‘Mr. Melvin’ – ‘Toxic Avenger II’ & ‘III’ Reconstruction Represents the Best Version of the Sequels [Review]

The Toxic Avenger altered the trajectory of Troma Entertainment upon its release in 1984. While the studio’s early work largely consisted of raunchy comedies, the runaway success — as far as low-budget indies go, at least — of The Toxic Avenger inspired a shift to channel their madcap humor into gratuitous horror movies.

When Troma founders and The Toxic Avenger co-directors Lloyd Kaufman and Michael Herz set out to make a sequel, they returned with enough footage for two movies, with The Toxic Avenger Part II releasing in February of 1989, followed by The Toxic Avenger Part III: The Last Temptation of Toxie nine months later in November. Troma is (in)famous for knowing how to stretch a dollar, but this particular move turned one ambitious sequel into a pair of overlong slogs.

36 years later, Andrew L. Miller, Troma creative producer and assistant to Kaufman, and Adam Peltier, star of Troma’s upcoming film The Power of Positive Murder, unearthed the original sequel script in the studio’s basement. With the blessing of Kaufman and Herz, they edited the two films together to reconstruct the initial vision for the sequel under its original title, Mr. Melvin.

The result streamlines the two 100+ minute efforts into a single 127-minute feature. In doing so, Mr. Melvin eliminates two significant issues that plagued the original films: Part II‘s anticlimactic ending and Part III‘s near-Silent Night, Deadly Night Part 2 level of recycling footage from its predecessor. A few ancillary gags are lost for timing but all major plot points remain intact, as most of the editing came from trimming the fat.

In the movie, Tromaville’s crime-free tranquility is shattered when corrupt corporation Apocalypse Inc. comes to town. Toxie (played mostly by Ron Fazio, with John Altamura in certain shots) is tricked into traveling to Tokyo in search of his estranged father, leaving his hometown vulnerable to the villainous syndicate. The monotonous fish-out-of-water sequences shot on location in Japan play more like a drug-fueled travelogue than anything meant to advance the plot.

Toxie returns to Tromaville and makes a Faustian bargain with Apocalypse Inc.’s chairman (Troma regular Rick Collins), becoming a corporate yuppie in exchange for the money needed for his blind girlfriend’s (musician Phoebe Legere) sight-restoring operation. His boss is revealed to be the devil in a birthing sequence that remains a highlight of the franchise, and the two face off in a video game-inspired duel.

Fazio returned to provide new voice over to serve as connective tissue, supplementing the copious existing exposition, and new opening and end credits were created, but otherwise Mr. Melvin is crafted entirely from existing elements. Indulgences in over-the-top gore, vulgar humor, sleazy exploitation, outrageous action, goofy sound effects, and biting social commentary still border on superfluous, but Mr. Melvin‘s snappy editing makes Kaufman and Herz look like better storytellers.

Whether you’re a Toxic Avenger fan who grew up on the originals or you’re working through the franchise for the first time in anticipation of Macon Blair‘s new reimagining, Mr. Melvin is the superior way to experience Part II and Part III. Better paced and more palatable without sacrificing any of Troma’s signature eccentricities, it represents the best version of the sequels.

Mr. Mevlin is scheduled to screen at the locations below with more to follow. It’s expected to eventually make its way to streaming via Troma Now with a potential physical media release to follow.

8/28 – Gardena Cinema – Garden, CA
9/5 – Huntington Cinema Arts Center – Huntington, NY
9/18-9/28 – Slash Film Festival – Austria
9/22 – Studio Movie Grill – Lincoln Square – Arlington, TX
10/6-10/9 – Cine Underground Film Festival – Italy

The post ‘Mr. Melvin’ – ‘Toxic Avenger II’ & ‘III’ Reconstruction Represents the Best Version of the Sequels [Review] appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.