The Toxic Avenger Part II

The Toxic Avenger Part II is a 1989 American superhero comedy splatter film released by Troma Entertainment. It is the second installment of The Toxic Avenger franchise. It was directed by Lloyd Kaufman and features The Toxic Avenger in an adventure to Japan to meet his father. The film has received cult status among a new audience almost a generation after it was first released. Devilman and Cutie Honey creator, Go Nagai makes a cameo appearance and the film is also the debut of actor/martial artist Michael Jai White and musician/composer/performance artist Phoebe Legere.

The Toxic Avenger Part II
Theatrical release poster
Directed byLloyd Kaufman
Michael Herz
Produced byMichael Herz
Lloyd Kaufman
Jeffrey W. Sass
Written byGay Partington Terry
Screenplay byLloyd Kaufman
Story byLloyd Kaufman
Based onCharacters
by Joe Ritter
Starring
Music byBarrie Guard
CinematographyJames London
Edited byMichael Schweitzer
Distributed byTroma Entertainment
Lorimar
Release date
  • February 24, 1989 (1989-02-24)
Running time
96 minutes
103 minutes (Director's cut)
CountryUnited States
LanguageEnglish
Japanese
Budget$2.3 million
Box office$792,966

Plot

Melvin Junko (originally Ferd) has been transformed into the superhero known as the Toxic Avenger. He has made Tromaville a safe place again. However, with no more evil to destroy, Melvin has suffered depression until his blind girlfriend Claire (originally Sara) has gotten him a job at the Tromaville Center for the Blind. When the lunch bell rings, all of the residents enter the building when a mysterious limo pulls up. Inside the limo are the Chairman of Apocalypse Inc. and his number one, Malfaire. Apocalypse Inc. is a New York-based chemical company that finds Tromaville to be the perfect home for its new takeover site. However, they know all about The Toxic Avenger. The Chairman hires a member of his team disguised as a PUS deliveryman to deliver a bomb into the center. Claire escapes in time upon learning of the bomb, but everyone else is killed. However, when the deliveryman and an Apocalypse construction worker arrive to begin their takeover, the Toxic Avenger emerges from the rubble and kills the duo. This leads to an all-out assault by various members of Apocalypse Inc. with the Chairman and Malfaire watching. Toxie easily defeats the group of thugs, either killing them or in the case of one, making him run away. The only survivors of the explosion are Toxie, Claire, and a blind mom and her infant daughter.

Apocalypse Inc., reeling from their defeat at the hands of Toxie, hatch a plan to lure him out of Tromaville. They discover Toxie's father had left him and his mother when he was just a baby. Using one of their "bad girls" as Toxie's psychologist, the plan will involve sending Toxie to Japan to look for his father. The psychiatrist, using her Freudian psychology, convinces him to go to Japan, even though he has reservations about leaving Claire. Claire tells Toxie to go find his father and that she loves him. The next day, Toxie leaves for Japan but since he cannot exactly go on a plane, he heads to Japan using a windsurfboard and a paper asking for his father from the worker at a local Japanese restaurant. However, forgetting his passport, he enters Tokyo Godzilla-style, shocking a group of beachgoers. His appearance shocks everyone he comes across, including a news reporter who occasionally shows up throughout the film.

While on his quest, he runs into Masami, who is at first shocked, but smiles at him. As Toxie tries the Japanese snack taiyaki, a local gang begin to assault Masami, causing Toxie's "Tromatons" to go berserk. He goes after the gang and uses the taiyaki fish-shaper to meld one thug's nose into the shape of a fish. He goes after the ring leader of the group and follows him to a public bath house, where he uses his hot breath power to make the water hot for the gang leader while putting in vegetables and noodles. Finally, he goes after the female member of the trio and follows her inside a local radio station where he ties her up and turns her into a "human transmitter". Thanking him for saving her, Masami befriends Melvin and offers to help him find his father.

Meanwhile, as Melvin is in Japan, Apocalypse Inc. takes full advantage and begin a hostile takeover of Tromaville. This causes people who stand up against them to get beaten up, or in the case of a couple of protestors, get run down and killed. Back in Tokyo, Masami and Melvin finally find Big Mac Junko, a Japanese man decked out in a suit. Melvin is elated and run towards his father until his Tromatons go berserk again. Masami sees a shipment of fish dropped on the floor and discovers cocaine in the fish. Big Mac is a Yakuza leader who delves in drug dealing and when Melvin is forced to confront his father, he goes through a series of battles against Yakuza enforcers, a sickle-chain wielding female member, and Kabuki warriors. Using the environment to his advantage, Melvin is able to defeat the entire gang, only leaving him and his father, who becomes a sumo wrestler. Big Mac reveals to Melvin a bottle of "anti-Tromatons", the one weakness that can kill Melvin. However, Melvin is able to kick the bottle out of his father's hand and push him to a fish butcher, who, excited by the action, kills Melvin's dad by chopping him up. The bottle breaks and Melvin begins to weaken. However, Masami takes Melvin to a sumo gym, where he is healed and begins training in the art of sumo before saying goodbye to Masami and head back to Tromaville.

Upon his return to Tromaville, he learns that Malfaire and the "bad girls", including his now former psychiatrist, are assaulting Claire. He takes on the bad girls while Claire finally gets the upper hand on Malfaire, incapacitating her. With Melvin back, the people of Tromaville are safe again. That is, until the Chairman hires the Dark Rider to destroy Tromaville. A motorcycle rider with nitroglycerin strapped to his back, the plan is for the Dark Rider to burst into City Hall. Melvin hijacks a taxi with a bickering elderly couple celebrating their anniversary and after a series of turns and misses, ends up crashing the taxi, forcing everyone to get out after an explosion. Then, Melvin hijacks a hovercraft and drives it after the Dark Rider, finally forcing him to bust into a home, causing the Dark Rider's demise. Once again safe from the hands of Apocalypse Inc., the people of Tromaville are elated. A man arrives in Tromaville and is revealed to be Melvin's real father. Melvin learns the Yakuza leader he defeated in Japan was "Bic Mac Bunko", who is glad to be reunited with both Melvin and his mom and is happy that Bunko, who had used identity theft against him, is no more. Meanwhile, the Chairman and Malfaire attempt to hitch a ride back to New York and fail at doing that.

Cast
  • Ron Fazio as The Toxic Avenger / Apocalypse Inc. Executive / Voice of The Toxic Avenger
  • John Altamura as The Toxic Avenger
  • Phoebe Legere as Claire
  • Rick Collins as Apocalypse Inc. Chairman
  • Lisa Gaye as Malfaire
  • Rikiya Yasuoka (Michael Herz, uncredited voice) as Big Mac Bunko
  • Mayako Katsuragi (Patricia Kaufman, uncredited voice) as Masumi
  • Tsutomu Sekine as News caster
  • Jessica Dublin as Mrs. Junko
  • Jack Cooper as Big Mac Junko
  • Don Eckhart as Kid riding bike in opening scene
  • Fernando Antonio as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Paul Borghese as Lou Sipher: Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Sylvester Covin as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • William Decker as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Joe Fleishaker as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Mark Fucile as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Marc Allan Ginsberg as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Sal Lioni as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Doug McDonald as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Benny Nieves as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Kariim Ratcliff as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Michael Jai White as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Susan Whitty as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Jeremiah Yates as Apocalypse Inc. Executive
  • Dan Snow as Cigar Face
  • Lloyd Kaufman (uncredited) as Sumo wrestler / Voice of fish salesman

Production

When production started, John Altamura played The Toxic Avenger with Ron Fazio doing some doubling for mainly long shots of the character as he was cast already as an Apocalypse Inc. executive. However, according to a 2001 interview with Fazio, Altamura abused his authority by complaining about the make-up and had threatened some staff members, pushing Kaufman to fire Altamura.[1] Kaufman then hired Fazio to play the Toxic Avenger when production moved to Tokyo, Japan. However, Kaufman kept the scenes with Altamura in the film, hence in the film's opening fight sequence, it is seen that both Fazio and Altamura face against each other with Fazio playing the tiger-striped member of Apocalypse Inc who gets punched Exorcist-style by Altamura's Toxic Avenger. Fazio's voice would be used as the Toxic Avenger.

In addition to the scenes filmed in Tokyo,[2] other filming locations included New York City and New Jersey.[3]Michael Jai White made his film debut in the film and not only acted as a member of Apocalypse Inc., but assisted with the film's fight sequences in New York while Hitoshi Genma coordinated the film's action scenes in Japan.[4]

Lloyd Kaufman was told that the main Japanese actors, Rikiya Yasuoka and Mayako Katsuragi, spoke English. However, upon his shooting the scenes, he was surprised to learn that Yasuoka and Katsuragi's English was not good enough. During post-production, Lloyd hired his wife Patricia, who also appears in the film as the "blind mother" and at the time, was the New York City Film Commissioner, to re-dub Katsuragi's voice and co-creator/producer Michael Herz re-dubbed Yasuoka's voice.

Release

Versions

The 'Unrated Director's cut' version released on DVD by Troma Entertainment is actually missing almost all scenes of gore. The full version with an extra 10 minutes of gore is currently only available in the 'Tox Box' DVD set which is now out of print.

The Japanese and German releases are the full uncut version.

The 2008 'Complete Toxic Avenger' 7-disc DVD set includes the uncut version and is the same disc found in the 'Tox Box'.

88 Films released the film in 98kb in November 2014 on Blu-ray,[5] the US release of Blu-ray Disc was in High Definition.[6]

Reception

Critical response

The Toxic Avenger Part II currently holds a rare 0% on Rotten Tomatoes.[7]

References
  1. "Toxie Tours Troma: Ron Fazio returns to the Troma building in 12 years."
  2. Kaufman, Lloyd (July 17, 2015). "Lloyd Kaufman (The Toxic Avenger) Talks Takashi Murakami's Jellyfish Eyes". Talkhouse. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  3. Magnotta, Ernie (May 25, 2015). "Review: The Toxic Avenger: Part II". Cinemaretro.com. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  4. "The Toxic Avenger Part II (1989)". Worldfilmgeek.com. Retrieved October 24, 2020.
  5. 88 Films Bring The Toxic Avenger III & IV to Blu-ray in the UK
  6. Troma Announces “NUKE ‘EM”, “TOXIC AVENGER” Sequel Blu-rays!
  7. The Toxic Avenger Part II at Rotten Tomatoes
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