Movie Review: Trucks

Trucks
Trimark Pictures, Leider-Reisberg Credo Entertainment Group, USA Pictures, Canada, 1997.

Based on the short story by Stephen King. 

In town of Lunar (just next-door to Area 51) pick-up truck becomes alive and starts killing people. Hope (Brenda Bakke) runs a tourist business for people who want to see UFOs. She gets customers Abby (Amy Stewart) and her dad Thad (Roman Podhora) who is a former military man, and old hippie Jack (Jay Brazeau). Maniac truck tries to kill the tourists. 

Hope

Abby and Thad

Jack

Mechanic Ray (Timothy Busfield) and his son Logan (Brendan Fletcher) receive a distress call from Hope. Then a chemical truck goes out of control and destroys a power station. The trucks surround a truck diner where the survivors are hiding. Toxic Intervention Team is sent to clean up the chemical spill. Not only trucks but also other machines start to kill people. It is never explained why some machines are murderous and some are not.

Ray

Logan

Trucks go crazy

This is a TV-movie version of the same story "Maximum Overdrive" was also based on. "Maximum Overdrive" was not perfect either but it was quite fun with hard rockin' AC/DC soundtrack. This gets soon dull as the killer trucks spend most of the time just driving around the diner. The main heroes Ray and Thad are single-fathers who have problems with their teenagers. Most fun character was old hippie Jack who alternates between wise and crazy.

Toxic Intervention Team

Truck meeting

The film editor Lara Mazur has fun with some cuts: guy pours gasoline in the bottle, next scene has cook putting soup in a cup and after a truck explosion we see a beef. Some plus points come from two bizarre death scenes: death by a toy truck and murder by Hazmat suit. 

Interesting cut

This is gonna hurt

Rating: Bad 

Starring: Timothy Busfield, Brenda Bakke, Aidan Devine, Roman Podhora, Jay Brazeau, Brendan Fletcher, Amy Stewart, Victor Cowie, Sharon Bajer, Jonathan Barrett, Rick Skene, Don Granberry, Barbara Lee Edwards, Gene Pyrz, Kirk Harper, Harry Nelken, David Brown, Shane Cardwell, Erich Martin Hicks, Terence Kelly, Chuck Robinson, Geoff Williams 

Director: Chris Thomson