“Worst of all, if Tromaville was destroyed, there’d be no Toxic Avenger 3!”

Sitting Duck’s rating: This was a movie swap we did in June 2024, where Justin gave me this to review and I gave him The Dunwich Horror

Sitting Duck’s review: Some of you may be wondering why this June movie swap review is coming out in July. There are a couple of reasons for that. First (and I may be damaging my Mutant Reviewer cred by saying this) is how Troma and its reputation has always put me ill at ease, and I’ve never felt inclined to view any of their product. The fact that Justin had given the first part of this particular series a scathing critique signaled that, on the Movie Swap scale, this was a Torment.

But a major point of the movie swap is to get ourselves outside our comfort zones. Seeing as how Justin suffered a case of the Vapors from the sight of Dean Stockwell’s mustache, getting myself Troma-tized was the least I could do in return.

So I eventually girded up my loins (because there’s nothing ickier than an ungirded loin) and fired up the Tubi app. And about twenty minutes in, the internet service cut out and stayed that way for the next few days. Thanks to my work schedule at the time, there was no opportunity to pop over to the public library and bum off their wifi. And that is why this review is so late. So I’d better get to it.

Ever since the events of the first Toxic Avenger movie, Tromaville has become a happy, peaceful place to live. In fact, the only person in town who isn’t of good cheer is the Toxic Avenger. No longer having a purpose, Toxie has fallen into despondency, requiring daily visits to his psychiatrist. Even when he beats back an assault from the evil corporation Apocalypse Inc., he still can’t help but feel miserable.

Meanwhile, the top brass at Apocalypse Inc. are not pleased at how the army of goons they sent in were so easily defeated. If they are to have any hope of taking over Tromaville, the Toxic Avenger will have to be removed. One promising option comes from how their Japanese branch has developed an agent that can counteract the Tromatons that give Toxie his power. However, the substance is volatile and therefore ill-suited for long-distance transport. So their only option is to get Toxie to go to Japan.

This is accomplished by suborning his psychiatrist, who tells Toxie that his truant father is at the heart of his current malaise and his troubles can be fixed by reuniting with him. And what do you know, he just so happens to be living in Tokyo. The gullible Toxie eats this up and windboards his way to Nippon, where his presence causes much panic and chaos. Meanwhile during his absence, Apocalypse Inc. takes over Tromaville, turning into a site of woe and misery.

A major factor in keeping this movie from being a disaster is how it’s predominantly a comedy. I’ve probably said this elsewhere, but a lot of tropes and other storytelling devices that would be ruinous to a drama fail to similarly hinder a comedy. This is mostly due to how comedy leans toward being subversive, making things like anticlimactic endings and ineffectual and/or one-dimensional villains more acceptable.

Which leads us to Apocalypse Inc., possibly the most diverse evil corporation (which are more commonly depicted as being whiter than a Klan rally) ever committed to film. These guys are a textbook Captain Planet villain organization. Had they been presented in that context, it would have made for a painful viewing. But by ratcheting up the camp factor, it becomes moderately entertaining.

The highlight of the movie is the fights Toxie has with the various colorful goons he encounters. One of the more memorable ones featured a mini-kimono clad warrior chick whom Toxie defeats by revealing that she’s going geisha. And if that expression strikes you as odd, my assessment of Prince of Space will offer some clarification.

Also I love how Toxie has the voice of a 98-pound weakling while looking like the sort of brute who would shove 98-pound weaklings into lockers or give them swirlies.

The movie is hardly perfect. As with any comedy, not all the humor lands. Also, the splatter aspect was something I found unappealing. But ultimately, I ended up liking Toxic Avenger Part II a lot more than I thought I would. Mind you, I was all but certain going in that it was going to be a miserable ordeal to get through. Even so, while it’s not something I intend to rewatch, I don’t regard my viewing as having been a waste of time. And if a movie can manage at least that, it has shown that it has a purpose of sorts.