'Attack of the Killer Tomatoes' Delivers the Groceries

CONFESSIONS OF A GEN-X PREMIUM CABLE JUNKIE: ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES (1978)

Despite this being a little more high profile than most of the movies I’m going to be covering in this series, it was in many ways the definitive “Star Channel” movie for me. So at the risk of ruining a perfectly nice bit of childhood nostalgia, I bought a digital copy and sat down for a trip down memory lane. To add even more pressure, I coerced my 9-year-old son into watching it with me. Would either of us find this seventies artifact, a movie often spoken of as one of the worst films ever made, entertaining in the 21^st century? Let’s find out!

THE MEMORIES

I was 9 or 10 when I first saw ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES, which is just about the perfect age to watch a movie like this. At that age, one is old enough to understand some of the inappropriate jokes and feel like they’re getting away with something, but still young enough to yuck it up at the silly, immature gags that made all the serious, adult critics of the time groan.

But who cares about the critics, especially when you’re a kid? For me, this movie was comedy gold. I made sure to get in a couple of repeat viewings while it was in rotation on Star Channel. I knew the theme song by heart. I drew crayon masterpieces of tomato carnage in art class. I’m pretty sure if it hadn’t been for STAR WARS, I would have told you at the time that ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES was the greatest movie ever made.

But as such things happened in the late seventies, ATTACK OF THE KILLER TOMATOES was eventually removed from Star Channel’s schedule. I got older, and saw many other, arguably better films along the way. Eventually I watched the film on VHS and found it to still be reasonably amusing. I also saw the so-called “director’s cut” released in 1995, only this time I wasn’t quite as amused. Mainly that was due to the alterations rubbing me the wrong way.

I haven’t seen the movie since. Until now.

‘Butt Boy’ sucks you in to its dark world

Review by Bob Ignizio

I’ve seen a lot of weird movies in my time. Weird is kind of my thing. And I can honestly say I haven’t seen anything quite like BUTT BOY. Maybe the closest comparison would be DAVE MADE A MAZE, but even that’s a stretch. It’s perhaps a kindred spirit to Adam Rifkin’s insane cult classic THE DARK BACKWARD, but while it may be almost as bizarre, BUTT BOY is decidedly its own movie.

So now that we’ve established what it isn’t, what, exactly, is BUTT BOY?

Structurally, this film fits in the neo noir/police procedural genre, with a bit of addiction and recovery drama thrown in. Office worker and family man Chip Gutchell (Tyler Cornack) discovers during his first ever prostate exam that he really likes having things inserted in his butt. And as time goes on, the bigger the better, up to and including small pets and even babies. He tries to kill himself and fails, but eventually seems to get his strange compulsion under control through AA meetings.

A hand seeks its host in the Oscar nominated animated film 'I Lost My Body'

[I LOST MY BODY screens Thursday January 30^th at 6:45 pm and Friday January 31^st at 9:35 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

Seems like every year, the Oscars nominate one film in the Best Animated Feature category that is original, innovative, geared towards adults, and (usually) made in a non-English speaking country. If the last decade or so is any indication, it’s not going to win, but hey, at least they made one token attempt to show people animation isn’t just for kids, right?  This year, that film is I LOST MY BODY, co-written by AMELIE screenwriter Guillaume Laurant (adapted from his novel) and the film’s director, Jérémy Clapin, making his feature length debut.

It May Be 'First Love', But First They Have To Survive.

[FIRST LOVE screens Friday November 22^nd at 9:00 pm and Saturday November 23^rd at 9:25 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

Review by Bob Ignizio

As FIRST LOVE (Hatsukoi) begins, a severed head rolls into the middle of the street and blinks in shock. It’s the kind of moment one expects from prolific Japanese cult director Takashi Miike (ICHI THE KILLER, GOZU, 13 ASSASSINS, HARA-KIRI: DEATH OF A SAMURAI, and so many others).

Written by frequent Miike collaborator Masa Nakamura, FIRST LOVE crams a small army of characters and just about every noir and yakuza movie trope one can think of into its script. Double crosses and twists abound, but the complex plot of can be boiled down thusly: Leo (Masataka Kubota), a boxer told that he is dying from a brain tumor, saves Monica (Sakurako Konishi), a prostitute and drug addict, from corrupt police officer Otomo (Nao Ōmori), who is trying to kill her as part of a scheme to steal drugs from the Yakuza.

Genre Tropes and Arthouse Pretensions Combine in 'Let The Corpses Tan'

[LET THE CORPSES TAN screens Sunday November 25th 2018 at 6:30 pm and Monday November 26th 2018 at 8:45 pm at the Cleveland Cinematheque.]

 

You can’t say that LET THE CORPSES TAN doesn’t have a plot. It’s just that co-directors Hélène Cattet and Bruno Forzaniand seem less concerned with the straight-forward crime story their film hangs on than in conjuring up striking imagery informed by fetishized B-movie tropes and art house pretensions. They don’t care about the assortment of crooks, cops, and artistic outcasts who inhabit their sunbaked neo-noir spaghetti western, and neither do we. So all that’s left is to sit back and look at the pretty pictures.

To be honest, that’s good enough at times. There are some shots here worthy of Jodorowsky, such as one scene in which a woman is bound tightly with ropes by a group of men until champagne starts spouting from her breast, a scene which exists apart from the storyline and serves purely as symbolism. Most of the film, however, is an all-day shootout between the various parties. Plenty of compelling visuals in that aspect, as well, but not enough to alleviate the tedium.

Revenge is a dish best served weird in 'Mandy' (movie review)

[MANDY opens in Cleveland on Friday September 21^st exclusively at the Cedar Lee Theatre. It’s also available to rent or purchase on most major streaming services, or you can wait until October 30^th if you want to buy or rent the film on DVD or Blu Ray.]

I’ve noticed a lot of movie trailers using the phrase, “from visionary director so-and-so” lately (and I’m not the only one). The vast majority of the time this is hyperbole at best, and often flat out bullshit. In the case of Panos Cosmatos, the director and co-writer (along with Aaron Stewart-Ahn) of MANDY, that phrase may actually be an understatement.

This is a film of eyeball-searing beauty and horror, an acid trip of violence and revenge on one hand, and love and melancholy on the other. It evokes the aesthetic of the eighties while at the same time forging new visual territory for the future.

Some might see this, as well as Cosmatos’ previous film BEYOND THE BLACK RAINBOW, as a “triumph of style over substance”. That’s not necessarily a bad thing – if your movie has enough style that it succeeds despite a lack of narrative or thematic depth, that’s kind of impressive – but it’s also not true in this case. There is plenty of substance here, and just because Cosmatos chooses to convey his themes and ideas more through visuals than dialogue and plot doesn’t mean they’re absent.