The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989)

The Toxic Avenger (Ron Fazio) is tricked into traveling to Tokyo to search for his estranged father, leaving Tromaville open to complete domination by an evil corporation.

The beginning starts off with Melvin narrating this piece on his hometown in Tromaville as well as the downfalls and stuff like that which seemed necessary for a sequel and then there's many trashy moments on a home for people with disabilities like our blind heroine Claire watering the garden as well as accidentally spraying others which was supposed to look funny and make you laugh but instead this looked pretty silly and moronic as usual in a Troma Team flick.
Yet some exciting moments with an evil group of people called the Apocalypse Inc. coming over and terrorising this place with interesting cheesy special effects on explosions in the home as well as what happened to some of the others remaining there along with a nice shot on Toxie rising from the pile of explosion ready to seek revenge as this was done in an okay fashion.
However it falls flat again when Toxie is surrounded by the goons of this mafia as they do a dance before going in to fight him in which this looked extremely stupid as well as shots on some of these people dressed in drag or like the Village People. However there's some nice gruesome moments on Toxie slaughtering people in many different fashions for the gorehounds to get a rise out of including crushing someone in a wheelchair which is a little different for a killing. Plus there is an odd funny moment I'd have to admit when he crushes a bodybuilder midget into a basketball and shoots some hoops with.
A good powerful moment with everyone at the Apocalypse Inc. getting together and doing a ceremony discussing on how Melvin came to be the Toxic Avenger revealing some clips of this which seemed necessary for a sequel as well. Plus some nicely focused moments on the chairman and his mistress Malfaire even if there's some scene's on the others doing stupid stuff but of course this is typical for a Troma flick.
Then more trashy moments with Claire and Toxie having a supposed nice dinner and he's troubled as well as their kinky romance towards one another which is a joke to watch of course.
Then we have Toxie sailing to Japan to find his father and rising from the ocean with people screaming and running away or when he asks for directions as I have to admit it seemed to look mildly funny to watch all of this unravel.
Fairly good tongue in cheek moments when a Japanese local Masami is being pitted against a group of thugs and assaulted as this seemed to show good timing and almost a tribute to foreign films as they are often slapstick especially in Japan.
Then we have Toxie saving the day as usual chasing after these goons with stupid violent moments but there's a moment that seemed silly and funny too when he chases someone through a bathhouse and turning up water to boil on him as well as dumping vegetables and noodles in the water along with dumping teriyaki sauce and his hilarious one liners on what he says while doing all of this.
Then when the story is rolling along and Toxie spots Big Mac Bunko whom he thinks is his father there's cheesy moments on slow motion with them running towards one another which seems typical but this isn't serious by any means at all.
Meanwhile in Tromaville there's trouble with the Apocalypse Inc. wrecking havoc as we even spot a shocking moment on them running over a people in a carriage with a horse. Of course this is all for shock value.
More stupid moments with Toxie battling against some ninja's as this was a total time waster and then we have him being pitted against Big Mac as he strips down in his sumo wrestling outfit and going in for the battle as this looked overly silly to watch. Plus we have a sushi maker chopping his meatcleaver down while watching this and not paying attention as well as a good shocking moment when Toxie throws Big Mac and he lands on the sushi table which can make anyone cringe that doesn't like this type of horror violence.
Fair slapstick moments when Toxie returns home to Tromaville and goes on a chase against the people at Apocalypse Inc. in a cab and corny moments like this as well as a hilarious moment when they hijack a hovercraft near the water and goes on land to chase these people which can offer some chuckles. However, none of these moments save the flick from bombing.
Bottom line is that this film is hard to look at as a horror as it seemed like mainly a comedy-action flick but has some shocking moments that can just pass as a horror as well. Sometimes I wonder if this one is a mistake to review for the site. The original was lame but this sequel was really lame and a time waster. But again I was never a huge fan of Troma Team flicks since they are lame brained and trashy.

The acting is pretty bad as usual as we have Ron Fazio (The Toxic Avenger / Apocalypse Inc. Executive) portraying the superhero mutant in which he was okay with his corny blocking and jumping into action but again his talents you can't tell at all since his lines were done with a voice over actor. Yet stands out in his part at the same time. Nothing too special at the same time.
John Altamura (Voice of The Toxic Avenger) shows some nice spunk in his speaking and offering nice hyped up energy into what he was saying. He doesn't sound beastly but in the original the other voice over actor didn't sound that way either. He knew on how to get into character in an okay fashion. Plus does well when he sounds bothered by situations and was funny with his one liners during a situation when he attacks some thugs in a scene.
Phoebe Legere (Claire) is of course over the top silly as a blind heroine in the film but seemed to offer some spunk and energy into whatever she did. Also shows a good hyped energy when battling away some of the onscreen goons. She made her part fairly useful but is no academy award winning material and could take some lessons.
Rick Collins (Apocalypse Inc. Chairman) seemed to stand out quite strongly as the leader of his cult of people in which he spoke sharply and strongly too. Also had a nice powerful motive as to what he was talking about. Had the right looks and appeal to his character and was better than most of the cast in this flick.
Rikiya Yasuoka (Big Mac Bunko) had his voice overdubbed but seemed to really bring out alot of spunk into his role in which he offered great expressions to what he was saying as well as being a nice force of energy. Plus goes into great action when he performs as a sumo wrestler. All of this was drawn in greatly.
Mayako Katsuragi (Masami) was extrremely stale and corny as a local helping the mutant Toxie out as she was over the top by doing with whatever she does in this flick. I found her to be way too silly to be taken seriously and wasn't sure if her voice was overdubbed. She didn't cut it at all.
Lisa Gaye (Malfaire) however does a great job as a wicked one and comes off strongly with her powerful voice as well as having the right looks for this role and seemed to know on how to get into character quite well for whatever she had to do in this one. She was probably the best out of the whole cast.

A woman is briefly breasted when making out with the Toxie character.
Someone is stripped with her breasts shown when attacked by some thugs.
Naked people are revealed in a bathhouse.
A female ninja warrior has her clothes ripped naked top to bottom.

Body is bloodily crushed in a wheelchair.
Throat is cut by sharp wire.
Arms ripped off.
Ears torn off.
Head is torn off.
Body is crushed into a basketball size.
Bodies are bloodily crushed.
Fingers are chopped off.
Thus leg is chopped into sushi type pieces.

There's various music composed in this piece mainly done by Barrie Guard in which there's some neat opening sequences as it had a good 80's feel to the movie but however most of it afterwards sounded hokey but of course fit the trashy comedic moments. Also some average action music for the chasing sequences done on a synthesizer. During some parts of the movie there's added composing by Duke Ellington and Irving Mills with their trashy instrumental cover version on the showtune "It Don't Mean a Thing" as it's light synthesizer with some bass violin plucking which sounds like it was ripped from a karaoke type of theme song. This sounded moronic big time.

There's a great closing song of "The Toxic Avenger Theme Song" performed by Glen Sangimino, Keith McCoy and Shaun College in which there's great heavy metal guitar riffs and insane powerful vocalising. This was great for an 80's low budget horror flick such as this one. But it doesn't save the film from bombing of course.

Toxic Avenger: At first I found it hard to believe that my father was Japanese, and that I was part-Japanese. But that would explain why I've always had these strange, non-American urges to work very hard, save money, and live without credit cards.

Big Mac: I am the Big Mac, I am the big cheese. You could say, I am the Big Mac with cheese.

The Toxic Avenger: ...worst of all... if Tromaville was destroyed, there'd be no Toxic Avenger 3!