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Released by: Troma
Released on: April 14th, 2015.
Director: Eric Louzil, Donald G. Jackson
Cast: Brick Bronsky, Lisa Gaye, Leesa Rowland, Scott Resnick
Year: 1991
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The Movie:
This first sequel to Troma's classic Class Of Nuke 'Em High once again takes us to Tromaville but doesn't actually take place at a high school but instead on a college campus. An opening sequence shows us how things have gone very, very wrong as a blonde beefcake named Roger (Brick Bronsky),a reporter for the college newspaper, holds an injured woman in his arms while chaos erupts around then.
From here we flashback to the events that led up to this tragedy. The local nuclear power plant responsible for so much trouble in Tromaville has once again been reconstructed and this time around, it's been built to house The Tromaville Institute Of Technology. Here the mysterious Professor Holt (Lisa Gaye) conducts bizarre sex experiments wherein she attempts to match her mutated 'subhumanoids' with the willing and able male student populace. Holt is in cahoots with the man in charge of the campus, Dean Okra (Scott Resnick), an annoying squeaky voiced man. It's in one of these experiment sessions that Roger meets the love of his life, Victoria (Leesa Rowland), a beautiful subhumanoid who, like her counterparts, has no emotional connection to anything and sports a bonus orifice in the form of an extra mouth located near her navel. They were created to be servants but we all know how that type of genetic engineering tends to go in movies.
Soon, Roger and Victoria are kinda-sorta involved in a full-fledged romance for the ages but there's a problem - the subhumanoids tend to, as the title implies, meltdown from time to time. Roger, noble of heart as he is, hopes to find a way to save Victoria from this terrible fate while all around them things begin to explode, literally and metaphorically, as Holt's experiments run wild and a giant mutated squirrel heads out on a Godzilla-style rampage across the town.
The plot for this one is a pretty messy affair and the film definitely suffers from some pacing problems during the middle stretch but stick with it, by the time that it's over and done with Class Of Nuke 'Em High II: Subhumanoid Meltdown just might win you over… if you're in the right frame of mind for it. The performances are goofy and hammy in the grand Troma tradition, no one here is taking any of this seriously and that is as it should be. Brick Bronsky, who appeared in a small role alongside Martin Kove and Matthias Hues in Death Match but who has mainly worked in Troma movies (and even appeared in last year's Return To Nuke 'Em High!), doesn't have much in the way of range and charisma but is strangely likeable. He struts about with a bleach blonde ponytail and a hot pink muscle shirt, which would normally make him look ridiculous but given who and what he's surrounded by he actually turns out to be the most normal looking one in the movie.
As to the rest of the cast, Scott Resnick is annoying and you can't wait for his character to die - and he does, it's worth the wait. Leesa Rowland's character is supposed to be fairly brainless and vacant and so she plays that part well while Lisa Gaye and her massive beehive hairdo are a lot of fun to watch. Keep your eyes open for a quick cameo from Sharon Mitchell as one of the bald subhumanoids in the movie.
The real star of the show, however, is the stop motion effects used in the last half hour or so of the movie. There's no CGI here, this is all done with creativity and clay and on what you'd have to assume was a pretty miniscule budget. Brett Piper is credited with a lot of the work here and given some of his work in the industry that's not a huge shock. Regardless, there are some great creature and gore effects here to compliment the rampant nudity and stupidity. Had the pacing been better, this might have worked as well as the first movie, but that doesn't happen. It's still worth a watch though, and hey, it's got a pretty great theme song too.
Video/Audio/Extras:
Troma's 1080p AVC encoded 1.85.1 anamorphic widescreen high definition transfer of Class Of Nuke 'Em High II is surprisingly decent given a few recent debacles (Toxic Avenger 2 and Rabid Grannies being the chief offenders). While the image quality here won't wow you the way something like Avatar might, for an early nineties low budget production it looks quite good, particularly when compared to the muddy looking fullframe DVD that was released years back. Colors are massively improved over that prior release and look much more natural and vibrant - you'll notice this right away when that sickly green slime oozes out of a character's body in the opening barrage of chaos. There's a fair bit of grain and some minor print damage is noticeable but it doesn't really take away from the experience much, and let's face it, you wouldn't want to see a movie like this DVNR'd to death anyway. The source material obviously wasn't in perfect condition but there's a significant increase in clarity, quality and detail from previous versions of the film and this transfer is strong enough that fans will want to consider upgrading for this reason alone.
Unfortunately, the only audio option available for the movie is a standard definition English language 48 kHz 224 kbps Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo track. No lossless option has been provided, and there are no alternate language dubs or subtitles options available. The quality and clarity of the mix is fine, but it's a pretty basic affair. There isn't a whole lot of channel separation to note but dialogue is easy enough to follow and understand and while the mix is a bit low (meaning you'll have to turn up the volume a little bit higher than you may be used to), once you compensate for that you won't experience any major issues. This isn't a fancy mix by any stretch but it gets the job done. Lossless audio would have been nice though, given that this is a Blu-ray and all.
The main extra on the disc is an audio commentary from actress Lisa Gaye moderated by a Lloyd Kaufman impersonator of some sort ('I have a little bit of a cold, so I don't sound like myself, I sound like Stan Lee.'). They start off talking about sucking penis and then go on to give what is basically a scene specific talk about making the film. Gaye notes that it was a 'bi-costal shoot' and that director Eric Louzil captured the essence of a Troma movie. She talks about sharing the screen with Scott Resnick, noting that she and he were the two main authority figures in the movie, metaphors in the film, some of the effects work featured in the picture, dealing with giant hair appliances, the logic and rules of the 'subhumanoid meltdown' aspect of the movie and quite a bit more. It's a fun track, a good mix of humor and interesting facts about the film.
The disc also includes an interview with actress Lisa Gaye that runs just over four minutes. Here she talks about her work with Troma, an encounter with Ron Jeremy and more.
Outside of that, look for a music video trailer for the feature, a few other related Nuke 'Em High trailers, a music video for Return To Nuke 'Em High, a Lunachicks music video for 'Say What You Want,' a six minute interview between Lloyd Kaufman and James Gunn regarding his Troma origins, a brief two minute 'American Cinematheque Honors 40 Years Of Troma' segment and a quick twelve minute piece in which Troma made an appearance for a retrospective in their honor at New York City's Museum Of Modern Art. Animated menus and chapter selection are included on the disc as well.
The Final Word:
Class Of Nuke 'Em High II: Subhumanoid Meltdown isn't nearly as good as the first movie but it has its moments. The movie starts off with a bang, heads squarely into lagsville for a long middle stretch, but redeems itself with a pretty insane last half hour. Troma's Blu-ray offers a nice upgrade over the DVD in the video department, no upgrade over the DVD at all in the audio department and contains a few okay supplements as well. If you're a fan, you'll enjoy this disc.
Click on the images below for full sized Blu-ray screen caps!
