When it hit home video in 1986, 1984’s The Toxic Avenger turned into a cult hit. Thus, it came as no surprise when a sequel arrived in 1989.

Indeed, the biggest question mark stems from the length of time between the two movies. Troma cranks out movies quickly, so it feels odd that The Toxic Avenger Part II failed to make it to fans sooner.

After weakling janitor Melvin Junko transformed into a muscular but deformed superhero called the Toxic Avenger (John Altamura), he found himself a sexy girlfriend named Claire (Phoebe Legere) and cleaned up crime in Tromaville, New Jersey.

An evil conglomerate called Apocalypse Inc. wants to use Tromaville for their nefarious means, but Toxie fights against them. To eliminate this threat, their execs fool Toxie into a trip to Japan to locate his absentee father so they can spread their filth, a choice that inevitably will bite them.

While I can’t claim I went into the original Avenger with particularly high expectations, I did assume it enjoyed long-term “cult classic” status for a reason. The movie’s enduring popularity felt like a reason I could anticipate a campy but fun experience.

However, that proved inaccurate. While certainly tongue-in-cheek, Avenger became an amateurish and oddly mean-spirited melange of genres that didn’t gel.

However, as I noted in my prior review, I saw potential there. This led me to hope that a sequel might learn from the first film’s mistakes and take better advantage of the property’s possible strengths.

Did this prove true? Alas, no - Avenger II offers another mess of a movie.

Though I do think Avenger II seems more competently made – sort of. Whereas the first movie came with a rambling “plot” that veered wherever it wanted without much coherence, the sequel follows a more consistent narrative.

Again, sort of. While Avenger II does pursue its overall story in a mostly logical manner, it also takes a lot of detours.

Granted, these diversions still follow the overall arc. Unlike the prior flick, the scenes continue to push the basic tale.

However, Avenger II proves tremendously self-indulgent. Whereas the first movie ran a tidy 82 minutes, the sequel stretches to a shockingly long 109 minutes.

No, that doesn’t make Avenger II an epic, but given the nature of the genre, it feels awfully elongated. This becomes especially true given the simple nature of the plot.

Nothing about Avenger II “needs” to run 109 minutes. The movie fills that span mainly because the filmmakers couldn’t resist the urge to indulge every whim that occurred to them.

Avenger II shows sloppy continuity, though I suspect a lot of that stemmed from the project’s tongue in cheek nature. After all, at one point a villain prefaces her recap of Toxie’s origins with the line “as you recall in reel two of the first movie”.

Indeed, as goofy as the prior flick was, Avenger II becomes even cartoonier. Suddenly Claire – called “Sara” in the original – has become a dim-witted blonde bimbo who looks like a refugee from a late 1980s Hair Metal music video.

We get more scenes played for their absurdity and laughs this time – and again, the 1984 Avenger didn’t skimp on that material. Nonetheless, Avenger II delivers much more of an overt comedy.

Which I regard as a positive – in theory, at least. I thought the original movie came with a surprising number of genuinely cruel and brutal scenes that seemed odd given the film’s general lightness.

Because Avenger II plays everything as comedy, it lacks the same off-putting darkness. For instance, whereas the prior movie depicted depraved scenes like the intentional slaughter of a kid as part of its comedic motif, the sequel never goes that “dark”.

Which makes Avenger II easier to swallow. As over the top as its tone may be, at least it lacks the mean-spirited vibe.

I often got the impression that Troma wanted to push Toxie toward a younger crowd with Avenger II. As co-director Lloyd Kaufman loves to tell us, the character proved popular enough to spawn 1991’s short-lived kid-oriented cartoon TV series Toxic Crusaders.

Despite the movie’s silliness that feels made for children, Avenger II offers far too much “adult” material to seem appropriate for that crowd. We get gruesome violence and ample nudity, all of which ensure the film won’t play to the youngsters who otherwise feel like the target audience.

To my surprise, Avenger II actually ratchets up the gore and skin from the first flick. It proves more graphic on both accounts.

The very explicit nature of Avenger II just feels wrong given how cartoony the movie seems. The two sides don’t mesh well.

I still think the biggest issue here remains the movie’s length, however. We simply don’t find nearly enough story or character material to sustain 109 minutes, and this makes the movie awfully padded.

For an early example, go to the scene in which Toxie first faces off against the goons sent by Apocalypse Inc. to take over Tromaville. This fight sequence goes on and on and on well past the point of effectiveness.

Similar issues plague Avenger II, as entire segments exist that ramble far too long for the content they provide. I won’t claim judicious editing would’ve made this a good movie, but an 89-minute version would at least move better and feel less padded.

Despite all these complaints, I do think Avenger II tops the first flick, mainly because it feels a bit better made and also lacks the casual cruelty of its predecessor. Nonetheless, Avenger II ends up as a self-indulgent endurance test without anywhere near the entertainment value it needs to sustain our attention for 109 minutes.

The Toxic Avenger Part II appears in an aspect ratio of 1.85:1 on this 4K UHD Disc. Expect a mixed bag from the image.

On the positive side, the movie offered pretty good delineation. Some softness crept into the picture at times, but most of the film looked reasonably concise and accurate.

I witnessed no signs of jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes failed to appear. Grain came across as appropriate.

Colors showed fairly positive vivacity, as the natural palette displayed a generally peppy vibe. HDR gave the hues added oomph.

Blacks seemed dark and dense, while low-light shots brought mostly solid delineation. HDR offered extra punch to whites and contrast.

Like the 4K for the first movie, print flaws turned into the main concern. The image betrayed sporadic instances of specks, lines and marks.

However, these cropped up significantly less frequently this time, so while I saw them more often than I’d expect from a modern-day scan, these issues didn’t mar the proceedings as much this time. While the flick needs a good clean-up job, it still offered mostly appealing visuals.

On the other hand, the movie’s DTS-HD MA monaural soundtrack showed a decline in quality from the prior film. While the 1984 flick’s audio seemed mediocre, the sequel’s mix fared even worse.

Which made no sense to me, but it became the case. Speech showed a lot of edginess and while intelligible, the lines felt coarse.

Music lacked range and punch, while effects tended to come across as rough and shrill. Some background noise cropped up as well, so even given my expectations for audio from a low-budget movie from 1989, the soundtrack seemed subpar.

On the 4K disc, we get a fresh Introduction from Co-Director/Producer Lloyd Kaufman. The one-minute, 56-second clip offers Kaufman’s comical chat. It doesn’t tell us anything useful but it adds some mirth.

We find an audio commentary from Lloyd Kaufman. Troma staff editors Gabe Friedman and Brian McNulty sit with Kaufman as well but they say almost nothing.

Kaufman offers a running, screen-specific look at the project’s development, changes between the “R”-rated and “Director’s Cut” versions of film, shooting in Japan, music, stunts and effects, and connected domains.

When I went into Kaufman’s commentary for the first Avenger, I feared he would simply joke around the whole time and tell us little about the production. However, Kaufman mostly stayed on target and brought us a largely informative chat.

Recorded for a 2002 DVD, Kaufman’s Avenger II lives down to my expectations for the prior discussion. Although the filmmaker occasionally gives us useful material about the movie, he cracks wise too much of the time.

Or attempts to crack wise, as most of his “witticisms” fall flat. Kaufman makes remarks that wind up as both crass and unfunny – especially when he tosses out “jokes” about 9/11, an event that only happened about nine months before this recording session.

This then sends Kaufman on an angry political rant that seems out of place. Kaufman does deliver some worthwhile thoughts about Avenger II, but the listener needs to sit through an awful lot of nonsense to get to them.

Note that more than a few silent spots occur during the commentary. Normally I would assume the speaker(s) simply didn’t remark over those sections.

Given Kaufman’s perpetually chatty personality, I suspect these gaps came about because he made statements too outrageous even for Troma – or maybe the legal department took issue. Given that the biggest silent space happens around Kaufman’s 9/11-related tirade, this makes sense to me.

The package includes a Blu-ray Copy as well, and it opens with a circa 2014 Introduction from Kaufman. In this three-minute, six-second clip, he offers some minor notes. The result seems decent – mostly due to the hot Danish woman behind Kaufman during the on-location-in-Copenhagen shoot.

The BD repeats the same commentary but it provides a bunch of other components, and we go to At Home with Toxie. This three-minute, 51-second reel treats Toxie as an actual being.

We visit Toxie and his second wife on their estate. Obviously meant for laughs, it seems cute but semi-pointless.

A Word from Villainess Lisa Gay runs two minutes, 15 seconds. The actor offers a few thoughts about her Troma career, but don’t expect many insights from this short clip.

Next comes Toxie on Japanese TV, a three-minute, seven-second segment that features some behind the scenes shots as well as comments from actor Mayako Katuragi – in Japanese without translation. The footage from the shoot seems decent but the lack of English subtitles makes the sequence less valuable.

An Original DVD Intro spans 41 seconds and gives us a quick promo from Kaufman. It offers little of interest.

Radiation March fills a similarly brief 56 seconds and shows an odd interpretive dance/environmental message. It seems unclear for what market Troma made the clip.

Also found on the first movie’s BD, 40 Years of Troma delivers a two-minute, three-second reel that shows a montage of clips from Troma flicks overlaid with some text that praises the studio. It feels like a waste of time.

In addition to trailers for Avenger and its three sequels, we get promos for Troma’s War, Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol. 1 and Return to Nuke ‘Em High: Vol. 2.

Note that this set offers a new Blu-ray and does not appear to simply replicate the prior release from 2014. As far as I can tell, Troma does not offer an individual release of this BD.

Though superior to the mean-spirited and amateurish first film, The Toxic Avenger Part II nonetheless comes with plenty of its own flaws. Of primary concern, the movie runs far too long given its content and just feels awfully self-indulgent. The 4K UHD comes with erratic visuals, weak audio and a mix of bonus materials. I suspect this becomes the movie’s best representation on home video, but I can’t claim the film works for me.

Note that as of October 2023, this 4K version of The Toxic Avenger Part II can be found only as part of a four-film 4K “Toxic Avenger Collection”. This also includes The Toxic Avenger, The Toxic Avenger Part III and Citizen Toxie: The Toxic Avenger Part IV.