{"id":2109,"date":"2024-08-06T03:58:45","date_gmt":"2024-08-06T03:58:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=2109"},"modified":"2024-10-13T18:40:23","modified_gmt":"2024-10-13T22:40:23","slug":"attack-of-the-killer-tomatoes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2024\/08\/06\/attack-of-the-killer-tomatoes\/","title":{"rendered":"Attack of the Killer Tomatoes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Attack of the Killer Tomatoes <\/strong>(1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 NAI Entertainment\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 87 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some language, cartoonish violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John De Bello\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John De Bello, C.J. Dillon, Steve Peace and Rick Rockwell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Gordon Goodwin, Paul Sundfor and John DeBello\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John K. Culley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 20, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Miller, George Wilson, Sharon Taylor, Rock Peace, Ernie Meyers, Gary Smith, Benita Barton, Steve Cates, Stephen Peace, Eric Christmas, Jack Riley, Ron Shapiro, Al Sklar, Don Birch.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: N\/A<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Wanna see a movie about a bunch of really bad actors being chased and eaten by giant, papier-m\u00e2ch\u00e9 tomatoes? No? You’re not alone. Most people wouldn’t even want to bother with Attack of the Killer Tomatoes<\/strong>. I<\/strong>t sounds like a stupid movie, but that\u2019s only because it is. The good thing is that it’s one of those stupid-funny movies you can’t help but laugh and giggle at for all the wrong reasons. There are a lot of reasons to laugh- the bad acting, terrible special effects, dopey plot… you name it. It’s a spoof of those really bad, low-budget horror and sci-fi movies of the 50s and 60s. It was made for less than $100,000 and looks it. I think that\u2019s the general idea.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The basic plot of Attack of the Killer Tomatoes<\/strong> is in the title. It seems that all the tomatoes in the US have come to life. They\u2019re growing to large proportions and attacking humans. I guess it’s some kind of revolt after many years of being used for salads and sandwiches. It starts when a housewife is attacked in her kitchen. Police are dumbfounded to discover she\u2019s covered in tomato juice not blood. More acts of tomato-perpetrated violence occur. A man dies while drinking tomato juice. A child is eaten right in front of his complacent parents. There’s even a sequence where a group of swimmers is attacked in the ocean by the red meanies.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The government, realizing the vegetables or fruits (depending on how you look at it) must be stopped, brings in a retired specialist named Mason Dixon (Miller) to stop the killer tomatoes. They assign him a team that includes a master of disguise (Smith), a Russian Olympic swimmer (Barton), an underwater specialist who always wears his scuba suit (Cates) and a soldier who always wears his parachute (Peace).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Meanwhile, the President’s press secretary Jim Richardson (Wilson) tries to convince the public the tomatoes are not a threat. He hires public relations expert Ted Swan (Sklar) to put together a campaign attesting to this. Intrepid reporter Lois Maxwell (Taylor) gets her hands on a top secret document and tries to investigate the matter. She pesters Dixon for information, but he’s not talking so she takes to following him around as he deals with the situation. On top of all else, Dixon also has to dodge a masked assassin trying to kill him.<\/p>\n

\u00a0While all this is going on, people from cities all over the country are being attacked by the giant, vicious vegetables\/fruits. Nobody knows what to do because nothing they do has any effect on them. Even a full-on military assault does nothing to slow down their rampage. Finally, Dixon stumbles across a simple solution to defeat the killer tomatoes, but he’s going to need the help of every screwball in San Diego to do it. It involves playing a truly annoying pop song entitled \u201cPuberty Love\u201d whose off-key singer sounds like a mix of Slim Whitman, Tiny Tim and Peter Brady when his voice started changing. It\u2019ll make you long for the dulcet tones of Edith Bunker.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Attack of the Killer Tomatoes<\/strong> is dumb, silly, stupid, goofy and corny as hell, but it\u2019s smart about it. The man responsible for this madness, multiple hat wearer John DeBello (director, producer, co-writer, editor and lyric writer), understands the genre he targets in his spoof even if he doesn\u2019t hit the mark each time. Some of it is quite funny. The disguise expert dons a cheap-looking tomato costume in order to infiltrate the enemy vegetables\/fruits. He blows his cover when he asks for ketchup during meal time. The swimmer, who never once goes near the water, eats a breakfast cereal called Steroids. One of the consulting scientists is Japanese. Naturally, his voice is badly dubbed into English a la the old Godzilla movies. He gets off a good one when correcting one of the military leaders: \u201cTechnically sir, tomatoes are fags.\u201d Another scientist quickly explains that he means fruits.<\/p>\n

\u00a0In addition, it would appear Team ZAZ did not create the idea of crazy credits in Airplane. DeBello throws in a few jokes in the opening credits like \u201cBased on the Best-Selling Novel \u2018The Tomatoes of Wrath\u2019\u201d and \u201cThis Space Available\u201d followed by a fake phone number. Rolling ads for a furniture store show up periodically as well.<\/p>\n

\u00a0You have to love a film like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes<\/strong> that intentionally features bad acting and terrible dialogue to go along with the bargain-basement special effects. Even the music is cheesy. The score sounds like it was lifted from any of a dozen TV cop shows of the 70s. In addition to \u201cPuberty Love\u201d, DeBello wrote the lyrics for the same-titled theme song. They include memorably silly lyrics like \u201cI know I\u2019m going to miss her, a tomato ate my sister.\u201d I remember it was frequently played on Dr. Demento’s late night radio show in the late 70s\/early 80s.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Overall, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes<\/strong> is a fun movie even if it spins its wheels more than it should. It loses momentum and stalls about midway through. It doesn\u2019t exactly wear out its welcome, but it feels like a short film stretched out to feature length. In other words, the idea is better than the execution. Okay, so it\u2019s not perfect. It is, however, entertaining in a mindless kind of way. The makers knew what kind of film they were making and just went with the flow. In kind, viewers should know exactly what they\u2019re getting into with a title like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes <\/strong>and just go with it.\"\"<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Attack of the Killer Tomatoes (1978)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 NAI Entertainment\/Comedy\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 87 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG (some language, cartoonish violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: John De Bello\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: John De Bello, C.J. Dillon, Steve Peace and Rick Rockwell\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Gordon Goodwin, Paul Sundfor and John DeBello\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: John K. Culley\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: October 20, 1978 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: David Miller, George Wilson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2904,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-comedies","category-cool-cult-flicks"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/Attack-of-the-Killer-Tomato.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2109"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2905,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2109\/revisions\/2905"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2904"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2109"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2109"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2109"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}