RETURN OF THE KILLER TOMATOES
A film review by Jeff Meyer
Copyright 1988 Jeff Meyer
Well, on the fast-moving satirical scale of film, this isn't up to AIRPLANE!, but is about halfway between it and TOP SECRET! -- which I liked fairly well, so this is a definite thumbs-up. Lots of fast-moving jokes, but perhaps the best point is that the film gets funnier, instead of running out of steam, as it progresses. It keeps the pace, and that is a rarity in so many of these films. I was grinning through all of it, and laughing through many of the gags; about the only film that I have ever laughed continuously through is MONTY PYTHON AND THE HOLY GRAIL.
Points of Interest:
Tons of Meta-humor, including one running joke about financial problems which gets funnier and funnier as it goes.
No "Killing Joke", i.e. gag that you carry out of the theater remembering for years to come. With a Killing Joke, you don't see the joke, think about it and laugh (all in a nano-second, unless you're Jesse Helms) -- you see it and then black out from laughing. Totally unexpected -- there's no middleman 'twixt the screen and the brain. The rear-collision Pinto gag in TOP SECRET! is a classic of that genre, though not up (by any means) to the Python films (the absolute pinnacle of Killing Joke humor is the bit in HOLY GRAIL where Arthur sends a knight down to dispatch the stuffed rabbit -- and then it leaps for the knight's throat and rips his head off. Everything went black for me when I first saw the film...). But very constant humor.
John Astin is probably the only actor who can be endearing while cackling inanely for two hours.
The film's low-budget works for it, not against it, and you feel almost parental towards it. Some of the actors from the previous film ham it up just a too much (the parachute gag got old long before this), but I can live with it.
Besides, it sports Karen Mistal, the most finest-looking woman ever to grace The Fox Television Network, in a prominent role (and her eyes glow red! Keen!). Imagine the girl you had puppy love for in high school crossed with a Norwegian sex goddess and you get the idea. Oh, callow youth.
Tons of sign-off lines here, but I'll wait for the video so I can stop
the film.
A definite success -- solid $4.50 film.
Moriarty, aka Jeff Meyer
INTERNET: moriarty@tc.fluke.COM
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