Five years after he fell into a drum of toxic waste and stated taking revenge on the school bullies that had harassed him his entire life, Melvin Ferd AKA The Toxic Avenger (here renamed Melvin Junko) returned for a sequel as Troma's lucky charm. Troma are a small production company proudly trafficking in schlock, but 'Toxie', New Jersey's first and only superhero, was a surprise hit, spawning comic-books, action figures and even a stage musical. Directors Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman - also the company's founders - knew there was money to be made, and the character ended up getting three sequels. 1984's The Toxic Avenger, like Troma's fellow cult classic Class of Nuke 'Em High, was so memorable because it was funny, off-the-wall and had real heart buried deep within.This cash-grab sequel seems to forget all of this, and in blowing its load far too early in the film, sucks all the fun out of Toxie and his crazy adventures. Having completely rid Tromaville of crime, Toxie (played by both Ron Fazio and John Altamura following the latter's dismissal), has made the town a haven, and the hideous but gentle creature with super size and strength enjoys life looking after the blind and shacking up at the junk yard with his (also blind) girlfriend Claire (Phoebe Legere). A life without crime has given Toxie a chance to reflect, and in his depressed state he decides that the only way to fill the void in his heart is by confronting his estranged father in Japan. With the good-hearted monster off to Asia in a sailboat, evil corporation Apocalypse Inc. move into town to spread toxic waste and evil in equal measures.To give The Toxic Avenger Part II its due, there are quite a few very funny moments. A small appearance by Michael Jai White making his big-screen debut and watching the oblivious Japanese public gaze with curiosity and terror as the rubber-suited hero struts through Tokyo are some of the highlights, and an early extended fight scene is just absolutely bonkers. But Toxie's trip to Japan feels more of a diversion from the lack of care taken with the story, which is all over the place and takes way, way too long to reach its end. While some of the jokes land, around 90% fall flat on their face, with a heavy reliance on childish slapstick humour and silly costumes for cheap laughs. The daftness is quite endearing for a short period of time, but then it hits you that this is what you're getting for a whole 100 minutes, and the film quickly becomes an absolute chore.www.the-wrath-of-blog.blogspot.com

The Toxic Avenger Part II may not be has good as the first but it is does have it's moments and is quite good. The gore seems to be limited at parts but they're still is some nice gore effects. The plot is set some years after the first and now Tromaville is a nice place to live (The Mayor in the first film mentioned about it)since The Toxic Avenger cleaned up the city from crime but now that crime's gone Toxie is feeling depressed since he's got no job to do so he and his girlfriend Claire work in a home for the blind but the corporation know as Apocalipse Inc destroy the place with Toxie inside but it's not long before he breaks out and crushes some of them.Knowing that has long as The Toxic Avenger is in Tromaville they can't control it so they send him a fake letter from his long lost father in Japan so he heads off to meet him leaving his home town for them to take over. In Japan Toxie meets with a young Japanese girl and they go off to help look for him.Soon they find Big Mac Junko but the family reunion is cut short when he finds out that his dad is a criminal so after a chase through Japan Toxie confronts his father but his dad has a weapon to kill him and this anti-troma tons, after beating his father the container with the anti-troma tons breaks knocking Toxie out.He wakes up with some Sumo Wreslers who help him and teach him some Sumo moves, he then sets off to Tromaville again where he finds that Apocalipse Inc has took over everything so he takes them on and saves Tromaville.The Toxic Avenger Part II is not too bad and is quite good, it's worth a watch.

Toxic Avenger part II receives a lot of flak from reviewers, and I am not surprised: Troma, in their foolishness, decided to sell the R-rated version on DVD with cover boasting an unrated cut. Ignorant consumers naturally thought this WAS the unrated cut, which is but a pile of forgettable dross with all the gleeful violence and nudity cut out by the MPAA. (and most inexplainably of all, the fate of the Japanese thug girl is completely removed, which doesn't contain any hardcore violence in the first place!) Unfortunately (or fortunately, rather) I have only heard about the notorious censored version, as I myself got the Tox Box which contained the TRUE unrated cut, and trust me when I say that it is almost on par with the first movie. The first film was a huge hit in Japan, and Troma received additional sponsorship from that very country, which is why they went there to make their film. Naturally, the plot to get Toxie to Japan is absolutely ridiculous, but that's Troma for you.Personally, I rate this film actually higher than the first, mostly because of the much higher production values which do indeed show: gone are the pumpkin-head children and cheap gore effects, as this time we see some genuine splatter, such as a man being squeezed to death in a wheelchair, literally causing him to spill his guts...or a man being chopped up by a very distracted fish marketer!

The original Toxic Avenger is what got the Troma Studio popular, and created their formula of blending cheesy explicit gore with witty toilet armpit humor. Troma works the formula well in a lot of their movies,not so much with the movies they pick up and release. The original Toxic Avenger is one of my all time favorite movies, right along with Troma's Terror Firmer (love that movie). This sequel is not all that bad. It delivers the witty gore and goof ball humor you would expect from Troma. Nowhere near as good as the original, but miles ahead of Part 3. The down-fall with this movie is that Toxie himself is cheesier here then he was in Part 1, which took away from his character. Still, this is a good Troma product, and should be seen only in it's unrated form. Features a man getting chopped up, elderly person blown-up in wheel-chair, naked women, and a horse hit by a truck (a scene that freaked me out when I saw this on the USA Network in the middle of the afternoon over a decade ago). Watch out for the plot inconsistinances which are everywhere in this (especially Melvin's (The Toxic Avenger) un-explained last name change, as well as his girlfriends first name switcheroo). Two And A Half Stars.