Attack of the Killer Tomatoes - Dir. Joe DeBello - 1970

Dan seems to be kicking my ass at the review game. So here is another one. This has been a film I really like for a long time. Originally having it on VHS I bought it. Haven't seen the others. Here is Daniel Schaub's review:

Over the next four reviews I have decided to embark on a momentous trash adventure as epic as “Lawrence of Arabia”, as daring as “The Guns of Navarone”, and as bad-ass as “Once Upon a Time in The West”. That's right, I am endeavoring to watch all four of the “Killer Tomato” films. Why? Because I love ya', that's why. Ok, maybe not all you, especially the dick-face in the orange shirt. You know who you are.

The average person would not go out of his/her way to see any of these films, but I hardly qualify as average. (Some would also argue that I also hardly qualify as a person) When I was a child, I remember watching a t.v. show called “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” that was so undeniably goofy that I just had to watch it, there was a certain charm to the overtly bizarre nature of it without falling into anime category. Likewise with the film, upon seeing the trailer, I knew that it was so strange and bizarre that it had to be watched.

The film's story delivers it's title in full, the United States is under attack from killer tomatoes. A lot of other things are going on: the White House press secretary is trying to spin the attack as a good thing, a special agent named Mason Dixon is trying to discover the key to defeating the tomatoes, a reporter named Lois is digging for the truth (and yes, they do a Superman joke) but there is also a Russian female gymnast, a disguise expert who infiltrates the enemy ranks as a tomato, and a bevy of other strange situations and characters. It doesn't make a whole sense and trying to explain it wouldn't help at all because I barely understood it as I watched it. But I do know that I liked it immensely.

How could I like something that is so trashy and hard to understand?

For one, the script is a lot smarter than you would naturally assume. The fault of so many comedy films is that they're one note; they create a character or a situation that is sort of funny but then they overplay that singular element until it is no longer funny, just annoying. “Indiana Jones and The Temple of Doom” is even guilty of this, Willie Scott and Short Round are both fairly amusing at first but eventually they become so annoying that you wish Indy would squash them in a industrial rock crusher. “Attack of the Killer Tomatoes” is smarter than that; it creates enough situations and characters to keep making jokes. An amateur move would have been making the same jokes about killer tomatoes the entire and even though there are plenty of incidents with the tomatoes each situation is so different than the last you can't help but laugh. But the jokes don't stop at that, being a parody of B-movies John De Bello and company let the jokes fly at an “Airplane”-esque pace. Also, the chaotic nature of the plot and the random assortment of character gives it a charm, just like the show. Since it is a parody of the 50's B-monster movie genre, it only makes sense that the plot is anarchic and hard to follow, watch “The Flying Mantis” and you will agree.

Secondly, the actors are so committed to making complete asses of themselves that its hilarious. Finletter, played by Rock Peace, is the perfect example of this ass-ness. The character is huge, more like a character that Groucho Marx would play, and Peace understands this. He makes himself huge to fit the character and I found myself watching him in the background when he wasn't even part of the scene. Just about every other actor is also of worthy note though, the only one who seems at a loss is Mason Dixon but merely because he's playing the straight man to all this silliness. In a sea of strange characters the simple ones stand out like a sore thumb, but they are necessary for the plot to ever move forward.

And thirdly, what movie wouldn't be made better by musical numbers? Honestly, I would have felt a hell of a lot better tapping my toe through “There Will Be Blood”, maybe I wouldn't have fallen asleep then... But then some musicals just honestly are so shockingly awful that you'd wish you weren't toe-tapping, you'd wish you were watching it all. I'm talking to you “Chicago”, you overblown piece of horseshit, and you “Dream Girls” and you “Moulin Rouge!”... I could go on and on, but the point is that musicals are a wonderful escape from the real life when expertly executed, or in “Attack”'s case poorly executed. The songs are just so strange and oddly placed that you aren't expecting them, they is hardly any dancing but it adds to the fact that the movie is made to make fun of B-movies. No self-respecting B-movie, if there is such a thing, would have a musical number and having one just makes you laugh. It honestly makes me want to add musical numbers to every film I write from now on, just for the laughs.

I did like the film a lot but there are some bad things. It is hard to follow and it slows down in the joke department in the last half-hour, but it is well-made horror comedy and I'm a sucker for horror comedies (“Bubba Ho-Tep” was the best film of 2002, that's right, fuck you “A Beautiful Mind”). If you are into horror-comedies too, then you should watch it.