L'Attaque des tomates tueuses

"Tomatoes" has been unfairly maligned as one of the worst movies of all time. This is too bad, because the film is really a satire of cheap, bad sci-fi movies. So what better way to satirize a cheap, bad sci-fi movie than by unintentionally making one?

If you saw this movie as a child or teenager, scenes will be indelibly imprinted upon your mind. The guy taking a shower in a hallway; the dubbed voice of the Japanese scientist; the helicopter crash (which wasn't supposed to happen...the pilot came in at too steep of an angle and crushed the back rotor blade. The pilot lost control and crashed the copter. The producers, not wanting to waste this precious filming of an actual accident, put it in the film and instructed actor Jack Riley to pretend to crawl away from the smoldering wreckage); the tomato chasing a woman in a parking lot, with oh-so-noticeable wheels propelling it forward; ah, the magic of film.

Brought to you in part by future California state Assemblyman and State Senator J. Stephen "Rock" Peace.

I remembered seeing a clip of this movie on an old Saturday morning program called "Kids Are People, Too". Seeing a tomato chase Mason Dixon on a sidewalk before my very eyes was far too unbelievable, and I giggled out in thinking it was the most downright hilarious thing mankind has ever seen! I hadn't even noticed that the film existed at all! That was until almost a decade later when I finally got to see it on local TV, and I began to realize that THIS FILM WAS FOR REAL!!! Possibly NO other motion picture in history has managed to make clever strangeness and ridicule like "Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes"! A film like this can be so BAD, that it's actually GOOD! However, I felt that this could have been another "audience participation" outing just like "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" because it can be seen millions of times over. With some occasional musical numbers and plenty of scenes to be addicted to, this would have had a humongous impact on millions of viewers to keep going to the movie theater over and over to see this fun picture. "Killer Tomatoes" plays like a lengthy national anthem, worthy of my time and money! Now, if only I can try to educate millions on how to enjoy watching low-budget movies without getting totally embarrassed! After all, any unknown movie worth $10,000 can still be worthy!

The trailers before the movie on my VHS copy are for a Hannah Barberra cartoon ("Yogi bear in the Arabian Nights" or something) which shows you who the marketing guys thought their target audience was and, taken on that kind of dumb stupid cartoon level, this is one of the funniest things I have seen for years. I laughed out loud several times whilst completely sober and on my own. Yes, its story structure is an utter mess, yes, the acting, directing, editing production values and sound (especially the sound) are awful, yes, a lot of the gags just don't work - the timing is all over the place sometimes jokes are rushed, other times they are stretched out way beyond their worth but as a whole "Tomatoes" is undeniably funny. I'm afraid I nearly wet myself when the Adolf Hitler line came as the payoff to a what looked like a lame running gag.

Reading some of the reviews here I find it hard to understand how anyone can be disappointed in this movie. It lays its stall out in the first two minutes. Girl is attacked by a tomato - then some of the funniest opening credits ever. It is so preposterous it defies criticism. This is the purest form of High Concept movie making. "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes"... unless you didn't actually KNOW what a tomato was how could anyone think this is anything other than what it is - a dumb, stupid, funny movie? and I defy anyone who watches this film not to have the theme song running around their head for days afterwards.

Think of this movie as being made by Matt Stone & Trey Parker (the guys behind South Park etc.) and you get the idea - though in my opinion "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" is a lot funnier than "Cannibal, the Musical" or "Orgazmo".

Definitely a movie to watch with your brain, and any critical faculties you may think you have, switched very, very off.

This film combinds funny jokes with funnier unintentional humor and the result is one of the funniest cult films ever. The rest of the series is o.k., but the original is amazing. Horrible effects galore. make sure you try to grab the original version and not the director's cut. The new version is remastered in better quality, but they altered the film and it just isn't as cool that way. my rating 5/5 and for directors cut 4/5

This film was perhaps THE big low-budget/cult/parody flick in its time. While it doesn't create belly laughs from start to finish, it does have some truly hilarious moments. My favorite scene has dozens of tomatoes just floating in a lake, attacking some unsuspecting summer-campers(believe me, you'll positively crack up when you see the underwater footage!). Also, watch for the sequence in which grown men blast with shotguns tomatoes that were obviously rolled at them off-camera.