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After the events of Attack
of the Killer Tomatoes, the USA has become essentially
tomato-free, and Wilbur (J. Stephen Peace), hapless hero of the first
movie, has since opened a (tomato-free) pizza parlor, where his nephew
Chad (Anthony Starke) and Chad's roommate Matt (George Clooney) work -
guys who are young enough to know the tomato wars mainly from history
books. Now Chad's doing the deliveries, and he has fallen madly in love
with one of his regulars, Tara (Karen M. Waldron) ... not knowing that
she's actually the assistant of Dr Gangrene (John Astin), a mad scientist
who turns tomatoes into humans to - eventually conquer the world,
apparently. But eventually, Dr Gangrene wants to get rid of one of his
experiments, a fuzzy tomato (shortened to FT), and this is where Tara
escapes the professor's home and control, FT in tow, and not knowing
everyone else in town, finds abode with Chad, offering (and making good on
the offer) sex in return. But that's not to say Tara's just some slut,
fact is ... she's actually a tomato in human form who needs shelter and
wants to make Chad happy in return, and not knowing the implications, sex
does the trick just fine. Chad soon figures there's something wrong with
Tara, but he just can't stop loving her, even when it's revealed she is a
tomato. Thing is, professor Gangrene and his assistant Igor (Steve
Lundquist), of all things a newscaster wannabe, do need Tara back to not
let her spill the beans on their organisation. And when Chad and Matt try
to free her, they only walk into a trap - so that leaves Wilbur and his
associates from the earlier movie to break them all free - which might be
more difficult than it sounds, because this time, the tomatoes look human,
and are allergic to a different musical tune ... Now Attack
of the Killer Tomatoes has been one of the first (and that's
totally debatable of course) so-bad-it's-good spoofs ever, while Return
of the Killer Tomatoes, produced ten years later, came at a time when
genre-conscious post-modern spoofs were aleady much more run-of-the-mill -
and let's face it, story-wise the movie's not too great, basing itself too
much on the original movie, and the characters in this one aren't exactly
known for their depth, and even the humour is hit-or-miss ... but if it
hits it really hits, there are scenes in Return of the Killer
Tomatoes that are quite easily among the greatest comedy moments of
the 1980s (and not just because later megastar George Clooney's in them) -
including incredibly ill-placed product placement and the likeable
determination to bring the film's joke's full circle (watch and you'll
understand) - and the whole movie's understanding of genre tropes is just
disarmingly charming ... and all this makes this not only a film that
genre fans are sure to enjoy but also a near perfect party movie!
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