meets in Tokyo however, is not bad looking and is not annoying. YAY! Also, his mother looks younger than she did in the first film. If it had the same actors it would be better, yet this does not live up to the original. Still funny, and entertaining of course. See this UNRATED.