Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

GarnettTeenage The film was still a fun one that will make you laugh and have you leaving the theater feeling like you just stole something valuable and got away with it.

InformationRap This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Marva-nova Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Leofwine_draca 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!

TheBlueHairedLawyer Really, the plot is very similar to King's earlier film, Maximum Overdrive. Trucks suddenly start coming to life, driving themselves and pursuing people with lethal intent. A group of travelers and locals are imprisoned inside the truckstop diner. There they plot various means of escape from the prowling trucks outside. It is theorized that the trucks could have been activated by debris from a passing comet, a toxic pollution spill or military experiments at the nearby Area 51.A toxic pollution spill, seriously? You know, you can slap the name Stephen King on any movie, good or bad, and people will watch it if they're a fan. Granted his short story was much better, but I've seen a ton of trash Stephen King movies like Firestarter 2: Rekindled and I've also seen some films of his that were excellent, like Pet Sematary. It makes no difference who wrote the books, if the movie was badly made than the author has nothing to do with it.Trucks is very boring in the beginning, and though I love Canada, Manitoba isn't the type of place to film a movie. Dolores Claiborne, filmed in the beautiful province of Nova Scotia, has much better scenery material. The soundtrack was dull and the acting was generally very bad... but on the bright side, Amy Stewert, who had the role of Amanda Benson in the spectacular TV movie Welcome to Dead House that same year, played the minor role of Abby very well in Trucks.I was about to rate it two stars but I thought that to be a little unfair, so I give it 4/10.

bababear TRUCKS was made just over a decade after MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE. Now, most remakes seem pointless. But this is an exception. It definitely has a purpose.It reminds us just how much nasty fun MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE was.This was made with a small budget, so the special effects consist primarily of huge trucks driving in circles and honking their horns.The original film had so many nifty touches. Writer/Director Stephen King had a great cameo as a bewildered bank customer confronted with a foul mouthed ATM. A Little League team was attacked by a bulldozer and the Soda Machine of Death. People at home and at work were attacked by electric knives, hairdryers, lawnmowers and Walkmen. There was that great scene of a boy riding his bike down a suburban street: as he progresses along the street, sprinklers come on in the yards as if some unseen force was following him. There was that hard rocking musical score by AC/DC. Capping this off was the 'chief' truck with its Green Goblin emblem.This is just dull and flat. Every once in a while one of the actors comes out of a stupor, gets up from a chair and walks out the door to be killed.No reason is given for the attacks. We have mention of Area 51, aliens, toxic gas and a meteor shower.And the ending is a cheat. The four surviving characters are picked up by a helicopter, which turns out to be pilot-less as it has been possessed by whatever force infected the trucks. Gotta leave a door open for a sequel, I guess.More inexplicably, some very good actors are stuck in this. Hey, they have to eat. And they got a trip to Canada.Skip this. Go rent MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE.

Scarecrow-88 Various characters are trapped at a diner/tourist trap/gas station as semis & other commercial trucks operate on their own circling while "communicating" to each other via horn honking. Father and son, Ray(Timothy Busfield)and Logan(Brendan Fletcher)operate the desert spot with pal/cook George(Victor Cowie). Hope(Brenda Bakke, quite low-key, but offers a cool-headed chick)is a former RN who returned to the small desert town of Lunar after a rocky marriage that ended badly. Military man Thad(Roman Podhora)brought along his estranged daughter Abby(Amy Stewart), who reluctantly came along with her father at his ordered request as tourists seeking escape to Lunar while tagging along also is 50-year-old hippie Jack(Jay Brazeau). Meanwhile two truckers, Bob(Aidan Devine) and Pete(Rick Skene)resist the notion that their trucks will remain with out the drivers who occupy the vehicle seats. These truckers prove quite a problem for Ray as the situation escalates. A visiting couple, car salesman Brad(Jonathan Barrett)and displeased wife June(Sharon Bajer)are also in Lunar as tourists. One by one, the group fall victim to the homicidal trucks..cool heads will have to prevail if they have any chance of survival. Is there any hope for this group? The film provides possibilities for why the trucks are acting in such a fashion. A chemical spill. Area 51 is nearby. There was a comet shower. Hippie Jack offers lots of conspiracy theories and crazy notions..he offers the idea that the comet shower may've possibly bombarded the atmosphere with alien particles that have the radioactive power to guide mechanized machinery. Military man Thad informs Ray quietly that, while he was working as a helicopter man for the Air Force at Area 51, a scientific organization was running titled Project:Phoenix where high-powered telescopes sent out signals toward the stars calling out to alien life in space. Perhaps, the unfortunate events occurring is their way of answering? A different take on Stephen King's short story. Unlike King's only directed film, the zany "Maximum Overdrive", "Trucks" is told straight, serious in tone, tamer, and saner. "Trucks" isn't as bloodthirsty or outrageous as "Maximum Overdrive." But, "Trucks" hurts by a lack of budget and it's television confines limit what you can convey on screen. The trucks, like In King's film, do communicate and desire Ray to fill them with gasoline. "Trucks" has a neat little twist that does out duel King's version. This film probably has stronger, more likable characters, but the cast isn't as cool or interesting as King's film contains. "Trucks" really doesn't leave a lasting impression, either. Still not too bad, with some effective scenes.