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Rating:  -
A few horror gems hold a special place in my heart. I get all sentimental and choked up. Basketcase..return of the deadly spawn, and maximum overdrive are just such flicks. I think i will go to my dying day and never forget that truck with the joker face on it. It was just an evil, evil truck.
Before the machines turned humanity to goop in the matrix, pop machines were kicking butt here! Blenders were blending hands, trucks were making marinara out of their owners and basically anything that ran electrically gave their owners a bad day...or 2...or 3. A few folks hole up in a side of the road dive and fill and make their stand against the hordes of trucks waiting for them outside.
We get generous helpings of the ketchup (someone tell me what the hell catsup is?) in this one.
A coach gets his head pulverized by a pissed off pop machine. Think it over folks next time you want to kick that coke machine when it eats your quarters! Lawnmowers cut more than the lawn, trucks run people over. Its pretty much bad times for anything with a pulse.
For T&A, we get some shiny chrome bumpers on trucks and a nice set of blades on the lawnmowers. Not much to get a rise out of the living.
This is one of Kings rare films that was done well. Maybe thats because he helmed this one himself. If your going to watch a king movie, steer clear of the made for TV shlitz and go for the juggular with this one.
Rating:  -
What is more scarer then being stranded at a gas station, with diesel trucks that are going to plow you to the ground? That's is scary and real, that why this movie lives up to the stephen king standerd. The reson it got bad reviews, is becuse their pricks and they never seen stephen king at his best.
And it's the best of any of his other movies they have put out
Rating: -
Anyone caught in the Blackout of 2003 must surely have thought of this movie. When the T.V. stopped working, the familiar drone of the fridge was eerily gone and trucks kept rumbling by on the unlit streets... all that was missing was the psychotic roar of a lawnmower springing to life and chasing you down the street!
I have two confessions to make.
1) I hate almost all Stephen King adaptions except two.
2) The two I like are Carrie and Maximum Overdrive.
Maximum Overdrive is a great film (hear me out before clicking on the "Unhelpful review" button!).
First of all, it is set in a situation that we can all relate to, everyday life in an urban environment, compare this with an empty hotel at the top of a mountain for example.
It preys on one of our biggest 21st Century fears, that we are no longer in control of our environment. Humankind has become so detached from the everyday rigours of surviving that our ancestors went through that we have no idea what we would do if our civilization broke down. No electricity, no fridge, no food, no machines, no information, no phones. Maximum Overdrive brings these fears to life, and then adds the horrific twist, that the machines then turn on their masters, although slightly after the Terminator franchise had started rolling. Surely this fear is easier to relate to than that the girl you bully at school may turn out to possess supernatural powers she can deploy for revenge purposes...
The movie also deals with alienation while in an urban environment. Like the group stuck in the mall in George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead", the people isolated in the truck stop are at once in a familiar environment, and at the same time stuck in a totally foreign world, making it easier for the viewer to relate, and amplifying the horror felt watching it.
The best bits of the film occur in the opening sequences, when the machines go crazy, decimating the world's humans. The middle section deals with the increasing tensions between the people caught in the truck seige and the final part deals with their escape and eventual triumph over the machines, culminating in Emilio Estevez's final, hilarious quote...
Maximum Overdrive is a fantastic modern horror movie, bringing terror to familiar situations, and Post-Blackout, I recommend you watch this movie again and allow yourself to think "What if..."
Rating: -
This was King's one and only stab at being at hollywood director (so far), and the trailer has him saying he will "scare the hell out of you, and that's a promise." That promise wasn't exactly "kept", but that didn't hurt the movie too much. It involves a comet that will be real close to the earth for the next eight days. In fact, too close. It causes machines all over the planet to function on their own, and they appear to be fed up with be the slaves of mankind. Next thing you know, we've got everything from drawbridges to vending machines going berserk and attacking humans. At the Dixie Boy truck stop, about a 12 big trucks come to life and encircle the resturant full of people inside, like Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, one VERY dumb waitress, who takes every chance she get's to shout at the trucks, "We made you!", and alot of others who meet quite gruesome ends. There's something here for everyone; there's horror, comedy, action, suspense, romance, etc. Even the soundtrack is cool, since it was done entirely by AC DC
Rating: -
In 1987, a comet will pass close to the Earth, and the planet will be enveloped in its tail. During the next seven or eight days, all machines go wacky, and rebel against their human masters. The patrons and workers of a truck stop must band together to fight off the killer trucks, electric knives, arcade games, vending machines, etc. to stay alive and find out what is causing this mess.
Finally, a not so rare version of the cult classic! Anchor Bay has done a splendid job with this box-office bomb (yet one of my favorite films), from the disc (that looks like the front of the toy company truck),The chapter card/poster replica, the menus(the main menu and extras menu include the two main AC/DC songs from the film, but the main menu is the only place on the disc where you will hear the entire "Shook Me All Night Long" instead of just music snippets like on other discs from big-name companies), video, sound, and extras, which is my only gripe: NOT ENOUGH! Sure, a trailer and King bio are good, but what about commentary (I'm sure that Emilio Estevez, Yeardley Smith, and Stephen King would have been up to it, don't you?), still galleries, TV spots, behind the scenes,interviews, the whole nine yards? Anchor Bay should consider doing a special edition of this title(along with My Science Project, Condorman, and any title that doesn't have extras. Sure, I'd like a DVD of my favorite movie as much as the next guy, but I'd like my movies with at least a trailer and commentary, or just a trailer would be fine). Anyway, they did a good job on a (critically) ... movie.
MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
(1986, R)
Bill: Emilio Estevez
Hendershot: Pat Hingle
Brett: Laura Harrington
Connie: Yeardley Smith
Curtis: John Short
Wanda June: Ellen McElduff
Director: Stephen King
Writer: Stephen King
Disc Review (1 the lowest, 5 the highest)
Movie: 4
Sound: 5
Video: 5
Extras: 2
Menus: 4.5
Overall: 4
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