Parachutist Wilbur Finletter is a national hero after defeating the Killer Tomatoes. Congress bans tomatoes and Wilbur opens his own pizzeria serving tomatoless pizzas. His nephew Chad Finletter is the delivery boy working with his womanizing friend Matt Stevens (George Clooney). Mad scientist Professor Gangreen (John Astin) and his assistant Igor are perfecting the transformation of tomatoes into human form. A mutant fuzzy tomato is thrown out which is rescued by a tomato of a girl named Tara. She calls it FT (fuzzy tomato).

It's fun. It's irreverent. It's silly. It takes the original's ridiculousness and makes a good camp movie. It starts with the late night TV show introduction. The use of the original's footage gives a sense of the style. There is a young Clooney although he was a nobody back when I first saw this. In all honesty, I can't claim to have foreseen his future success. It's not big laughs but there is something enjoyable about this light romp.

Years after the original batch of evil tomatoes was destroyed by the song "Puberty Love", a new batch has been created -- a batch that can be transformed into a humanoid appearance, to blend in with the human population. Wilbur Finletter, the original hero, returns as his nephew unknowingly falls in love with Tara, a tomato and the girlfriend of the evil Dr. Gangreen.

While there's something to be said about sequels not being able to surpass the originals, I find this to be an exception. The humor is campier, and the jokes are lamer. But for some reason, I really appreciate it. The visual gags are stepped up to the level of "Airplane!" or some Mel Brooks movie and I do not think this one should be neglected. Even in the beginning when clips are shown from the first movie, the clips are well chosen to really bring out the funniest and most important parts, adding something to the new saga.

The original film was actually a student film at UC-Davis, and was redone in 1977 as what we know today. That could have been the end of the series, but by early 1980s home video came around and gave the original a new lease on life and a sequel was inevitable... this time even produced by New World (who had no input). The bar was set higher (or lower) and they succeeded.

George Clooney appears. Actually, he more than appears -- he is on screen more than just about anyone. This is before he was big, and he has a long-haired look as though he was auditioning for the part of Jesse on "Full House" (but I guess he lost to John Stamos). Clooney is very lovable in this film, pulling a Charlie Sheen act of women-chasing that suits him well. There is something funny in retrospect about him running a "Meet Rob Lowe" contest to meet women, when now (2016) the women would much rather meet Clooney than Rob Lowe (though Lowe has come back in the last few years).

Some of the jokes are more subtle, at least as subtle as a film like "Killer Tomatoes" can be. Take, for example, the Oliver North Federal Prison. At the time, this was probably pretty funny. Today, the audience who "gets it" will be much smaller (they'll say "Isn't he a commentator for Fox News?"). And there are plenty of sex jokes, but despite their prominence I never felt the film crossed into the childish realm of "gross-out" humor. Even the nudity was more or less tastefully done (I expected much more).

For me, the scene (or scenes) with the product placement running joke are among the funniest. We get the characters to break the fourth wall, we get some slight jabs at low budget film and consumerism... and just in general the whole concept is funny. Some have pointed out that the gag was stolen by "Wayne's World"... how much this film (or "Wayne's World") were actually paid by the companies they use in the joke remains unclear.

If you liked the first film, I cannot see why you would not love this. And if you grew up with the cartoon, you will want to see this film since this is the one the series was based off of. I have yet to see "Killer Tomatoes Eat France", but I think it is safe to say that "Return" is the high point in the movie series.

As always, the best way to see this film is on the blu-ray released from Arrow Video. Besides the priceless audio commentary with creator-writer-director John DeBello, there are also TV spots and other promotional items. Anthony Starke provides a nice interview concerning how he got involved and the use of product placement. Clooney, unfortunately, is not interviewed, but that is not really a surprise. Stephen Peace, a series regular, is also not interviewed, most likely because he went on to be a notable California politician of all things.

Mad scientist Professor Gangreen (a gloriously hammy John Astin) plans on conquering the world with his army of tomato men soldiers. It's up to nice guy pizza maker Chad Finletter (affable Anthony Starke) and his easygoing smoothie best friend Matt Stevens (an engaging performance by George Clooney in an early pre-stardom gig) to stop Gangreen before it's too late. Moreover, Chad falls in love with sweet'n'sexy, yet seriously kooky tomato lady Tara Boumdeay (an adorable portrayal by sultry brunette fox Karen Mistal). Director/co-writer John De Bello crams this flick with plenty of blithely silly and often sidesplitting jokes about such things as product placement, cheesy TV game shows, equally tacky late-night trashy movie marathon television programs, and lousy special effects (Gangreen's house is an obvious crummy matte painting),plus tosses in a corny romantic montage set to a hideously sappy song (watch out for the irritating mime!),a scene-stealing hairball mutant tomato named FT, a snake that growls like a dog, a nonsensical gratuitous fight scene complete with ninjas, and loads of priceless dippy dialogue (favorite line: "The girl of my dreams is a vegetable"). The cast have a field day with the screwball material: Starke and Clooney make for likable protagonists, Astin deliciously overacts with eye-rolling aplomb, Steve Lundquist pours on the smarm as Gangreen's slimy yuppie assistant Igor, J. Stephen Peace is a riot as Chad's gung-ho uncle Wilbur, and De Bello contributes a pleasingly smug turn as supremely obnoxious TV reporter Charles White. The plain cinematography by Stephen Kent Welch and Victor Lou gives this picture a properly chintzy look. The bouncy score by Rick Patterson and Neal Fox and the witty theme song both hit the groovy spot as well. Sure, this flick is incredibly dumb and ridiculous immaterial fluff, but the film's endearingly giddy'n'goofy sense of off-the-wall humor is impossible to either resist or dislike. An absolute gut-buster.