MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986)
Tagline: Maximum terror. Maximum King.
(Comedy, Horror, Who Made Who?) [R]
The implications are pretty clear; fill up them trucks as fast as you can, then get right down to business, bubba.
The implications are pretty clear; fill up them trucks as fast as you can, then get right down to business, bubba.
This is one of those movies I never got to the theater to see but did get to watch on cable not long after it came out. Being the only movie Stephen King ever directed, it features one of the coolest opening sequences in movie history. Just think about it, a draw bridge opening in the middle with cars and trucks on both sides, with AC/DC’s “Who Made Who” playing in the background and watermelons flying everywhere. The premise revolves around radiation from the tail of the Rea-M comet hovering over the Earth for a very specific amount of time. The radiation brings machines to life and they are basically trying to kill you, or get gas from you, then kill you.
Unfortunately, after the opening sequence, the movie really slows
down into what equates to a truck versus diner standoff. There are a few varied
scenes outside the diner, where a coach and some baseball players are attacked
by a soda machine, lawnmowers, and Ice Cream trucks hunting down Deke (played by
Hunter Graham). However outside of that, this is basically a “Mel’s Diner” on crack situation, only “Alice” isn’t in
this. Bill Robinson (played by Emilio Estevez) is our main guy who seems to
know what to do in this spends most of his time sulking in his past, trying to
figure out how to escape the diner and yelling at his boss. Brett (played by
Laura Harrington) isn’t having any of that and after less than a day figures
out a way to sleep with Bill while all this is going on. Anyway after another
side trip involving a couple played by some dude and Lisa Simpson (literally
the woman that does the voice for Lisa Simpson, Yeardly Smith) end up finding
their way to the diner, we have our big showdown between the Happy Toyz Green Goblin
Truck from space alien hell and diners with a conveniently stored arsenal that
includes freakin rocket launchers. That’s
what I am talking about.
Lamentably the movie fails to draw on the scale of its own
premise by at least showing us machines attacking people in other cities (since
this is supposed to be a global problem). The ending is also pretty bad. Like,
up there with the ridiculous ending in “The Stand” TV series. Even the
description of what happens to the survivors and how Russia and a spaceship
are involved doesn’t make any freakin sense at all. The cinematography is also about as basic as it gets. In spite of that – I still
really liked this thing and would watch it again for the soundtrack alone.
I give this movie a solid 4 out of 7. Definitely not a movie
I would mind being redone using practical effects.
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