Review of The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989) by Steve M — 09 May 2010

The Toxic Avenger, Part II.

Starring: Ron Fazio, Rick Collins, Mayako Katsuragi, and Rikiya Yasuoka.

Directors: Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman.

New Jersey's first superhero, the Toxic Avenger (Fazio) drives crime and evil from the village of Tromaville, turning it into a paradise for puppies, the disabled, tatoo artists, and people who enjoy dancing in the streets. This offends the deeply evil chairman of megacorporation Apocalypse, Inc. (Collins), so he concocts a scheme to send Tromaville's guardian to his doom in Japan while his evil corporate minions lay waste to Tromaville.

"The Toxic Avenger, Part II" has some very funny bits in it--the recurring joke about people dancing in the streets gets a chuckle from me every time it comes up--and Toxie's Grand Tokyo Adventure is a gas from beginning to end.

Unfortunately, the film suffers from a wind-up that's far too slow (the first attack by Apocalypse, Inc. on Tromaville's Home for the Blind seems to go on and on and on... and while the badly choreographed fights in the original "Toxic Avenger" film were funny, here they're just dull because they don't end. Yes, the limo/clowncar from which a never-ending stream of bad guys emerge is funny, but it's not enough to make up for the overall sequence. The film likewise seems to stall out when the Toxic Avenger returns to New Jersey and reclaims Tromaville for all the little people. What's worse, the gore present in the film is more stomach-turning than funny--the sequence where a fishmonger chops a guy's leg and arm to bits while oogling a naked woman is just plain gross.

The film does feature some good acting--Rick Collins is a great comedic bad guy, with some pretty funny lines--but over all, the bad far outweighs the good here. Compared with the craziness of the original "Toxic Avenger", this sequel just doesn't quite measure up, despite the happy citizens dancing in the streets of Tromaville and Tokyo.