By Ben Bussey
And so, one writer’s Troma education continues. Up until only a few months ago, pretty much all I’d seen from the famed trash cinema factory were the original Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke ‘Em High (or at least those are the only ones that come to mind). However, after 88 Films released the first Toxie to Blu-ray last August, they subsequently followed that with a similarly shiny release for the first sequel in November. Now the circle is complete, as 88 Films release the third and fourth films in the series back-to-back, meaning the complete adventures to-date of Troma’s hideously deformed superhero poster boy are now out there in HD for all UK fans to enjoy. Well, I say ‘enjoy’… Troma movies are pretty much the definition of ‘acquired taste,’ and I’m still not sure they’re entirely pleasing to my palate. I can appreciate the anarchic, anti-establishment sentiment that runs through their work, and I’m always open to the simple joys of gratuitous gore and nudity, yet a little too often these films overstep the line from being joyously deranged and goofy to just being truly stupid, and it doesn’t always take long for the joke to lose any trace of being funny. This most certainly was the case in The Toxic Avenger Part II – so how do the third and fourth films fare?
Well, though 88 Films have chosen to release Toxie 3&4 back to back, it probably would have been more apt to have done so with parts 2&3, as those two films were indeed shot back-to-back in 1989. I don’t know the ins and outs of this; I suspect Lloyd Kaufman’s commentary tracks (to which I haven’t listened – sorry, but there’s only so many hours in the day) might shed some more light on the matter. But I will say that the excessively higgledy-piggledy feel of the second film is back in force here, suggesting that the Troma team bit off rather more than they could chew with this ambitious two film venture – and given that Citizen Toxie opens with an open apology for the crappiness of the previous two sequels, it’s clear that these problems were not lost on Kaufman, Herz and co.
Still, as much as the subtitle The Last Temptation of Toxie was a sardonic attempt to cash in on the fervent controversy that surrounded Scorcese’s The Last Temptation of Christ at the time (tangent: remember when Clerks 2 was going to be entitled The Passion of the Clerks?), it does indeed prove to have some bearing on the plot, which tackles that age-old dilemma: what does a principled individual do when circumstances dictate that he must start working for The Man? Toxie, having once again wiped out all crime in Tromaville, finds himself destitute and struggling to find meaning in life with no bad guys to tear limb-from-limb. The first temptation comes in a letter offering the chance to restore the eyesight of his blind better half Claire (the returning Phoebe Legre, still clad in an indecently tiny pink leotard which somehow against all odds manages to keep her lady parts covered, despite the fact that her legs are spread wide with the camera hovering very close by for much of her screen time). Obviously such an operation doesn’t come cheap, so when Toxie gets an offer for a handsomely paid position with Apocalypse Inc, he jumps at the chance. Little does he realise he’s quite literally signing a deal with the Devil.
As for quite why he doesn’t realise, considering that The Toxic Avenger II saw him do battle with the very same Apocalypse Inc…? Here’s where the trouble sets in. It’s one thing for a sequel to be silly and formulaic, but when it blatantly disregards series continuity it’s hard to forgive – particularly in such a case as this, when the previous film came earlier the same damn year. Our hero knows full well who the bad guys are, so for him to so readily jump into bed with them just strains credibility too far. Likewise, Claire has always been blind since the first film, so why are we suddenly now given some new explanation which implies it only happened recently? Of course it’s easy to bring out the old line of defence that nothing in these films was logical in the first place, but that’s just a feeble excuse for poor storytelling. And not unlike Part II, Toxic Avenger III is also uncomfortably overlong, with vast swathes of flab begging to be trimmed from the edges, whilst also being surprisingly tame; the excessive bad taste humour, buckets of blood and abundant boobage of the 1984 original are again largely absent. Still, things do pick up a bit by the final act, as Toxie faces off against an agreeably gooey and green Beelzebub.
Happily, things pick up all the more as we re-join the team over a decade later in Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger IV (in this instance the title wasn’t especially appropriate, given there’s almost no Citizen Kane references beyond a spoof of the famous newsreel and “Rosebud”). Along with the aforementioned apology for the previous two films, we’re assured that this is ‘the real sequel,’ and given that within the first scene a special needs school is taken under siege by a gang of armed thugs in nappies calling themselves the Diaper Mafia (a pun on Colombine’s Trenchcoat Mafia – and no, that wasn’t very long ago at the time), who will talk to no one except the bikini-clad hosts of an MTV-style news show, then proceed to tie up and threaten to disembowel the pregnant teacher whilst one of the special needs teens inexplicably gets a lapdance – yep, it’s immediately clear we’re back in full-on satirical bad taste mode. When Toxie makes his first appearance, the rather different make-up design takes a bit of getting used to, but given that he’s soon enough dealing out the kind of ridiculous carnage we saw all-too little of in parts 2 & 3, it’s not too hard to get over that.
Even more happily, whilst Citizen Toxie does indeed bring back the gore, sleaze and sexploitation in spades, it also brings back a rather sharper brand of satire, and doesn’t forget to tell an actual story. Through an inevitably absurd twist of circumstance, Toxie finds himself instantaneously transported to a parallel universe where his beloved, friendly haven Tromaville is a crime-ridden hell hole named Amortville – where everyone seems to be afraid of him. This might of course have something to do with his evil parallel universe equivalent – the Noxious Offender – who has replaced him in Tromaville. With a couple of special needs kids in tow, Toxie must hold his confusion at bay long enough to find a way home, and stop the villainous Noxie from turning Tromaville into a cesspool of poverty, drugs and neo-Nazism.
Still, while this is without doubt the film that comes closest to reviving the spirit of the first, we can hardly forget that a lot has changed since the mid-80s. As I said of the original Toxic Avenger, Troma were in some ways ahead of their time with the knowing irony of their early work, but by 2000 (post-Scream) this was of course de rigueur. Fan-friendly in-jokery abounds; aside from a supporting role for that other Troma superhero Sgt Kabukiman, we have a boatload of celebrity cameos including Ron Jeremy, Lemmy, Corey Feldman, and even Stan Lee (credited as Peter Parker) reading the opening and closing narration. Also, while these might have gone unnoticed at the time, the modern nerd will scarcely fail to note the appearance of messrs Eli Roth and James Gunn. It all threatens to get a little too self-serving for its own good at times – and yet, as everything that comes with it is so much better than Toxic Avenger 2 & 3, it’s easy enough to forgive.
But again, these films are absolutely an acquired taste, so if this is virgin territory for you I’d recommend trying The Toxic Avenger on for size first, and if that agrees with you by all means give these a go – though all things considered you needn’t beat yourself up over skipping directly ahead to Citizen Toxie. Devoted Troma completists will, of course, need no such warming up – nor should I imagine they’ll have any complaints with these Blu-rays from 88 Films, which probably give these dumbass films better treatment than they deserve.
The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie and Citizen Toxie: the Toxic Avenger IV are both out now on UK Blu-ray from 88 Films.