YMMV / Attack of the Killer Tomatoes!

• Awesome Music:
  • The original Attack of the Killer Tomatoes theme song.
  • The similar Return of the Killer Tomatoes main theme.
  • The very similar to the RotKT (if abbreviated) theme to the animated series.
  • The very 80s Let's Get Dangerous! music in Return of the Killer Tomatoes.
  • The instrumental rock ballad that transforms tomatoes into muscular tomato men with headbands and uzis in Return of the Killer Tomatoes.
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment:
  • Several gags, but most memorably what interested Gangrene in experimentation in "Give a Little Whistle", the animated series' first episode.
  Gangrene: At the age of six I ate an entire lawnmower! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!
  • Probably the biggest example is in the second film, where a bunch of cowboys and ninjas randomly burst into Finletter's Pizza shop and fight, only to be shooed away by Anthony Starke about a minute later.
• Colbert Bump: A decade after its release, the film was largely forgotten until it was featured in an episode of Muppet Babies (1984), which naturally got a lot of people curious about what the hell the movie with the giant monster tomatoes was.
• Ensemble Dark Horse:
  • Doctor Gangrene. A given since he's played by John Astin.
  • Wilbur Finletter for the good guys. He became so popular that he returned in the sequel and the animated series.
  • Matt. Sure, he was a main character in Return but that was the only time he appeared in the franchise and what isn't there to love about a young, womanizing George Clooney with a mullet?
  • Judging from recent fanart and because she is very remembered from the animated series, it's safe to say that tomato girl Tara Boumdeay is this.
• Fridge Brilliance:
  • Why can't Michael die during his suicidal Heroic BSoD? Because he burned the pages of the script that contained his actual death halfway through the movie!
  • Why was there a Hulk expy in the animated series? Because Marvel Productions, a subsidiary of Marvel at the time, help make the series.
• Fridge Logic: In the first sequel (and animated series), Wilbur is trying odd replacements for tomato sauce, and usually failing miserably. Why didn't he just sell white pizza, a real-life variety which uses cheese (usually ricotta) in place of the tomato sauce?
• Ham and Cheese: Just about everyone. But especially John Astin.
• Harsher in Hindsight: Tomato plants vs. Nuclear Power plants: Tomato plants don't blow up. This was a year before Three Mile Island and eight years before Chernobyl.
• Hilarious in Hindsight:
  • The song "Puberty Love" sounds a certain modern day high pitched teen singer.
  • As mentioned, a young George Clooney appears in the second film, in the role of the hero's horndog best friend. In one scene, he is found running a fake "Win a date with Rob Lowe" contest to trick attractive young women into going out with him. Naturally, this scene is now hysterically funny for a dozen reasons nobody involved could have imagined.
  • In another scene the director stops the movie to announce they're out of money until George (seated away from the rest of the cast near some hot girls) casually suggests they do product placement to make up the difference. The whole thing oddly predicts George's rise to leading-man heartthrob fame while the actor playing the hero gets no respect.
  • As pointed out by Bob Chipman, the film was basically a proto-Sharknado, not doing well on initial release but becoming a Cult Classic purely on the strength of its insanely goofy premise, which eventually turned it into an unlikely full franchise.
  • A plot point in Return is pizzerias having to use disgusting-looking substitutes for tomato puree such as chocolate spread and peanut butter, often with equally bizarre toppings. Fast-forward to the present day, with gourmet pizzas that feature unusual combinations of toppings, and even "dessert pizzas" being available even in supermarkets, the pizzas seen in the movie seem... admittedly as horrible as ever, but more because of the unappealing combinations of ingredients rather than the entire concept being completely ridiculous.
• Intended Audience Reaction: Yes, they couldn't possibly have made a movie this bad without doing it on purpose. And then they did it again and...
• Misaimed Fandom: It seems that the majority of the people who hate the film think that killer tomatoes are too stupid an idea to take seriously, not understanding that it's not a serious film.
• The Problem with Licensed Games: The Nintendo game was reviled for its poor hit detection, short gameplay (only four levels with a bonus fifth if you sit through the end credits), and difficulty.
• Retroactive Recognition:
  • George Clooney, of all people, has a prominent role in the second film.
  • Matt Cameron, now the drummer for both Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, sang "Puberty Love" in the first film. He was only a teenager at the time.
• Sequelitis: Killer Tomatoes Strike Back and Killer Tomatoes Eat France aren't considered to be entirely terrible, but they're both regarded as being markedly weaker than the first two films.
• So Bad, It's Good: Entirely on purpose, which almost makes it not count as a "So Bad It's Good" film given that the humor is intentional and actually succeeds in what it sets out to do.
• Strangled by the Red String: Deliberately so, as Mason Dixon and Lois Fairchild have a literal Last-Minute Hookup that comes completely out of nowhere and includes a cheesy duet.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: Many people consider the second film better than the first.
• Values Dissonance:
  • It's played as a goofy joke when the Intrepid Reporter is told she got the job because of her "great ass." These days, sexual harassment like that isn't generally treated as funny in and of itself. For what it is though, the director's cut version has an added scene of the director after seeing that part, talked to the viewer about how different the times were when they made that joke and basically acknowledge how that joke wouldn't fly today.
  • The Japanese scientist having his voice dubbed over like a Godzilla movie is a pretty groan-inducing Discredited Trope these days.
  • An early scene leans heavily into using slurs as punchlines. The Japanese scientist confuses the word "fag" for "fruit," while another government man says there's a "Jap in the air" when he means "nip."
  • Wilbur Finletter's uniform has a very noticeable Confederate flag on its breast pocket. In an era where the use of Confederate symbols is coming under increasing scrutiny, this would be much harder to get away with.
• Viewer Name Confusion: Is it Gangreen, Gangrene or something else?

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