Customer Reviews

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes [VHS]

5 star:		(44)
4 star:		(23)
3 star:		(15)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(8)

 

 

This movie is a classic goofball flick: you'll love it or hate it. I love it!

I am mainly writing this as a warning about the "Director's Cut" version of the film that Disney released. Viewers should be warned, this is not good! It's true that a cut scene or two is added back in...but the payoff isn't worth the price. The movie is interrupted several times for comments from the director!!!!! And they cut out the Advertising song!!!!! ("They sell, they buy, and only I know why!") Try to find a full copy, the restored scene is feeble, and isn't worth the interruptions and loss of the terrible, terrible song.

What so many people don't realize is that Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was made to be bad. It was written as a cheesy satirie of a silly genre of films. I think it achieved that. The expectations were met. There are two classic scenes: The Japanese scientist being dubbed and the slow speed car chase. They both stand out in my mind. A bit of trivia: The helicopter crash early in the movie was real. They didn't plan on it crashing, but got it on film. Nobody was hurt, but the helicopter was obviously destroyed. Jack Riley (the future Mr. Carlin on the Bob Newhart Show) was in it when it crashed.

Finally: The guy in the Arab outfit in the final scene was me. I wonder why my career didn't take off after that? Oh, well.

No sense in making fun of the script - the plot couldn't possibly work. No sense making fun of the special effects - you can see the wheels on some of the tomatoes. No sense making fun of the music - it'll only come back to haunt you in the late hours.

Somehow the over the top kitsch makes this movie a classic. You have to laugh. And watch it again and laugh some more. And watch it again making up drinking games as you go. No wonder it's become a cult classic.

Not a classic quality movie, but a prime example of excellence in the B-cult genre.

This movie was designed to make fun of every monster movie, every horror movie, every bad B-movie ever made. Along with the tons of humor there are also some serious messages about journalism, commercialism, and politics. But mostly it is about giant tomatoes, song and dance numbers, old fashion cars and characters nobody cares about.
You'll never look the same way at a fruit again. No wonder it had so many movie AND cartoon spin offs. Great theme song!

This has got to be the most bizarre movie I've ever seen, and believe me, I've seen a lot of weirdos. Tomatoes the size of minivans terrorizing the country. I could probably have single-handedly paid all costs for this movie- gives a new meaning to the term "low budget". The director and producer each had about fifteen roles, appeared to have recruited the cast out of their friends and relatives, and must have taken bad hallucinogens while eating a Caesar salad as small children. The movie was deservedly given bad ratings by the reviewers, yet this is the main part of its charm- watch it, laugh, and then groan at the same time. This is such a stinker it's zillions of times more enjoyable than most serious movies given great reviews.

The Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (AotKT) is an absolutely hilarious, cheesy, awful (in a good way) movie that makes it fun to watch. The humor comes before similarly classified "bad" movies such as Airplane, but the style works quite well. It takes a seemingly ridiculous ideas of killer tomatoes and makes it into an over-the-top adventure. Many people will probably call it stupid. I'd agree, but that's what makes the entire film hilarious to watch if you share this kind of humor.

For those trying to decide between the two editions, the "25th Anniversary" edition contains no extras, except for the trailer. I'm glad I went for the the "Special colletor's edition," because it's full of lots of good things:

-A duplicate of the original movie poster, 15" by 21"
-Commentary on the movie (with John DeBello, Steve Peace, and Costa Dillon)
-The original 8mm AotKT film (with commentary)
-The 8mm film that inspired the AotKT film
-Sing-Alongs for all of the songs in the movie
-Deleted scenes (with commentary)
-Interviews with the cast and crew, exploring the legacy behind the movies
-"Where are they now?" featurette
-Tomato trivia, information on props and production design

Altogether, it's a pretty nice package that fits onto one disc. I wasn't expecting the poster to be included, which I thought was a really nice touch, and even had it framed. I'd highly recommend this for any AotKT fan.

I Don't See the Point

I'll be the first to admit that really bad movies can be really entertaining. That's why some of Ed Wood's movies are so much fun. ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES has long had such a reputation. I decided to give it a try. It was not worth the time or the effort.

Imagine that in a USDA experiment gone wrong, a group of mutant, killer tomatoes gets loose and attempts to wipe out humanity. All of the government's resources are put towards fighting the vicious berries. They are all doomed to failure and it looks like humanity's days are numbered. Finally, in a move that foreshadows MARS ATTACKS by 2 decades, humanity gets the upper hand and defeats the rampaging produce. Along the way, there are problems with politicians, bureaucrats, soldiers, spies and reporters. The idea is silly. I knew that going in.

There are gags in this movie that are funny. There are a few more that are very dated but can be funny if your memory goes back far enough. Mostly, though, it is just too much and goes on for too long at too great an expense of time and money. Others may like it but it paled for me after about 15 minutes. The musical numbers are a complete write off as well.

You have to really like extreme silliness to get much out of this one.

I hate it when movie directors revisit their old films and "improve" them (see: Star Wars) with new SFX and soundtracks. I hate it even more when they make these new versions the only ones commercially available on home video (again: Star Wars - and non-anamorphic laserdisc transfers don't count, Lucasfilm). As it turns out, George Lucas is not the only director to do this - even old low budget cult films are getting this treatment. Hence, the "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes 25th Anniversary DVD."

I'm not going to talk too much about the movie itself. Other reviewers have summed up this screen gem better than I am able to. In its original form it is an uproariously hilarious spoof of old monster movies as well as a wicked satire of just about everybody: politicians, the military, advertising executives, the press, even teen idol singers (who could forget "Puberty Love?"). Plus it has the slowest car chase in the history of cinema! That has to count for something.

The movie itself is great - in fact, it has been one of my favorites since I was a kid. The problem I have with this DVD is that it contains the aforementioned "new" version of "Killer Tomatoes," and only the new version. Sometimes when directors redo old movies they only change an effect here and a sound there; nothing that huge (although still annoying). For "Killer Tomatoes" they have gone back and added so much stuff and taken out so much stuff that I spent my first time watching this DVD spotting all of the changes made from the original theatrical cut that I had watched on VHS over and over for so many years, instead of simply enjoying the film. I am not going to list every single change (that would take hours) but I will try to hit the highlights (or lowlights, as the case may be):


(If you have not seen this movie yet then this section is irrelevant, in fact you may want to skip this section as there are possible spoilers)


-You can tell right away that something is up when ominous music is played over the opening scroll (it was silent originally). Also, the opening credits now have splat sounds played as tomatoes hit the camera.

-There are numerous background overdubs added to the movie. Sometimes it's really insipid - for example, someone will be being eaten off-camera and a person will be dubbed also offscreen saying something like, "Oh my god! He's being eaten by a tomato!" Because otherwise the audience would have no idea what was going on, right? Also, some lines have been redubbed and no longer have the same punch ("When you're feeling sad and blue, tomatoes end it all for you!").

-In a similar vein, some of the films jokes are punctuated with insert shots that do nothing but interrupt the flow of the comedy and remind you that they were inserted much later. The most egregious example I can think of is the part in the beginning when the Japanese scientist knocks a picture of the USS Arizona off the wall. In the original it just gets knocked onto the floor and you hear a crashing sound. In the redo you see an insert where it lands in a fishtank. Trying to improve on jokes twenty five years after the fact is pretty lame, guys.

-The shot of the giant tomato chasing the lady with the shopping cart has been framed differently so that now you can't see the wheels underneath that it's riding on. Come on guys, this is a low budget b-movie spoof... why bother going back to fix the FX? The cheapness is part of its charm!

-Some lines and even whole jokes are removed. The conversation between the President and Press Secretary about Air Force One ("Broken? The whole plane broken?" "Well, sir, you remember where the Washington Monument-") and Air Force Two ("Hasn't he returned that YET?") has been deleted, for example.

-Whole scenes have been removed. The biggest is the dressing down of the reporter Lois by her newspaper boss ("You didn't get the story... you ARE the story!"). The next biggest is the scene at the receptionists desk where it is remarked upon that plants respond to music (FORESHADOWING ALERT!). These exclusions puzzle me.


So, is there an upside to this DVD edition? Yes, and that is that it is (of course) much better looking than the old VHS edition. Colors are more vivid, dark scenes are more visible. For a really cheap ($90,000 budget!) 30+ year old movie this looks great. "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1 (again, it was a low budget movie from the 70s... what do you expect?). There are no extras except the original theatrical trailer.


+ Great video quality, funny movie...

- ...That's been tampered with, killing some of the humor. Almost no extra features.

Conclusion - If you have never seen "Killer Tomatoes" you might want to pick this up and have a chuckle; enough of the humor still shines through that you might enjoy it. For those who have seen this though you will probably want to just hang on to your old VHS copy. Until Criterion releases the original theatrical version of course. Ha!

This movie is truly a classic of all B movies. Truly funny each time and every time you watch it again and again. Killer Tomatoes bring back wonderful memories and how can you miss the song of "Killer Tomatoes" when the movie begins. Highly rarely do you find movies like this today...add it towards your monster movie collection as a "side dish" to it and watch a lot of eye brows perk up! from family and friends that seen it before...great memories and a great movie that is over looked..highly recommended!!

Tomatoes that kill... What could be better? Cucumber's that fu..? Maybe... But it just tastes so damn good... All this movie needed was some salt... You should buy, rent, oh hell, just watch the damn thing. It's hypnotizing... You love it. And I'll buy that for a dollar!!