This is the second part of Lloyd Kaufman’s “Return to Nuke
Em High. Yes, I did a video review of this film late last year but finally
after waiting what feels like ten or twenty years, I managed to finally got the
chance to pick up the blu-ray “Return to Return to Nuke Em High” to give it the
full blu-ray review.
The film picks up where the first film left where the two
lovers Crissy and Lauren are forced to finally confront the evil CEO of
Tromaganic Foodstuff Conglomerate. If that wasn’t worse Crissy gives birth to a
half duck/ half human and the Cretins formally the glee club is terrorizing Tromavile
High School. Yes, this is the plot for this film. Can Crissy and Lauren stop
the cretins and Tromaganic Foodstuff Conglomerate in this explosive final part
to “Return to Nuke Em’ High”.
After seeing this film separately as its own film compared
to watching both parts back to back, I can firmly say “Return to Return Nuke
Em’ High aka vol 2” is a stepdown from Vol 1. Still, it’s a good film but I was
hoping more of the same as the first film but this felt different and it felt
like Lloyd was getting in the way of the story of the first film.
Kaufman’s direction was as good as the first film. He does a
good job making sure the film moves at a good pace even when there is an
annoying gag in the film which I’ll get into in the screenplay portion that
slows it down only. The action came off as chaotic which is what makes
Kaufman’s films always fun to watch as I had fun with this film.
He also does a
good making sure the acting is good enough to keep you having fun watching this
film even though the screenplay has flaws. Both Catherine Corcoran and Asta
Paredes are very good in the film and I also enjoy Lloyd performance even though
there was too much of him in this film.
The screenplay written by Kaufman, Travis Campbell, Derek
Dressler and Gabriel Feidman was the film’s weak point. One of the problems
that I had with this film was all the Talking Tromaville cut ins. I felt it was
annoying after the second time. I get the joke but I don’t like being hit in
the head with the same joke too many times. It slows the film down and it’s
something I don’t like in comedies because it becomes repetitive. It hurts the momentum
of the film. The other thing that I didn’t like was it focuses on Lloyd’s
character too much. Don’t get me wrong, I love Lloyd Kaufman but I think his
character takes up much time in the story with the whole retconning of “Class
of Nuke Em’ High” to him having too much screen time that it loses focus on the
two main characters Chrissy and Lauren.
There was also some good things in the screenplay. The
screenplay does a great job breaking the fourth wall a couple of times with an
editing room scene fight plus a scene changing from dialogue to director’s
commentary. Both of those scenes are the funniest scenes in this film and felt
different and inventive. The film also does a very good job making sure the
action had an intense and gory feel to it that you’ll have a fun time enjoying
this film and forgive the film’s screenplay miscues.
Like every Lloyd Kaufman film, the blu-ray is loaded. The
extras on the first disc features a very funny introduction to the film, short
films including the weirdly entertaining Mr. Topps, Merry Christmas to My
Wife’s Butt and Radiation March and trailers for Return to Nuke Em High vol
1&2, Troma Now and Lloyd Kaufman’s upcoming film Shakespeare
Shitstorm.
Disc 2 is as loaded. The disc starts off with the
documentary 2 Girls, 1 Duck. This is a feature length documentaon the making of
the film. This is usually the best part of a Lloyd Kaufman film on blu-ray as
this documentary gives you an all access look in the making “Return to Nuke Em
High” Volumes 1 and 2. It’s a very good look at how an independent film is made
as it’s not all glitz and glamour. You get to see how hard it is to make two
films at once. It’s definitely worth checking out if you ever want to know what
it takes to direct and produce an indie horror film. The only thing that was
missing was the audio commentary which would also been nice to have on this
disc.
After that there is two very good featurettes Make Your Own
Shower Scene and Make Your Own Green Screen in a Bentley. Both of those
featurettes can be very helpful if you’re a filmmaker looking to cut corners in
making your indie horror film. Beside those, you also have the short
documentary From Festival to Fascism and TroMoMA Vol 1. Honored at the MoMA, NY
and tributes to Stan Lee, Lemmy and Joe Fleshaker.
This is a step down from Return to Nuke Em’ High but “Return
to Return to Nuke Em High has enough good action and solid lead performances
that makes this film fun given its flaws.
Film Review Rating: Four Stars
Blu-Ray Extras: Four stars
