Tuesday, June 19, 2018

Blu Ray Review: Attack Of The Killer Tomatoes (2-Disc Special Edition) [Blu-ray + DVD] (MVD Visual)


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When I was a kid I would watch movies as they came out and I think we all have this special place for movies which were out during our lifetime over movies released before we were born.   Now, I'm not saying every movie released in 1998 is better than "The Birds" because of the time in that sense, but on a personal level I find we hold the movies most dear to us because of how they relate to our lives and that's usually because they come out when we are old enough to watch them. 

Without giving away my age, I will say that "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" did come out before I was born (just barely) but I remember watching the animated series for it, so the movie itself still has this special place for me.   It was something along the lines of me not realizing until years later when I was older that the cartoon I loved had equally amazing movies to go with them.

"Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" is the ultimate movie to watch when you want something that is both comedic and wholesome.   There are these qualities which make it feel like something you'd see on MST3K, yet at the same time, there is just something enduring about the movie itself which makes me feel like sort of poking fun at it in that way isn't appropriate.    So it has that fine line to walk in a way. 

Though I've never been to a film class or anything like that, I feel like this is something they should teach there-- they should show this movie to film students for reference.   It's just one of those movies I'm not going to write a lot about because I feel like everyone should have seen this at least once in their life and I feel like everyone also agrees with me already on how it is simply one of the best movies ever made.

This Blu-Ray/DVD combo set comes as part of the MVD Rewind collection (It is the second after "D.O.A." which was previously reviewed here) and as such it has a ton of bonus features and also the collectible 9.5" x 11" poster.    I will type this now and hope it does not fall on deaf ears but I'm hoping one day the two movies which followed this will get the MVD Rewind treatment as well and all three posters can be framed on my wall. 

While I feel like so many modern movies are trash (I have yet to pinpoint the exact year it all started falling apart) I will say that one thing movies such as this, released in this way, have made me realize is how disposable modern movies are.   I've watched some movies once and felt like that was enough while others I've not even bothered with.   In many ways, the best sign of a most excellent movie is when you're able to watch it a countless number of times and then also to say you'd rather watch it with commentary than watch some other new movie you haven't seen yet.

All of these bonus features should be viewed as many times as you can because who doesn't want to know things about the San Diego Chicken, but one tip I will give you that for some reason worked out better for me was that the first time I watched the original short film which inspired this movie I thought I had selected to watch it without commentary and yet the commentary came on instead.   This was actually better, I think, than watching it without the commentary for the first time, so you might want to do the same with the short film.

"Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" is one of those rare movies where I'll watch just about anything related to it that I can.    It just has a such a unique quality to it that I feel no other movie has really managed to capture since and probably never will again.   Could you imagine someone making this movie in 2018?  But even watching it again, in 2018, I don't think "Oh, those effects are so bad" but rather it takes me back to simpler times, when movies didn't have to cost four hundred million dollars to make because... well, we can say that's something like all flash and no substance and "Attack of the Killer Tomatoes" has some flash, but even being all substance is remarkable.








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