Return of the Killer Tomatoes!

Even though I've only recently saw this yesterday,it is most certainly the greatest B-movie comedy ever made,and the most important part of Killer Tomato history,since many characters here went on to be on the TV show,most of the characters from the first movie reappear only they're played by different actors with the exception of J.Stephen Peace as Chad Finletter,with the introduction of six new characters,Chad(Anthony Starke),Matt(George Clooney),Tara(Karen Mistal,later to be played by legendary voice actress Kath Soucie on the show),Professor Gangreen(John Astin),and FT as himself,the product placement gag precedes the one in Waynes World by 5 years,and it has one of the weirdest relationships since Splash,I haven't seen the first or the next 2 sequels,but I'm sure they're just as funny as this one,so take my advice and buy this at Best Buy today and request to Anchor Bay to release the other Killer Tomato movies on DVD

ok, this is a b-movie, and there is best to see, but this one has something peculiar, between a monty python's "stupidity", and the american way of filming... you know that's gonna be plotless, but you see that the crew really enjoyed making this movie with an accurate sense of causticity. there are plenty of allusions(ex: rob lowe, bikini girls...) its construction shows self-criticism, their play is really dumb, but it has a way of making it for pleasure. it has a lot of funny innuendos. its the best films of the serie... this film is considered as a cult, in its way, like the "horror picture show', and you'll understand afterwards why clooney likes to play the clown, when you see his filmography..but he's not just the only interesting actor of this movie ( ;o) ) the best thing is to see it with friends and drinks & foods (try to make a pizza without tomatoes but with pineapples & tunafish). enjoy! :-p

This movie is trying so hard to be silly it isn't fun any more. And I love silly movies (Toxic Avenger for example), but this one was a major disappointment. Story involves mad scientist who re-introduces killer tomatoes (from the first movie, which I haven't seen yet), in the form of humans like 'Tara', who main character Chad falls in love with. Whole movie consists of silly jokes, which more often don't than do work, with the whole 'we need money to make a movie so let's use product placement' thing as a huge downer. Maybe the joke is fun for like a minute or so but to use it throughout the second half of the movie... it was wearing really thin. The makers of this movie tried to get away with the 'we're spoofing and hailing bad movies so we're making one as well' attitude, but there are tons of 'better bad movies' you can see. Not even (very!) young George Clooney can save it, so skip this one... 3/10.

I love this movie!! Judge me if you will, but I stand by my opinion. Forget Mars Attacks, THIS is the best B-movie spoof made in a long time. I haven't seen the original (though plenty of supposed footage from the first one is spliced into this film as part of the joke, much in the same way as Bride of Frankenstein, 1935), but from what I can gather from reviews, this is better. The film constantly makes fun of its low budget with several actors playing multiple parts, and the product-placement scene in the Pizza Place precedes the one in Wayne's World by years and is much, much funnier. The before-he-was-famous Clooney is hilarious, and there's a nice touch having John Astin (who has already spoofed light horror in the original Addams Family) play Professor Gangrene. The film is simply a silly delight to watch, so I recommend you get your hands on it as soon as possible!

Return of the Killer Tomatoes! starts as it means to go on with a silly film-within-a-film gag about it being the one dollar movie of the week on a cheap cable TV station. Once the film begins proper it seems that Professor Gangreen (John Astin) is experimenting with splicing human & tomato genes & has created tomato people, or at least I think that's what's happening. One such tomato person is his good looking assistant Tara (Karen Mistal) who dislikes the way he treats her fellow tomatoes & runs away, she ends up at pizza delivery guy Chad Finletter's (Anthony Starke) shop because he is the only other person she knows. They become romantically involved but the sinister Professor Gangreen sends his tomato person servant Igor (Steve Lundquist) to find, capture & return her. Oh, a young looking George Clooney is here as Matt, Chad's best friend just to make the film even more bizarre. Co-edited, co-starring, co-written & directed by John De Bello I thought Return of the Killer Tomatoes! was an OK comedy spoof that you simply can't take seriously. The script by De Bello, Stephen F. Andrich, Costa Dillon & J. Stephen Peace moves along at a fair pace & has plenty of cheap gags the best of which are centred around some tacky & blindingly obvious product placement, a trend that was becoming popular in films at the time this was made, the fact that tomatoes are now illegal & have to be smuggled into the country like drugs & the shortest car chase in cinema history. A lot of it is pretty much hit & miss, you'll either end up in stitches rolling around on the floor or you'll be sat there stoney faced. Personally I found a few scenes mildly amusing but I thought much of the comedy here was far to predictable, silly & juvenile to be effective. Also forget about any literal killer tomatoes because there aren't any as the film focuses on Tara & her adventures in the real world of which she had no knowledge of before, at heart it's a fish out of water tale with the hapless Chad bailing her out of trouble. At the end of the day I found it an acceptable way to pass the time, nothing more. Director De Bello doesn't do much & as a whole Return of the Killer Tomatoes! is a rather bland & forgettable film throughout. There are flashbacks to the original Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978) to save money while he goes for zany comedy rather than bother with unimportant things like a story. Technically Return of the Killer Tomatoes! is OK at best but nothing spectacular. It's competent but nothing more. The acting isn't up to much & it really is strange to see such a young George Clooney pre-stardom in such a, well lets be kind & call it a unique piece of film-making. Return of the Killer Tomatoes! is OK if you liked films such as Airplane! (1980), Top Secret! (1984), The Naked Gun (1988) & Loaded Weapon 1 (1993). Watchable if your in the right mood. Followed by a further two sequels, Killer Tomatoes Strike Back! (1990) & Killer Tomatoes Eat France! (1991) both of which were directed by De Bello who seems to enjoy making films about tomatoes a little too much, he must have a giant tomato * or something like that...

This film ranks up there with the best of the spoof movies, such as Naked Gun, Airplane!, and Top Secret! I rented it as part of a bad horror movie marathon, along with Leprechaun in Space. It has some of the funniest moments I've ever seen in any movie. The running joke about the film's low budget was one. Also, the fight in the bar made me laugh hysterically. Why did the fight occur? I have no idea! Keep in mind that I don't enjoy this movie on a campy, b-movies-are-cool level. I regard this movie on a One of the Funniest Movies Ever Made level. George Clooney has large hair and does a pretty good job. Also, look out for Rick Rockwell, TV's Who Wants to Marry a Millionaire? millionaire in one of his rare movie appearances! He plays a shady villain.

Being a huge b-movie fan, I had to see this movie. It is VERY funny and entertaining and still a b-movie even with a larger budget, but the only footage of tomatoes moving and attacking people (the best part of the original) is taken from the original "attack" film. Here instead we got tomatoes that look exactly like people. But when you buy an "attack of the killer tomatoes" movie that shows a giant killer tomato attacking on the cover, you expect to see a giant killer tomato attacking in the movie! John Astin as Gangreen was funny, but I like the original movie's reason for tomato attacks. In the original, man altered tomatoes to make them better but accidently gave them the ability to grow and attack people. In this movie that is all ignored and now the killer tomatoes were made by a evil professor in his basement. I think the original plot AND movie are much better, but this films is still very funny in it's own way. And I am surprised it got away with many of the raunchy jokes while staying PG. Recommended if you want to laugh.

In the late 80s when sequels were being put out at an incredible rate, this little film called "Return of the Killer Tomatoes" was released. It definately ranks among the best comedy sequels I've ever seen. Possibly the funniest sequel to this genre next to "Gremlins 2" The film is the sequel to the spoof of disaster flicks "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" that bombed heavily upon release. This film pokes fun at the low-budgets and box-office failures of both films but tends to make more of a mockery of the first film. It reuses old footage, makes fun of the actors/lines from the first film and has a plot thats almost a complete turnabout from the first one. There are no giant growling tomatoes or explosions or musical numbers or anything hi-tech in this film but you get tons of hot chicks, evil Tomatoes-turned-Rambo guys, catchy synthesizer music, the adorable little F.T.("fuzzy tomato") and probably the only time you'll see John Astin and George Clooney in the same movie. I'd give it an 8/10!

Picking up a couple of years after the original, tomatoes are now banned - which has ruined the pizza industry - and the unseen mad scientist who chalked up those giant killer tomatoes in the first film, Dr. Gangreen (John Astin) is up to his old tricks again, only this time he's using music to make tomatoes into people, and depending on the type of music being played, that determines who/what the tomato becomes. Playing sexy jazz music produces sexy blond tomato women, playing Salsa music produces Carmen Miranda, playing Church music produces the Pope, playing pop produces either a pre-white Michael Jackson look-a-like or a Don Johnson look-a-like, or if you play rock music, you get big, burly military tomato men. As Charlton Heston's character from "Soylent Green" would say: "The killer tomatoes are PEOPLE!" Our hero, Chad Finletter(Anthony B. Starke) falls for the attractive one time tomato Tara (Karen Mistal). Unfortunately, Tara can be changed back into a tomato whenever she hears a certain musical chord. Full of gags (like the aforementioned multiple musical interpretations of a tomato) that include a prison dividing its cells between "Really bad guys" and "former political aids", the mime stalking Chad & Tara during their musical montage dating sequence, pot shots at how films have to feature tons of marketing in order to have a budget to get made, pot shots at bad movie marathon hosts and game shows, and let's not forget MY personal favorite, the talking teddy bear that calls out for help when Rock Peace tries to smother it. Film also features a more coherent "plot" (as it were) and served as the blue print for the animated series that later aired on Fox Kids. Keep an eye out for it. George Clooney makes his film debut as Chad's friend and pizza co-worker Matt.

If you expect a serious movie you'll be massively disappointed. If, however you're expecting a comedic spoof that doesn't take itself (or it's prequel) seriously then you're in for a wild ride. It's almost worth watching just so you can admire George Clooney's 80's mullet. There's little plot, but instead there is a series of imaginative scenes which can really make you laugh (so long as you don't try and take the movie seriously). Heartily recommended.