Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! |
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 • USA • 1978 • 83m •    • Directed by: John De Bello. • Starring: David Miller, George Wilson, Sharon Taylor, J. Stephen Peace, Ernie Meyers, Eric Christmas, Ron Shapiro, Al Sklar, Jerrold Anderson, Don Birch, Tom Coleman, Art K. Koustik, Jack Nolen. • Music by: Gordon Goodwin, Paul Sundfor.     After a wave of reports of mysterious attacks involving people and pets being eaten by the traditionally docile fruit, a special government task force is set up to investigate the violent veggies and put a stop to their murderous spree. Included in this crack team are a lieutenant who never goes anywhere without his parachute, an underwater expert who's never out of his scuba gear, and a master of disguise who conceals his appearance by dressing as a black Adolf Hitler.
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In "Killer Tomatoes," however, DeBello, as director, seems to have no idea what DeBello, the writer means. This strange cinematic schizophrenia is best shown by the fact if you look at the script for the movie separately from its realization, it's a fairly good low-budget satire, a kind of guilty pleasure, a movie nobody wants to admit they love. However, when you look at it on the screen, the gags are so often so poorly set up, you have no idea what the jokes are.
An example is there is supposed to be a black agent who is a master of disguise. He emerges from a car dressed in the uniform of an American Army officer with a small moustache. Later, the crazed paratrooper who joins the force looks at the guy and screams, "Oh my God, it's Adolf Hitler!!" So why didn't DeBello understand his master of disguise should be in a Nazi uniform? Looking at the script separately from the film, it is full of arguably brilliant moments. The main plot involves the government dealing with the Killer Tomato problem, not by attacking them, but starting an advertising campaign to convince people the tomatoes actually good for them, since they don't know how to stop them. A group of scientist meets on the issue and discusses a series of governmental agencies the acronyms for which all turn out to be stupid, vulgar words. A man in a hat and glasses with a cape sticking out of his jacket is greeted with, "Oh, Hi, Clark!" by a female reporter.
And in the film's most brilliant moment, the White House aide assigned to create the advertisements about the killer tomatoes visits the nation's leading advertising agency, "Mindmaker," whose president is a man with gold chains around his neck one step away from Boca Raton. Since ad men give you a song and dance, he proceeds to give one. "They sell, they buy, and only I know why," he sings, "important decisions are being made each day, decisions too important for the common man to make, they're always in a bind, so Mindmaker will help make up their mind!" And yet, all this is so poorly edited and staged that most of the effect is lost.
So, if you've seen "Killer Tomatoes" before, and already know the payoffs to the poorly set up gags, or are willing to listen to the script and overlook how it's presented, it's actually a very funny film. If you don't meet those prerequisites, however, you won't like it.
Review by mhberest@hotmail.com from the Internet Movie Database.
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