Film Threat Review of “Return to Return to Nuke Em High AKA Vol 2”!
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I don’t think anyone with eyes and ears will accuse American auteur Lloyd Kaufman of indulging in and engulfing his films with massive amounts of toilet humor. In his fast food zombie picture Poultrygeist, there’s a sequence involving an obese sandwich marketer crapping all over a bathroom in explosive quantities. This one bit altered my opinion of general cinematic poopery so much that I even wrote about how it deserved an Oscar nomination. More than the simple visual of a fat man writhing on the floor with his pants down, blowing chunks of bowel demons on a wall, it was a moment of aggressive transgression that pushed it from stunt gag to transcendent beauty. Kaufman is guilty of offensive acts, sure, but each and every one of them is injected with great thought, energy, effort, and heart. So much purpose behind a person’s behind can bring a tear to one’s eye.
His latest, the remake/reboot/re-imagining/sequel(?) Return to … Return to Nuke Em High AKA Vol. 2, is Troma’s most manic magnum opus yet. If Vol. 1 was the methodical-lite entry that settled on character and punk tones, Vol. 2 is the all too meta, fourth wall breaking, asylum wall destroying amalgamation of everything Kaufman has been working towards in his career. There are near celestial levels of indulgences taken, all for the better! It’s an utter astonishment of sensory penetrations that re-aligns the parameters of Uncle Lloyd’s filmmaking comfort zones. What Inland Empire means to Eraserhead, Return to … Return to Nuke Em High AKA Vol. 2 means to The Toxic Avenger and/or The Battle of Love’s Return. Suffice to say, Kaufman may have a difficult time in topping this flick.