You have to love a movie in which the San Diego Chicken actually helps take down killer tomatoes. When the original Attack of the Killer Tomatoes was released in 1978, it seemed to be a parody of B movies from the post-WWII era as well as the “When Nature Attacks” movies that had exploded following the success of Jaws.
Directed and co-written by John De Bello, there’s not much of seriousness in the movie for an hour and a half. The special effects are non-existent. At one point you can see a huge tomato “chasing” a woman as it’s on a roller. Whether or not this was intentional, it adds to the outrageous charm. It was produced on a meager budget of $100,000 and when a helicopter accidentally crashed, it was written into the movie.
Just a reminder this same year, John Carpenter had made Halloween with only a budget of $325,000. It’s crazy at times considering the romantic hero, Mason Dixon (David Miller), is an overweight schlub who is supposed to be the best of the best. One of his team members is Sam Smith (Gary Smith) who is supposed to be a master of disguise even though he’s black and most of the disguises are of white people. But he’s able to infiltrate the tomatoes by wearing a tomato costume.
I wonder if the creators of The Bad Guys thought of this when Mr. Shark is supposed to be a master of disguise but all he does is wear a fake moustache. Eventually Dixon and his team describe the only way to kill the tomatoes is to play some horrible song, “Puberty Love.” (The same thing was used in Mars Attacks! to play music by Slim Whitman.) But I’m also sure the gag is also inspired by the Monty Python skit where a person creates a joke so funny it causes people to literally die laughing.
You don’t go into a movie like this expecting original ideas. References are bad to Alfred Hitchcock’s The Birds and even Jaws as people swimming in the ocean are “attacked” by tomatoes. It’s no surprise that many people and the tomatoes are even in the same screen frame. I wouldn’t be surprised if De Bello shot each scene with just one take. The only big names in the movie are Eric Christmas and Jack Riley who pop up briefly for us to say, “Oh, yeah. It’s that guy!”
And then they’re never seen again in the movie.
The movie was a modest success earning over $500,000. “Puberty Love” was sung by a teenage Matt Cameron who would go on to play in popular bands like Pearl Jam and Soundgarden.
Ten years after Attack was release, De Bello would have more money to make the equally silly Return of the Killer Tomatoes! which is probably only popular for being the third movie role for George Clooney. His first movie role in Grizzly II spent decades unfinished as it had become an urban legend before bootleg footage was shown online. Clooney had on the sitcom The Facts of Life with a young Mackenzie Astin, whose father, John, hams it up as mad scientist Professor Mortimer Gangreen.
In the years since the events of the first movie, tomatoes have become outlawed and can only be found on the black market. Clooney plays Matt Stevens, the suave ladies man, who works at a pizzeria with his roommate, geeky naive Chad Finletter (Anthony Starke.) Since tomatoes illegal, they sell pizzas with that are just pizza dough with toppings. There’s something funny about this in how there is actually vegan pizza that doesn’t even have cheese on it.
Chad who is the nephew of Wilbur Finletter (Stephen Peace only actor returining from first movie.) He’s also smitten with a young woman, Tara Boumdeay (Karen Mistal) who is the assistant of Professor Gangreen. Tara is also a tomato herself being turned into a human. It has a bigger plot this time as well, even if it’s more ludicrous.
I feel that De Bello was just doing whatever he could with what he had for Attack, which features a lot of people from the San Diego area who went on to do – nothing afterwards. There’s some metahumor how the sequel like all movies is more elaborate while including scenes from the first movie to help fill out the run time.
This isn’t the first movie to constantly break the fourth wall but some of the humor here is how it contains the generic white and blue food boxes that were used prominently in Repo Man. Then, haflway through the run time, the movie breaks the fourth wall again as the filmmakers say they’ve ran out of money. This leads Matt to suggest they use product placements like Pepsi, Coalgate and Corn Flakes. This gag would later be used in the first Wayne’s World movie.
While Clooney has said repeatedly over the years, this is one of the movies he regrets doing, it does show how Clooney later became a huge star. Not only does he have the GQ cover looks that would make him a heartthrob in the 1990s but he handles comedy very well. He would later collaborate work with Steven Soderbergh on the Ocean movies as well as with the Coen Brothers on some of their comedies.
Both movies were met with negative reviews when they were released. Yet, now, public opinion has changed. They’re not the greatest movies ever and you don’t always need movies that make you think. Just like Killer Klowns from Outer Space, I’m impressed with what De Bello and Peace, also co-writer, have done with a lot of creativity. It might be absurd, crude and silly at times, but it’s intended.
I look at Attack with the few famous ace actors reacting seriously to the absurdity around them as a precursor with what Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker would do with Airplane! Astin, always an energetic actor on screen, has a fun time playing the mad scientist trope. He is set to play the character again in a upcoming reboot.
I don’t know how it will be. There were two other sequels that came out following Return which went under the radar and I haven’t seen them. Maybe the reboot will add some more juice to the franchise.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 