Frogtown II Reviews

Texas Rocket Ranger Sam Hell returns for more mayhem with the mutant frogs in this poverty-stricken sequel to 1988's HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN. Some years after the US-decimating Frog Wars, Zar, evil ruler of the Frogtown Mutant Reservation, has kidnapped Professor Tanzer (Brion James) and forced him to develop a serum that will devolve the human population into frogs. Aided by his sadistic Commander Toady (Kelsey)--the character, who died in the first film, has been refitted with a robot head--Zar apprehends Rocket Ranger Jones (Lou Ferrigno) as a test subject for his serum, and Nurse Cloris (Linda Singer) begins the injections. Following the advice of his overseeing computer system F.U.Z.Z.Y. (Rhonda Shear), the head of the New Texas Rocket Rangers, Captain Delano (Charles Napier), once again sends Ranger Sam Hell (Robert Z'Dar) to Frogtown to investigate, this time accompanied by curvey Dr. Spangle (Denise Duff) and aided by the nearby-living retired Ranger Brandy Stone (Don Stroud). After a series of skirmishes, incarcerations. escapes, beatings, and reincarcerations, Hell saves Jones, helped by Tanzer and Cloris defecting to the humans' side, along with a little mutant named Junior (the sole surviving result of Tanzer's failed experiments to create a new race for Zar). Both villains Zar (revealed to be Tanzer's twin brother) and Toady are killed, along with Tanzer. Freed of their misguiding tyrant leader, the citizens of Frogtown are sentenced to one year of probation, to be overseen by their new leader Cloris, while Hell, donning his rocket pack, flies off to further adventures. When HELL COMES TO FROGTOWN was released direct-to-video in 1988, zero-budget filmmaker Donald G. Jackson claimed interference from the producing studio (New World Pictures) had sabotaged his project. Jackson, who went on to direct the dismal ROLLERBLADE action pictures, bought back the FROGTOWN rights. Presumably doing it his own way, as an independent production, the resulting sequel FROGTOWN II unfortunately makes the first film look like a model of witty futuristic action. Again parodying the 1930s serial format (most directly, 1949's KING OF THE ROCKET MEN) and succeeding even less than the feeble FLESH GORDON pictures, FROGTOWN II stretches the lowest possible levels of talent, technical or otherwise, necessary to get a releasable video product. Written, directed, and photographed by Jackson, FROGTOWN II, with its cheap-looking, post-Apocalypse ROAD WARRIOR time setting and design, has the look, grainy and static, of a 1950s comic book. The actors resemble and talk like cartoons, moving through a story line that is both predictable and often incoherent. There are seemingly hours here where almost nothing happens, visual filler to allow the insertion of several OK rock tunes like "Kicking the Frog," "Meaner and Greener," and "The Great Green Groove." Special effects, especially the rocket-pack flying scenes, are woefully fudged. Reportedly shot in two weeks in May, 1991, the best one can say about FROGTOWN II is that it looks like it. The first film had an interesting cast, with lookers Sandahl Bergman and Cec Verrell, B-movie stalwarts William Smith and Rory Calhoun, and ex-pro wrestler Roddy Piper as Sam Hell. FROGTOWN II's cast is miserably second-string, despite the welcome presence of Charles Napier and Don Stroud, who have little to do. The lisping, electric-haired Brion James is allowed to overact ferociously; Ferrigno, who's being turned into a frog, seems here only because, given his TV stint as "The Incredible Hulk," he photographs well in green makeup. Piper's replacement as hero Sam Hell is Robert Z'Dar (MANIAC COP), as lifelessly wooden and perfectly square-faced as the 1959 TV cartoon "Clutch Cargo." All in all, FROGTOWN II is the longest 87-minute film of the year. (Violence, sexual situations, profanity.)