No one sets out to make a bad movie. Even the ironic hipsters out there who purposely put crap to screen (“Lost Skeleton of Cadavra”) do so with the intent to entertain the masses! Then why do we have so many films that, through their own, unintentional shitty-ness, cause mass eye gouging? Who should be blamed for the cinematic travesty which stands in front of the jury today that's been called “THE WORST FILM OF ALL TIME!!!!!” in trivia games more times then it’s actually been seen?
An everyday item has gone bad and it hungers for human flesh. Is it raccoons? Wood? Children? No one knows. But it’s up to a crack team of CIA operatives led by Mason Dixon (David Miller) and his motley band of weirdos is here to kick ass and take names…in a cost effective way of course. We can’t forget this is a low budget film!
Shot on on a 90,000 dollar budget in 1978...AOTKT isn’t THAT bad. All right, I’ll admit it looks incredibly dated. Yes, the direction is limp and things are sometimes fuzzy/poorly framed. Okay, the pacing is draggy at places, the acting terrible and the special effects non-existent (Unless rolling tomatoes frighten you). But there are some positive points to be found in this obvious cult classic!(?) They're killer tomatoes! That's funny ... right?
With a premise as silly as “ARGHHH! My leg is being eaten by tomatoes!” the filmmakers ditched the straight faced comedy approach ("Night of the Lepus") and instead grabbed every silly gag that was unlucky enough to cross their path. Puns, sight gags, more puns, no one here was born with any shame. They trot out gobs of nonsense ZAZ (Airplane, Naked Gun) style comedy before ZAZ even made their first films. The proverbial kitchen sink is thrown at the audience for maximum brain damage. Action? Got it. Romance? Uhhh…Got it? Musical? *silence* Musical? It’s here, but it hurts, it hurts so much. But even with all this on the cards, I regret to announce it reads better then it plays. The main problem is that the jokes are trotted out at their own leisurely pace instead of being shot at us non-stop. Everyone knows that in this kind of comedy every second gag is going to fall flat on its face so you’d better have one right behind it to pick up the slack. At this, Tomato fails. You won’t laugh as much as turn to your buddy an say:“Heh. That was funny!" and then lapse into silence. Sadly, this is strictly PG rated stuff, the only red liquid that you'll ever see is when someone asks to "Pass the ketchup".
AOTKT is a pop-culture relic that really isn’t as god-awful as the kids on the playground have telling you: it's just a mediocre film with a silly concept/title. It's something that you watch once to impress that hot girl you'd never have gotten anywhere with on your first date (IT WORKS!)
An everyday item has gone bad and it hungers for human flesh. Is it raccoons? Wood? Children? No one knows. But it’s up to a crack team of CIA operatives led by Mason Dixon (David Miller) and his motley band of weirdos is here to kick ass and take names…in a cost effective way of course. We can’t forget this is a low budget film!
Shot on on a 90,000 dollar budget in 1978...AOTKT isn’t THAT bad. All right, I’ll admit it looks incredibly dated. Yes, the direction is limp and things are sometimes fuzzy/poorly framed. Okay, the pacing is draggy at places, the acting terrible and the special effects non-existent (Unless rolling tomatoes frighten you). But there are some positive points to be found in this obvious cult classic!(?) They're killer tomatoes! That's funny ... right?
With a premise as silly as “ARGHHH! My leg is being eaten by tomatoes!” the filmmakers ditched the straight faced comedy approach ("Night of the Lepus") and instead grabbed every silly gag that was unlucky enough to cross their path. Puns, sight gags, more puns, no one here was born with any shame. They trot out gobs of nonsense ZAZ (Airplane, Naked Gun) style comedy before ZAZ even made their first films. The proverbial kitchen sink is thrown at the audience for maximum brain damage. Action? Got it. Romance? Uhhh…Got it? Musical? *silence* Musical? It’s here, but it hurts, it hurts so much. But even with all this on the cards, I regret to announce it reads better then it plays. The main problem is that the jokes are trotted out at their own leisurely pace instead of being shot at us non-stop. Everyone knows that in this kind of comedy every second gag is going to fall flat on its face so you’d better have one right behind it to pick up the slack. At this, Tomato fails. You won’t laugh as much as turn to your buddy an say:“Heh. That was funny!" and then lapse into silence. Sadly, this is strictly PG rated stuff, the only red liquid that you'll ever see is when someone asks to "Pass the ketchup".
AOTKT is a pop-culture relic that really isn’t as god-awful as the kids on the playground have telling you: it's just a mediocre film with a silly concept/title. It's something that you watch once to impress that hot girl you'd never have gotten anywhere with on your first date (IT WORKS!)
The film is available as a bare bones DVD or as a rare Out of Print: the fantastic super-duper TWO DISC ULTIMATE EDITION from Rhino Video. It all depends on how much punishment you like to take.
SIDE- BAR: The sequels have even more novelty value, with George Clooney co-starring in “Return of the Killer Tomatoes” and the other two “Killer Tomatoes Strike Back” and “Killer Tomatoes Eat France” being terrible curiosities, nothing more. I also have crystal clear memories of the Killer Tomatoes cartoon show. Anyone else remember the adventures of our hero and his trusty fuzzy tomato sidekick? Not only that but they're REMAKING it as a big budget studio picture... The dearth of ideas continue. 
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