One of the most “YAY AMERICA!” horror movies I have seen. If the giant American flag on the poster didn’t clue you in to that.
The sequel to the (oddly) well received Toxic Avenger picks up almost immediately after the first finishes. Toxie has cleaned up the streets of Tromaville and now finds himself with nothing to do. That is until the Apocalypse Incorporated comes to town to take over. Toxie’s girlfriend is injured when Apocalypse Inc. blows up the “Tromaville Center For The Blind” and Toxie falls into a depression. His “psychiatrist” (under the influence of Apoc Inc.) sends Toxie to Japan to find his father. Toxie, having never known his father, quickly jumps at the chance to meet his long lost father, and heads to Japan.
With Toxie away, Apocalypse Inc quickly takes hold of the town, and turns it evil again. People live in fear of death, or worse, should they cross the new rulers of Tromaville. Meanwhile, Toxie hunts down his dad with the help of a Japanese local and finds that his father is a gangster. Here is where the “Yay America” bit come in when Toxie flies into a rage as he confronts his father. Toxie is unaware of what has been going on in Tromaville, until he finally makes it back home.
Like it or not, Toxic Avenger is responsible for putting the Troma production company and Lloyd Kaufman on the map. With out Toxie there wouldn’t have been Kabuki Man, Poultry-geist, Tales from the Crapper, and a plethora of atrocious movies after that. Hell, Toxie even had his own toy line and cartoon on mainstream TV. It was a hit, both at the time and garnering a huge cult following.
Toxic Avenger II doesn’t do really anything to break the mold. There is a dude in a rubber mask killing lots of people in ridiculous ways, lots of boobs, terrible fight choreography and yes, fart noises. It’s truly a movie that can be summed up by saying “more of the same”. The only difference is that the majority of the movie takes place in “Japan”. This lends itself really well for terrible stereotypes and possibly one of the WORST Japanese accents I have ever heard in a movie. I also think that some of the reactions in the street to Toxie are actual reactions, but that’s just me.
As I have said before, movies from Troma in the 80s are perfectly serviceable based solely on the fact that they are shot on a small budget and do so much with so little. Once Lloyd Kaufman realized that people liked his movies for how crappy they looked and began to make movies based on that, the “quality” of the movies really fell off. The Toxic Avenger series is prior to all that, making it perfectly fine to watch. It’s late night, public broadcast feel works well enough. Laugh at the “special effects”, the writing and the acting and just enjoy the absurdity. And just so you don’t labor over the point in the movie when you say “I know that guy. Who is that guy?” It’s Michael Jai White.
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