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John Astin, Crystal Carson, Debra Fares, Steve Lundquist, Rock Peace ... see more see more... , Kevin West , John Witherspoon , Frank Davis , John De Bello , Constantine Dillon , Rick Rockwell , Tom Ashworth , Spike Sorrentino , D.J. Sullivan , Zollo Cortez

This third entry in the dumbfoundingly silly "Killer Tomatoes" series continues the low-budget franchise's tradition of bombarding audiences with endless inane sight gags, horror movie in-jokes, and "... read more read more...nudge-nudge, wink-wink" comic asides. This installment finds flamboyant mad scientist Professor Gangrene (an enthusiastically hammy John Astin) up to his old tricks. The madman responsible for the near-annihilation of humanity by the title fruit, Gangrene is currently masquerading as the host of trashy talk show "Talk of the Town," through which he mounts a temporarily successful media campaign restoring the red-stained reputation of the much-maligned tomato. Fortunately for an unwary populace, the professor's plot for world domination is foiled by hard-bitten detective Boyle (Rick Rockwell) and eminent "tomatologist" Dr. Kennedy Johnson (Crystal Carson). Though not as funny as the previous installment, Return of the Killer Tomatoes (which featured a young George Clooney in deadpan mode), this is still a mildly entertaining romp. The pulpy red menace would soon return for yet another sequel, but not before inspiring a silly animated kiddie-TV spinoff. ~ Cavett Binion, Rovi

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27% liked it

2,676 ratings

PG, 1 hr. 27 min.

Directed by: John De Bello

Release Date: June 3, 1991

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DVD Release Date: September 6, 2005

Stats: 117 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (117)

  • TheDudeLebowski65
    May 8, 2012
    TheDudeLebowski65
    Dull, unimpressive third entry in the Killer Tomatoes series. Along with the fourth film, this entry is the worst of the bunch. For me, The Killer Tomatoes should have had only one sequel, but like every greedy Filmmaker/studio executive out there they decided to create yet anoth... read moreer sequel to make more money. The result is an utter mess of a film. This film doesn't do anything interesting. All the ideas have been before, and for what it is, the film fails to have the same impact that the first two films had. In my opinion, the Killer Tomatoes films should only have been two films. By this third entry, the filmmakers were recycling the formula they used in the two previous films. Only now this film along with the final entry rely on the previous two films to try and create a new direction for this series. The only problem is, is that the film just isn't fun anymore. This series tired, uninspired and just uses old ideas that were fun for two films, but by the third film wasn't interesting anymore. I very much enjoyed the first two films, thought they were hilarious comedy horror films that spoofed monster flicks perfectly. With this third entry, they basically repeat everything we've seen before, with no hint of new or interesting ideas that will appeal to fans of the first two films. What we have here is simply a bad film that should have ended after the second film. This film could have been a good, cheesy B movie like the others, unfortunately it doesn't do anything to peak your interest.
  • ScoopOnline
    December 18, 2009
    ScoopOnline
    Killer Tomatoes? I remember I LOL when hearing the Movie title for the first time. Poor Idea.
  • matertenebraum
    February 25, 2009
    matertenebraum
    Sure, it's not AS funny as Return Of The Killer Tomatoes (1988), but it's still pretty damn hilarious in its own right. Cmon, a tomato robs a bank. Thats on par with zombies renting Day Of The Dead in "The Dead Next Door." Seriously though. If you like B films, enjoyed Return or ... read moreAttack of the killer tomatoes and want some good old fashion fun, RENT this movie! Seriously, it's almost as good as "robot monster." Anyways, you have Gomez Adams (John Astin) returning as Prof. Gangreen in this sequel in which the tomatoes have faces! Seriously, go see this film - it took forever to get it on DVD. Perhaps, one day, if we are lucky, they will add a 5th film to the series. And when will the TV show be released on DVD?!
  • DrLappos
    June 23, 2009
    DrLappos
    Absolutely brilliant schlock horror stupidity.......do not take it seriously and you'll love it.
  • FangsFirst
    February 9, 2009
    FangsFirst
    What does it say about me that I've wanted to see this movie for about fifteen years? Nothing good, I'm sure. I only knew of it through endless perusings of Leonard Maltin's film guides (it should surprise no one that he thought this movie was awful), but didn't care. I've always... read more loved the original 1978 Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, and a surprise appearance of the first sequel, Return of the Killer Tomatoes, on Comedy Central (surely it was there...) that I taped years and years after that didn't let me down. I'm sure many will be horrified to learn that there are actually four films in the Killer Tomatoes series, and that, in fact, there was an animated kids show as well (which I have seen some episodes of).

    Lance Boyle (Rick Rockwell, later the "multi-millionaire" attempting to be married by way of a gameshow) is a "city cop" with a ridiculously childish apartment, filled with toys and garish decoration who is being assigned lame cases to work by his superior, Capt. Wilbur Finletter (J. Stephen "Rock" Peace--a California state Senator [!] who began a crusade against Enron before it was finally crushed publicly, reprising his role from the prior two films). He's assigned to Elvis sightings at the local bowling alley (I'm of the mind Igor was behind them by the end of the film) and the like, but most recently to a double homicide--attributed to tomatoes. Finletter, as veteran of both "tomato wars," is completely willing to believe the round, squishy red fruit* are behind the crimes. Boyle, arrogant and self-centered, sneers at this (even as he is made sick by the crime scene), but takes some renewed interest when renowned 'tomatologist' Kennedi Johnson (Crystal Carson) arrives to proclaim her belief in the tomato theory. Meanwhile, Professor Gangreen (John Astin as before, and again in the sequel after this) is attempting to rule the world through control of the media--he is rising (under disguise) as talk show host "Jeronahew" while kidnapping all media figures he can find. These crimes are uninteresting to Boyle except for their connection to Kennedi, so it will take serious proof before he believes in the red menace. And I don't mean communists.

    I'm still sad that spoof movies like this aren't made anymore--not because they were a vital, important part of the film industry (or even all that funny most of the time), but because they had a spirit and sensibility that is sorely lacking from the modern vein of parody. Now it's clumsy, mis-paced and mis-timed references that have nothing to do with humour, even failed humour, as they seem to be more interested in slinging pop culture detritus at the script and screen than anything else, interspersed with cheap "dick and fart" jokes (to quote Kevin Smith, who does a different kind of modern comedy). There's something a little more endearing about these films, even when they fail. This isn't exactly a hilarious movie, more of a consistent bemused smile than anything else. It's not up to snuff with George Clooney-starring (yes, THAT George Clooney) prequel Return of the Killer Tomatoes, whose running gag about budgeting is one of the best I've seen, ever. It's not up to snuff with the old "ZAZ" films (Zucker-Abrahams-Zucker--the team behind Airplane! and Police Squad!, though David Zucker has flushed away comic timing for cheap, lazy, snotty, political polemic). But that doesn't make it bad. The entire series is maligned by this inexplicable group of people that doesn't understand that the tomato attacks are not supposed to be realistic or frightening. The stupidity of them is the entire point, yet some people stubbornly insist that they fail to look "real"--I cannot comprehend what kind of drugs are involved to come to these conclusions.

    I hadn't seen this one before, so I was actually almost shocked and definitely somewhat amused by the rather early choice to mock 1980's fashion in a film released the year after the decade ended (and before such trends would have completely died off). Boyle is a complete fashion victim, wearing suitjackets over t-shirts--with tigerprint or similarly gaudy billowing pants below this (his outfits were provided by Life's a Beach). Donahue and Geraldo are obviously pretty openly lampooned, but this was a little more in keeping with existing comedic trends. Rockwell and Carson are actually a continuation of the Return trend of middling to poor actors with good comedic timing being cast in Tomato films, as they are not (like the film itself) laugh-out-loud funny or anything, but there's never a feeling that they missed or wasted an opportunity because they didn't understand it. They act appropriately for the over-the-top kind of characters they were playing, Johnson being livid at the ineptitude and ignorance of the smug Boyle by launching into a rather earnestly angry tirade. I was a bit surprised here, but I guess I shouldn't have been. Peace (who co-wrote all the films), De Bello (who directed AND co-wrote all of them) and Costa "Constantine" Dillon (who also co-wrote all of them) are reliable, and even Rockwell was involved in the original's writing as well as that of this one.

    John Astin is always a pleasure, happily hammy in his demonic role that usually ends up boiling down to something mundane--here he wants to rule the world so he can stop waiting in line, getting salad dressing on his salad against his requests and prevent old ladies from holding up the line at buffets (amongst other things). Also returning is the peculiar "FT" puppet (it stands for "Fuzzy Tomato," of course!), who appeared not only in the prequel but again in the cartoon.

    Do I recommend this movie? Probably not. It's fun and amusing, but I think the lines it straddles (or re-draws without a ruler, perhaps) are a little too "off" for most people, and few would take any kind of enjoyment from it. They'd have to have a mentality toward it like mine. If you like the first two, give this one a shot, but don't expect the quality of the first two. Money was clearly tighter, though the new face-d tomato puppets are actually pretty great and look decent for what I can only imagine was a hideously small budget.

    *OK, the clarification I was given at some point and have stuck by is this: tomatoes are fruit. They are cooked like vegetables, though. But they remain fruit in "taxonomic" terms.

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