Attack of the Killer Tomatoes - 25th Anniversary Edition

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Movies with "wacky" titles are almost never any good, and Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! was intentionally made to be an instant golden turkey. Despite that, and the grade-Z production values, this is a regularly funny film. You need to be a fan of the kind of low-budget horror movie it's spoofing, and you need to be very forgiving of the technical ineptness and frequent clunkers, but it works. The story? Well, tomatoes attack, basically. Jack Riley and the San Diego Chicken are in it, and that genuinely alarming helicopter crash you see in an early scene was a real accident. Seen now, the whole ratty affair brings back agreeable memories of the circa-1978 college-movie/midnight-cinema era, when seeing this film was virtually unavoidable. The sequel, Return of the Killer Tomatoes! (with a young George Clooney), is actually an even funnier film. Director John De Bello would continue to squeeze the Tomatoes franchise for years to come. --Robert Horton

Customer Reviews:

Awesome!.......2007-08-16

This film cuts to the core of what is coursing through the veins and psyches of any man in touch with his human soul on this planet. While war and violence are morally wrong in the abstract human philosophies, shifting cultural sensibilities, and our (USA) pampered day to day existence, It is still part of who we are and it seeps out through our art into our society. We are the way God made us or how we evolved biologically, depending on your views. Either way, we are a violent species. Even if that is lost in the day to day world we live in, there is still an appetite for it. Our art, video games, TV, media, and films serve it up. Since the critics are not artists it is hard for some of them to see the truth of this film and many others released in recent years. Their tunnel vision, sour grapes, or just angry twisted lives make many of them compelled to spit vile upon anything visionary, or even just decent. I have grown tired of reading angry reviews where the reviewer writes as though he or she knows better and almost seems to pity us ignorant peons, lemmings, or what ever the hell they consider us to be. Myself, my family, and my friends are not idiots and no where, except perhaps with people who rarely see films, are such conceited, self-important, and egotistic views represented by the people I know within the word I live. This film was a masterpiece, pure and simple. It will be remembered as such long after the drivel of the day is forgotten.

Killer Tomatos holds you in it's grip from second one to the last scene. It is the sublime beauty of tomatos that the director mentions in his works. Motley Tomato Crew has been an artist I have admired since I was a young boy. He has quietly been working away for the last several decades with no huge critical juggernaut coming down on him and suggesting he is pandering to any political dogma of the day. Now that the film is made, which is as close an adaptation as any author could hope for, the liberal critics are there, striking away at a work that spoke to Boober Jones as a child. To suggest any political significance is reaching beyond ones wildest dreams. Real artists do not push political dogma, they represent what is in their soul and hearts. These news paper pandering nancy boys have nothing better to do than regurgitate hogwash in such a backwards fashion that even they themselves are just running in circles and making no real headway with what ever it is they think they should be doing to better this world. Attack of the Killer Tomatos is a film, not a political movement. To criticize it as if it could convert people into tomato haters is just stupid. The tomatos and the USA do just fine gathering up enemies and haters all on their own. One small film, even one that would be an overt outright bash on either the tomatos or the West would not sway the masses more than a drop in an ocean either way. To point out black and white racist overtones not intended is racist itself.

As grand and spectacular as Attack of the Killer Tomatos is, it's still just entertainment for popular culture. It's stylized so much that to speak in terms of historical accuracy is just silly. Too many films of our times have passed themselves off as pseudo documentaries in order to effect some kind of cultural awakening or change when all they do is preach to the converted. Films are made in so many ways and varieties that it is just as amusing to watch the critics scramble between "Norbit" and "Flags of our Fathers" and all the while trying to maintain some level of intelligence rather than just reviewing films each on it's own merits for what it is and who it's trying to reach. Since so many films these days seem to annoy the critics I often wonder why they are film critics at all. They seem more suited to be writing angry complaint letters to companies about some busted back yard sprinkler. I want reviews, not angry critiques!

Go away critics. You are not wanted. You are not needed. You are a sorry pitiful lot.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.......2007-08-01

A cult classic. The situation is absolutely ridiculous, but the whole crew, from writers to actors, obviously had a ball making it. It is so campy as to be really entertaining. There are some really funny scenes and lines. Any SF/horror fan who has not seen this needs to.

Not smart but fun.......2007-07-03

If you are into campy movies, this is one of the classics. It is up there with "Robot Monster" and "Plan 9 from Outer Space" as far as campy movies go. Everyone in the production has fun with their part, and the special effects are exactly what you would expect, appalling. It intentionally pokes fun at the bad movies it is emulating. If you are looking for a romantic comedy, look elsewhere. But if you want to enjoy a movie with a huge cheese factor, you will be happy.

killing me.......2007-06-27

Bought this thinking that it was a movie that I had seen on TV when I was younger, which I thought was hilarious and was in the same category. But when I played this I realized this wasn't the movie.
Yes, it has its silly moments ( one or two), but for the most part I was bored. Watched it all the way through thinking that it would get funny, but it didn't. Maybe I've watched too much Seinfeld!

Atack of the Killer Tomatoes - light-hearted humour.......2007-03-29

The movie was obtained for my adult daughter who had seen it many years earlier and had always wanted a copy.
We watched the movie and I found it to be very entertaining.
It is a farsical, rock-bottom budget, science-fiction movie that is so corny it is quite funny.
The very basic and often clumsy special effects add to its enjoyment.
It is a good-fun movie with a plot that shares simplicity with lots of other '50s and '60s sci-fi stuff.
While I doubt the movie would appeal to a wide audience, I consider that anyone who can relax their expectations and preconceptions would get a good laugh out of the movie.

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