Attack of the Killer Tomatoes! (1978)

As somebody who had not heard any of this before, it became a curious phenomenon to sit and watch a film and slowly have the realities begin to click into place.

This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

Anyone who says they hate this movie has no sense of humor. Unbelievably hilarious so so so funny! I bought this without seeing it and I have no regrets. It is a new addition to my list of favorites

Everyone must have just a little, tiny bit of masochism in them. At the very least I have to confess that I do. Otherwise I would never have watched this movie. It's a movie that you know, from even before it starts, is going to be bad. Really bad. Unquestionably, undebatably and unapologetically bad. It's that last bit that might be the movie's only saving grace. Everyone involved with it - from the producers to the key grip and best boy - knew that this was bad. They had to know. And they made it anyway! For putting themselves through the experience of making this, they're also masochists! For them, because they actually released it for other people to see, there's a bit of sadism involved as well.It opens with some captions referencing Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds" - and noting an invasion of birds in 1975 in Hopkinsville, Kentucky. That incident never actually happened - but, weirdly, there apparently was a bird "invasion" in Hopkinsville in 2013 - almost 40 years after this move was made. I don't know what to say about that, so I'd best leave it alone. Anyway the captions end with the words, "No one is laughing now." In another example of soothsaying - no one was laughing when this movie ended.What can you really say about this? You know it's going to be bad when the best known "performer" in it is the San Diego Chicken. OK, one could make a case for Jack Riley, I suppose, who clearly didn't have enough to do to keep himself busy after his turn as Mr. Carlin on "The Bob Newhart Show" came to an end. And I guess you have to give it credit - because you know it's going to be bad and it turns out to be really bad, so it meets expectations (perhaps even exceeding them) and maybe even accomplishes what it set out to accomplish because I think it was meant to be bad. Really bad. And it was. You know what - it gets a 2. For being exactly what it was expected to be. Really bad.

I noticed that most of the pedestrian reviewers have said about the same thing. They got a kick out of this film, but thought it was terrible. I can't disagree. Having raised a few tomatoes in my time (you know, using those plants they sell at garden center) one ends up with so many, we don't know what to do with them. Think of the movie, "The Birds," an imagine that instead of birds you had home grown tomatoes. Throughout this film we see them rolling down the streets. We see terrified men and women, suffering at their hands (wait, they don't have any hands). A hillbilly cult is in the middle of all these attacks. It's a send up of horror movies. Somebody got an idea and spent about ten dollars to make it. Oh, of course, there is one great line I remember: "Gee, I'm gonna miss her/a tomato ate my sister." Can't beat these kinds of lyrics.

Besides boasting a terrific title and an equally awesome theme song, this cheerfully tongue-in-cheek spoof's wonderfully wacky premise alone ensures total greatness: Giant lethal sentient tomatoes threaten the safety of mankind. Now, how can one go possibly wrong with such a sublimely silly story? Well, the truth is you just can't. Director John DeBello and co-writers Costa Dillon and Steve Peace totally totally knock it out of the camp ballpark: Several hysterical song and dance numbers, a gleefully goofy good-natured tone, laughably lousy (far from) special effects, a genuinely jolting unintended helicopter crash, the gloriously ghastly ditty "Puberty Love," a sidesplitting send-up of "Jaws," an uproarious sense of blithely inane humor, an amazing confrontation between the army and the evil red scum, and a fantastic surprise ending. The cast have a ball with the off-the-wall material: David Miller makes for an amiable hero as the blundering Mason Dixon, Sharon Taylor brings considerable charm to her part as eager newspaper reporter Lois Fairchild, George Wilson slimes it up well as smarmy press secretary Jim Richardson, J. Stephen Peace almost steal the whole show with his masterful portrayal of gung-ho lunatic Lt. Wilbur Finletter, Jack Riley contributes a lively turn as a hot-tempered jerk, Eric Christmas amuses as the doddering Senator Polk, and Al Skar delivers a spot-on spirited performance as hearty and shameless advertising executive Ted Swann. Best of all, the immortal San Diego Chicken shows up to help save the day at the very end. John K. Culley's rough cinematography gives the picture an appropriately shoddy look. The robust score by Gordon Goodwin and Paul Sundfor hits the rousing spot. First-rate dippy stuff.