Who said nothing good never came from Jersey?

The Toxic Avenger Part II

The above flier represents yet another beautiful day (back in the day) at the BAMCinématek. Tell me you don’t have the utmost respect for this outfit now that you know that The Toxic Avenger series got their well-deserved due. But more importantly, it looks like there’s a wikipedia article stub I can nurture to its full potential: The Toxic Avenger Part II.

And, as always, YouTube has the trailer to further convince you to add this masterpiece to your Netflix queue.

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17 Responses to Who said nothing good never came from Jersey?

  1. woah. you completely overlooked John Couger Mellencamp-Man! The original Jersey superhero. He even had/has the hair, man!

    Oh, wait. you said “good”. Right. agreed…

  2. Mikhail says:

    As a recent Brooklyn refugee to New Jersey, I must correct D’Arcy: Mellencamp is from from Indiana.

    I think you mean John Bon Jovi.

    It’s bad enough as it is. I beg you, please be considerate. These people think a Sloppy Joe sandwich involves coleslaw and Russian dressing.

  3. jimgroom says:

    I can now honestly say, while defending myself against any reaction to my perceived criticisms, “Some of my best friends are from dirty Jersey.”

    Jon Bon Jovi Vs John Mellencamp: that sounds like a Celebrity Death Match I would watch with glee, of course hoping they both lost.

  4. John Bon Mellencamp? John Bon Cougarcamp? Yeah. Sounds like a country boy anyway…

  5. Teresa Kennedy says:

    I think we can agree we’ve reached a new low.

  6. Gardner says:

    Y’know, there’s a sweetness deep within the Toxic Avenger that I miss in the coarse, brutal, uncaring world of schlock we currently inhabit. All I see these days are evil-looking Calvins peeing on the backs of pickup truck windows. The Toxic Avenger’s obviously much deeper than that.

    Viva New Jersey.

  7. jimgroom says:

    @Gardner: Couldn’t agree with you more about Toxie, he brings something special to b-movies of the 80s and 90s.

    @Terry A new low? Come on, you know this is just the tip of the iceberg.

    At this point, I am very surprised that the true working class hero from New Jersey has not been mentioned: The Boss. I mean this is the card any Jersey fan will pull out right about now to garner a little credibility. So I guess I will trump them: Bruce is overrated…there, I said it.

  8. Gardner says:

    James Miller would agree with you about Springsteen. I used to agree with you, but now I think Springsteen is not at all overrated, except when he’s awkwardly trying to channel Woody Guthrie. (Not the Boss’s true metier, I think.) I do think he makes aging rock critics very, very nervous, or sycophantic, or both. 🙂

  9. jimgroom says:

    Actually Gardner,

    This could easily explode into a family feud, for Antonella was part of the Bruce Springsteen fan club in Italy, and had traveled Europe widely to attend Springsteen concerts. There is even a funny story about her accosting the bass player that she may even tell you at some point. Personally, Bruce has never really been of much interest to me, though his appeal on Long Island was everywhere felt, but when put up gainst the bubblegum pop of the Ramones, I’ll go with the kids from Queens anyday of the week. Jersey be damned!

  10. Mikhail says:

    Look, people, Paul Robeson was from Jersey (not to mention Allen Ginsburg, Norman Mailer, Dorothy Parker, William Carlos Williams, Jack Nicholson, Ice-T, and the Misfits. So there.

  11. jimgroom says:

    Ice-T is so weak!

  12. Lots of good has come from Jersey! Both Bud Abbott and Lou Costello! Excellent! Also, David Cassidy, Danny DeVito, Jack Nicholson. Dennis Rodman, Kelly Ripa, Tara Reid. Wait. It’s going south fast…

  13. Shannon says:

    Oh good so I’m not the only one who is defending Jersey from the likes of the Brookyln-brainwashed Jim Groom haha, I kid of course (sort of).
    Gotta give it up for the Jersey shore, I do love it so. And just because the parts closest to NYC are kind of gross doesn’t mean the rest of the state is, its actually quite beautiful in some parts. We ain’t called the Garden state for nothing.
    As much as I am fan of The Boss I’m still more of a Billy Joel fan. I guess that makes me a sell-out to the Long Island, oh well!
    Just remember Jim everyone loves a Jersey Girl. I believe Tom Waits dedicated a whole song to being in love with a Jersey Girl and you cannot deny Tom Waits haha.

  14. jimgroom says:

    @Shannon; Tom Waits wrote that song under financial duress. He later retracted it as a moment of need-inspired weakness. But if I were from Jersey, and I thank the Gods daily I’m not, but if I were I would pull out the biggest gun of all Jersey greats: the late great Paul Gleason. Born and raised in jersey City and truly one of the best character actors of recent times (along with Harry Dean Stanton). His performances in The Breakfast Club and Johnny Be Good are downright brilliant. But I’m not from Jersey so I really shouldn’t have given you all this caliber of ammunition, but I’m a softy at heart.

  15. I’m with Gardner — I grew up at the dawn of the video store revolution (high school class of ’87), and many of my finest high school memories involve marathon games of Risk, big pots of coffee, and a Troma vid on the TV: at that time I think there was basically Toxic Avenger and Class of Nuke em High – although maybe Nuke em high was first year of college?

    We loved them — and I’m still sentimental — there was a raw geeky ingenuity to the gore, but more importantly there was just that joy of everything that is good and bad about being a high school male wrapped up into those things. All the being way too cocky and impressed with yourself, all the catalog of fetish hung onto by the high school male (all the fear of women as well), but all raw energy and unhoned brilliance too.

    In 1991 when I formed a rock band with friends, we called it The Smurf Nazis, partially in homage to Surf Nazis Must Die. No one except us got the pun. People kept asking us if we were really Nazis.

    I kept saying, yeah, and we’re Smurfs too.

    The most striking Troma vid I think is Tromeo and Juliet, which I only saw once — I was visiting my old high school friends for a mini-reunion and we decided to rent it… Maybe it was the beer and the 10 cups of coffee, but it struck me as kind of an oddly intriguing film… I mean — in certain ways, it could be read as an extremely avante garde take on Shakespeare — IF you took them as knowing they were satirizing themselves… but so long ago I’m not really sure. And many pots of coffee…

  16. jimgroom says:

    @Mike Caulfield: Smurf Nazis -brilliant! We are of the same generation without a doubt!

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