Professor Gangreen is cooking up the Great Tomato Uprising, in which music converted tomatoes into human form to war against mankind. Pizza delivery man Chad Finletter must save the world and beautiful tomato-girl Tara.....The problem with this film is that it tries way too hard to be intellectual, and to further it's self away from cheap exploitation.The fact is, no matter how many times you break the fourth wall, or kill the product placement joke to death, you cannot get away from the essence of Troma that the film wreaks off.The actors are great, Clooney was always going to be famous, and the other chap will always be the whining accountant who gets killed by Sanchez in Licence To Kill.It's just the idleness of the whole thing, trying to be an adult orientated comedy, but having that weird furry tomato whom is obviously going for the gizmo look, because kids, they love the merchandise don't they?It loses it's way toward the end of the second act, so they up the ante on sight gags, and more product placement, and fail, miserably.It's a car crash movie of the highest order, you know you shouldn't watch it, but you can't take your eyes of the blasted thing.At least the pizza dough comes down at the end....

The original "Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes" failed to move me, so I was not expecting much for this first sequel. But to a degree I was surprised. This is one sequel that's an improvement over the original. I'm not sure if I would give it a recommendation, but there are a few gags that really work well. It's also fun seeing a pre-fame George Clooney, who manages to show some charm and why he became a big star years later. In fact, the entire movie is kind of charming in a way that has you forgive some of its shortcomings.If there is a flaw to this movie (besides there not being quite enough good gags) is that the story is really stretched out. It takes over half of the running time for the movie to really set everything up and start the new tomato crisis. While the slow story isn't exactly frustrating, it is really clear that much of the time the movie is spinning its wheels. I think if the screenplay had been given a few more rewrites, we might have had a comedy up with the ranks of "Airplane!"

I have to say I first saw this movie while I was in graduate school. My roommate brought it home and it had been a rough day in the lab, so why not? I had seen the original movie and remembered its 'cult star' appeal so I kind of expected the same kind of movie. I was wrong.This movie tries its best to disguise itself as a B movie. But there is a lot more to this production. Generally B movie acting turns me off. But the crew of this movie really shines through. The 'Star' of this movie is supposed to be John Astin, although George Clooney of later fame also shines in this film. The main actor, Anthony Starke, plays his part brilliantly. But, lets be fair, the actor, or actress, in this movie who I think is the real star is Karen Mistal. She was hired for her obvious incredible beauty, but frankly, she really shines in this film as an actress. She plays the roll as a creation of the 'mad scientist' and brings real mystery (in a light-hearted way)to the roll. I think it is a real pity that she never developed into a better known actress in any other movies.If you like knee-slapping non-sophisticated in your face humor this is the movie for you, sort of like 'Airplane' or the 'Naked Gun' series type humor. If you want sophisticated humor I guess there is still Woody-Allen, right? I liked it so much it was one of the first comedy VHS movies I bought, and that was saying a lot back when I was a poor graduate student.And watch-out for those veggies! PS. Skip the Tomatoes in France. Now there's some bad acting!

It's funny, sort of, that Return of the Killer Tomatoes actually lives up to (err, goes to the depths of) the original parody of schlock horror Z-grade movies it's coming from. It knows what it is in its bones, and still has a hell of a lot of fun getting to where it's going- which is almost nothing. I couldn't help but laugh through much of the flick though, especially after having seen the first one. After starting off the picture (and reminding me for a moment of Python's Holy Grail) with a whole other picture (unintentionally?) with girls taking off their tops on a beach, we get right into it full-throttle. John Astin, usually a very professional theater actor, plays Professor Gangreen in the other wild over-the-top horror comedy of 1988 (the other is Don Calfa in Chopper Chicks in Zombietown), and he's got a plan- create killer tomatoes again, but this time not REALLY tomatoes, but just regular tomatoes that can turn into killing machines Rambo style! But the professor also makes a woman (sexy Kara Mistal) for himself, and she strays away with her little fuzzy tomato, or FT, and meets Anthony Stark's Chad, a worker in a tomato-sauce-less pizza parlor with his friend Matt (George Clooney, yes, half a decade before ER if you can think back to them). Things then start to get a little wacky...Well, actually, wacky is such a little word to use. Return of the Killer Tomatoes, a movie that does not feature one real killing tomato (though potential quasi-killers they may be, and once in a while suicidal), is by and large one of the funniest horror-movie parody type sequels of the 80s. It takes itself about as seriously as you might expect, which is not at all. In fact the tongue is so placed firmly in cheek, it comes out the other end during scenes when writer/director John DiBello breaks the 'fourth wall' as the shooting of the movie (and massive, continuous, "elaborate" product placements are put in at every turn after a while, years before the gag was used in Wayne's World). I probably had bigger laughs during moments like these- with some random outbursts of ninjas fighting cowboys in a diner- than I did during the first Killer Tomatoes flick. While the original still does garner points for being as audacious with its stupidity and with a smaller budget (not that the sequel doesn't make fun of the budget at every other turn), the zany spirit of the first film remains strong here, and deliriously so at times. When you got the doctor's assistant of Igor looking like a wrestler, you get the idea.It's a wild and crazy ride, with a 20-something Clooney with a full head of dark hair and basically in a role that requires him just to act as himself to a much more condensed range (i.e. ladies man, which includes a great gag involving him getting girls to go on a date with him, though saying as if he's Rob Lowe). Its got plenty of stuff for fans of the first flick, including the Ewok of the series with FT, who has his own sort of merchandising going towards the end too. By the way, stay through till the end of the credits- it's not just because the director's mother said so!