Review of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978) by Slider1983 — 31 Oct 2018

It’s a difficult film to talk about without spoiling the jokes. It’s one of those films where experiencing the joke is more effective than explaining it. As explained before not all the jokes hit. Some do.

Using a terrible song to defeat the tomatoes, a sequence where a news reporter harasses a witness by making her feel worse about her current situation or a sequence with an extremely slow car chase is hilarious.

As I just said you have to see these jokes to appreciate them. However, every well written, well directed joke is followed by a completely random joke that makes no sense and is not funny. Even the cleverly written jokes such as the split phone sequence is great on paper but then let down by the directing and acting.

The lack of an overall human villain with a grand scheme (rather than the plot twist the viewer gets towards the climax of the movie) means the tomatoes lead without a leader. The introduction of an outright evil antagonist for the sequels is one thing the writers later attempted to correct the series with although it still wasn’t enough to raise the franchise above mediocrity.

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! is an often enjoyable film but how much the viewer gets out of it will depend on (no pun intended) their taste in comedy and whether they can put up with the uneven jokes the film has to offer.

Not a squishy mess, not a ‘respectable’ classic movie but definitely worthy of its ‘cult’ classic status.