BEFORE: This plot seems like an extension of "Christine" - another case of motor vehicles coming to life and killing humans...
THE PLOT: A group of people try to survive when machines start to come alive and become homicidal.
AFTER: I know it's not designed to rival Shakespeare or anything, but still, there's not much plot to this movie. Problem arises, people find a way to deal with the problem - oh, and there's about an hour of movie in between those two things, which is how long it takes for people to figure out just what the heck is going on.
The first part is pretty gruesome - when the earth passes through the tail of a comet (again, playing fast and loose with astronomy since most comets aren't larger than planet Earth), the machines gain sentience, or at least the ability to turn themselves on and damage people. We see the aftermath - people dead from car crashes, hair-dryer accidents, etc.
Humanity is represented here by a number of people, mostly the staff and visitors at a truck stop, who hole up indoors, surrounded by patrolling trucks. Conveniently, the owner of the truck stop happens to also be a black-market arms dealer, so the humans do have the ability to fight back and blow stuff up.
It's an interesting concept, people being forced to rely on (relatively) low-tech solutions to battle their higher-tech machine-based overlords. Hey, it worked for the Ewoks in "Return of the Jedi", didn't it? However, I don't think the idea was fully explored - and having the humans broker a deal with the trucks to trade diesel fuel for their lives seems like something of a cop-out.
Stephen King directed, and appears in a cameo as a man insulted by an ATM at the start of the film. He's at least a better actor than the female lead, Laura Harrington - there's something wrong with the delivery of her lines that makes her sound like the way deaf people talk.
One question - how come we never see the cars come to life - why does it only seem to be trucks? Are cars not as "smart" as trucks, or just not as cinematic?
Starring Emilio Estevez (last seen in "Mission: Impossible"), Pat Hingle (last seen in "The Falcon and the Snowman"), Yeardley Smith (more famous for voicing Lisa Simpson), Frankie Faison (last seen in "Manhunter") and cameos from Giancarlo Esposito (last seen in "Ali") and Marla Maples.
RATING: 3 out of 10 rocket launchers
SPOOK-O-METER: 5 out of 10, for some grisly deaths and bloody truck assaults.
"Maximum Overdrive" is the poster child for the problem I have with most Stephen King movies. It's as if the movie is determined not to engage my curiosity or imagination.
ReplyDelete"A dog goes nuts and eats people. He eats people for a while until he's stopped."
"A car goes nuts and runs people over. It keeps running people over until it's stopped."
"A demon clown kills people. It keeps killing people until it's stopped."
And you might be able to describe "Jaws" in those terms but when you're sitting there in the theater, you quickly figure that the shark that eats people is just a minor part of a terrific character piece. But for me, nearly all SK movies come down to "the same damned thing happens, usually in Maine, over and over again until the movie's over."