Trucks (1997)

I love this movie so much

How sad is this?

Instead, you get a movie that's enjoyable enough, but leaves you feeling like it could have been much, much more.

what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

In 1986, Stephen King turned director, adapting his short story 'Trucks' for the cinema; the result was Maximum Overdrive, a hokey horror with lots of silly deaths, an excess of vehicular destruction, a rockin' soundtrack, and a truck that looked like The Green Goblin! The film received negative reviews and was a box-office flop, although I actually found it to be a whole lot of fun.Trucks is another attempt at bringing King's short story to the screen, this time by director Chris Thomson, and it too is extremely dumb, even more-so at times, with a couple of unbelievably silly killings (try not to laugh at the sight of an inflated unoccupied hazmat suit wielding an axe, or the killer toy truck!); as such, I also found it entertaining.Sadly, there's no AC/DC blaring over the action, and the film suffers slightly from a noticeable lack of a big green-faced semi-trailer, but it's still worth checking out - especially for the surprisingly good ending.

Working at a local truck-stop, a woman and a small gang of residents realize that all the vehicles and machines around them are behaving without human operators, and eventually trap them inside when they realize that a deadly chemical spill is responsible and try to get past the homicidal machines.This one here isn't that bad when it really tries to. The film's best feature is that it's pretty packed with action in here which manages to score some big points for all the big sequences. The big opening sequence where the big rig comes to life and chases them through the junkyard is a really enjoyable start to this one, and from the fun of the several thwarted escape attempts at the diner which includes the great corralling inside the motel to the several close-calls and chases of the group trying to get to their trucks or back inside the diner have a lot going for them. Away from the truck-stop, the early action out on the highways is pure greatness, from the encounter in the RV to the chase through the countryside leading up to the diner makes for some fun, and the scenes of the workers attempting to clean up the accident give this some. Throw in a genuinely creepy moment where two victims try to escape from a collapsing tunnel guarded by trucks which turns into a nice rescue attempt and the stellar sequence where they tackle the escape attempt while getting out of the diner into the wilderness provides plenty of destruction and mayhem that leads into the fast pace with a lot going on to keep it moving. The last bit that works is the cleverly-built beginning that successfully makes for a good mystery and a really creepy tone which are the film's good points even though this one does have a few problems. One of the bigger factors that hold it down is the PG-13 rating which is something big to get over. It really neuters the film a lot, since the big body count is taken out by being run over in the distance or by being blown up in an explosion and there's practically no blood at all due to the fact that the kills won't allow it to happen. All of them done with the action forces that to happen, and by being restricted to the truck- stop for the majority of the film, it doesn't offer opportunities for other details. The fact that it is a retread of the original, with the storyline being taken straight out and set against a few new scenes here and there. That the set-up is still pretty much the same and with a few new differences to put in place in here is something to get over. The last big flaw in here is the family drama that consumes so much of the film, whether it be the father-and-son story or the heroine's story or even one from the people stuck in the truck-stop have a sort of family drama about them, and with so many in here having a similar sort of problem take up so much screen-time is a big waste, since it just makes the film look all the weaker for featuring something that is continually brought up that wasn't fun to experience the first time. Beyond these, though, the film's other flaws are what hold it down the most.Rated PG-13: Violence and Language.

OK first of all, this is a poor remake of Maximum Overdrive. You can say what you want about the original, but at least THAT movie has become a cult classic, unlike this one. All this one suffers from is very lazy directing, and mediocre acting as a result of that directing. Well, that and the fact it has NO AC DC! This one is an OK watch, but no where near as good or well done in any way compared to Maximum Overdrive. Sure it has a lot of action, but the chase scenes are So obvious the cars and trucks are doing 30 mph when they are supposedly going 80, and the crashes aren't all that exciting.The dialogue is OK but not great, and the characters are somewhat boring and unbelievable due to the lame dialogue. In my opinion, if you are sitting at a table with people who have the means to make a movie, and the idea to re-make a cult classic comes up, don't do it. It NEVER is as good as the original!

...it's a 90's re-make (of "Maximum Overdrive" from 1986) that was dumped straight to video in our country and the VHS cover (not shown here) just looked so cheap on the rental shelves, copying the uninspired 'artwork' of many other action fodder rentals at the time. "Trucks" just seemed a waste of time and rental money. I have to admit though, that tagline always made me giggle ("U-Turn, U-Die!")Years later, when video rental stores just were all too happy getting rid of their old VHS tapes, I just selected me a cheap lot of ex-rentals, and took "Trucks" home with me. And yes, not much later I had this strange urge to watch both "Maximum Overdrive" and "Trucks" back to back. And I'll be damned if this re-make (or re-telling, if you want) wasn't as decent (or poor, you be the judge of that) as the original.Same crazy plot (cars, trucks and whatnot else type of machinery coming to live) with no real explanation and a bit more background concerning the main characters. Adding even some silly but highly entertaining killings this time (the little toy-truck smashing the head of the mailman; the anti-radioactive protective suit inflating itself, then grabbing an axe and...). The main location in "Trucks" is also a gas station, so it's not like this remake was doing anything worse here. If you liked the original, then you'll also have some fun with this one. It's as simple as that. I can add that the ending is just a little bit different. Although I saw it coming, I liked it more (than the 80's version).