Trucks (1997)

Sadly Over-hyped

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

The acting in this movie is really good.

A totally unnecessary remake of MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE, an '80s movie which manages to be fun, cheesy and exceptionally bad at the same time. TRUCKS, however, is a television movie, and we all know the arid desert of creativity and originality that television movies are. Yes, here we have a plot less, incredibly dull movie where nothing much happens, a few people die bloodlessly and lots of stupid things happen to some incredibly stupid people. If you get the feeling I didn't like this film, you'd be right.I don't think much needs to be said about the static direction or basic nature of this film - if you're unsure of what I mean, just watch one of the endless killer nature/haunted house television movies to have come out in the past decade and you'll be there. Remember how in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE we witnessed people getting killed by coke machines, boys being run over by steam rollers and the like? There's nothing of that here. What little violence there was has been cut out of the version I watched on TV, making this a worthless experience. This just consists of people either running around, waiting or "bonding". Yuck.The cast is a particularly bad one. I've found that I usually recognise at least one or two people in a television movie, with the rest being unknown to me. Here I noticed Brenda Bakke, that tireless beauty who has toiled through trash like TALES FROM THE CRYPT PRESENTS: DEMON KNIGHT for the good of mankind, getting by on her looks alone. It's sad when she's the best thing in a movie. Timothy Busfield is the geeky hero, there's an obnoxious teenage girl who reminded me of Molly Ringwald in SPACEHUNTER and was no less irritating, a boring old man who you just know is going to get killed, an annoying little kid who looks like Alfred E. Newman, and two dumb rednecks who manage to blow themselves up. And that is this film's entire cast.At least MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE had something of a plot, with the trucks planning to take over mankind. This is like they took the first half hour of that film and stretched it out to one and a half hours. There isn't even a conclusion, just a silly twist ending where our heroes board a helicopter which they think is rescuing them, only to find out nobody is flying it. How overdone, how stupid. I liked a scene towards the end where a repairman gets electrocuted, which seems to have been inserted just to pad out the running time and has no connection with the rest of the film at all.This is a film where lots of buildings explode in huge clouds for no reason whatsoever, where there's 90% talk and 10% action. This is an uninspired and dumb mess. The one moment I did like in this film happens about halfway through, where we see a truck fill a contamination suit with air, and uses the suit to axe a couple of unfortunates to death. This two minute scene is the ONE moment of creativity that this film has to offer. Give it a miss!

We all know the obvious hings wrong with it, sure. Acting from some characters, choppy cuts to other scenes with separate characters, blah blah blah. But what about the cool things it does? Like the scene where the main trucks gather around the smashed pickup and seem to have something resembling a funeral for it? how about the fact that they actually communicate with one another rather than just honking to make noise as in M.O.? The old junkyard/farm truck in the beginning that tests it's controls before the first attack, as if it was learning to walk or something? Plus it heals one of it's headlights "Christine" style, meaning that they could be even stronger. Then there are the TV reports repeating the line "Just hang on", which is then said by the radio in the pilotless chopper at the end-- suggesting that some of the machines are good and want to help us? But possibly my favorite is how the little toy truck darts around the room looking for a way out, then actually finds pieces and constructs a ramp for itself! THAT WAS COOL, and I don't care what anyone says! And how the different trucks have different music for them too, seeming to give them personality as well as intelligence. Rolling drums and pounding horns for the big semi rig, sad slow violins for the old broken farm truck in the first scene, manicky high pitched screeching violin strokes for the psychotic toy truck as it darts around trying to escape, over all this could have been much better, all the components are here, it could have been on par with Christine or better, but a few glaring mistakes bring the whole thing down unfortunately. Also it would have been cool if the inflated ax murdering safety suit took the wheel of the truck when it drove away, maybe disguised itself as a worker to fool and attack the main cast, but sadly this is a missed opportunity, as the thing just sort of disappears in the middle of the scene.

The biggest problem I have with some of Stephen King's stories is their complete lack of logic. It's as though he was getting paid by the word so he just made up situations without thinking about the reasons behind them."Trucks" is just such a story. It seems that all of a sudden the trucks in a town near Area 51 become animated and drive around on their own, stalking and killing humans. But why do they do it? We never seem to get a clear answer. It could be because of a toxic spill that they drove through, or it could be because they're occupied by an alien life force from a meteor or maybe they just got tired of being pushed around by all those redneck truckers.Whatever the reason, they can not only engage their own engines, but apparently shift their own gears, operate their own side-view mirrors and assorted latches, turn on their own headlights, and eventually learn to talk to each other by honking their own horns. They drive around in circles in a parking lot, holding a bunch of earthlings hostage in a luncheonette in the middle of the desert. But why? And if these trucks are that intent on destroying mankind, why don't they just drive into the building and be done with it and then move on to the next place? As far as the characters go, I was rooting for the trucks to do away with a few of them right off the bat, like the redneck trucker who stood around scratching his crotch. And then there was the King standby, the bratty, rebellious kid who didn't want to be there and did nothing but spout sarcastic comments for the first 40 minutes of the movie. But most of all I would love to have seen that 50-year-old hippie under at least eight of the semi's sixteen wheels. For someone who supposedly lived his life according to the "peace, love, and music" philosophy, it seems he embraced the establishment often enough over the past thirty years to swallow more than a few Big Macs along with his brown rice.I was confused as to why it was just trucks that were affected by this evil phenomenon, whatever it was; why not regular cars and lawn mowers and RVs too? And who was it who determined that the tractor-trailer should be the "leader of the pack"? And if helicopters were involved, why did it take so long for one to show up? Why didn't "Boss Semi" -- who was some sort of four-stroke Rasputin and kept on truckin' even after being blown up and burned to a crisp -- call him in long before the end? I'll bet the actors were told this movie was going to be the next "The Birds"; all I can say is that this movie was for the birds.

Trucks starts in a junk yard just outside the small American town of Lunar whose only claim to fame is that it is located near the infamous Government/Military facility Area 51. As Phil (Harry Neeken) the owner goes about his business an old rusty wreck of a truck suddenly develops a life of it's own & kills Phil. A short time after a large refrigerated truck seems to take control of itself & locks it's driver (Gene Pyrz) in it's trailer & sets off for the nearby town of Lunar where the local mechanic Ray (Timothy Busfield) his son Logan (Brendan Fletcher), two truck drivers Bob (Aidan Devine) & Pete (Rick Skene) are trapped inside the towns diner run by George (Victor Cowie) by the numerous trucks that have gathered & now circle outside ready to run anyone down stupid enough to leave the diner. Meanwhile a guide named Hope (Brenda Bakke) & three hikers on a camping trip Jack (Jay Brazeau), Thad (Roman Podhora) & his young bratty daughter Abby (Amy Stewart) stumble across Phil & are almost killed themselves by a truck, upon their return to Lunar & the diner they discover that all the trucks in the area seem to have a life of their own & aren't friendly towards humans...This Canadian made-for-cable TV production was directed by Chris Thompson & is pretty average stuff although I liked it in a dumb sort of way, I suspect the only real reason I say that is because I was in a good mood when I watched it. The script by Brian Taggert based on the short story by Stephen King has obvious similarities to King's own Maximum Overdrive (1986) & in fact could easily be described as a remake. A remake of Maximum Overdrive? Great, just what the world needed! I will say no more & concentrate on the film in hand, Trucks moves along at a fair pace to start with but slows down considerably as our bunch of stranded clichéd character's emote with each other & seem to sort all their personal problems out, you know the sort of thing Father makes peace with Daughter whom he has neglected blah blah blah you can probably fill in the blanks yourself. Besides this no explanation is given for anything that happens in the film whatsoever, can someone please tell me why every truck in Lunar & the surrounding area suddenly develop the power to drive, think & even communicate with each other? Why can't they attack the diner & motel rooms? Why do they just circle it for hours? Why does this mysterious force not effect normal cars & motorbikes? What has the mysterious Area 51 have to do with anything? So many questions so few answers... Now for the (slightly) good stuff, namely the scene where the toy dump-truck comes to life attacks & kills an unlucky postman by ramming his ankles & then repeatedly driving into his head! This is a scene that words can't do justice to, by the end of the scene the toy truck is covered in blood & bits of flesh! There is another scene in which a contamination suit comes to life & hacks two men to death with an axe in the films only gory moment, I have no idea why an empty suit would inflate, start walking around & killing people with an axe I just don't & I doubt anyone involved with Trucks did either. What it all boils down to is that Trucks isn't a masterpiece but it just about kept me entertained for 100 odd minutes in a silly lame sort of way. Trucks was made-for-TV & it shows with it's bland cinematography, low key small scale stunts & action scenes which consist mostly of trucks smashing into plywood buildings, forgettable music & a general OK but nothing special feel about it. The acting is average & of TV soap opera quality. Maybe I'm being a bit lenient on Trucks but I found it a fairly decent watch if nothing spectacular, I don't think I'd sit through it again anytime soon. Worth a watch just for the scene when the toy truck smashes the postman's head in, although the scene itself is psychically impossible as a plastic truck simply wouldn't have the weight to generate the forward momentum need to crush someone's skull, would it? Then again it is only a film...