Maximum Overdrive (1986)
Maximum Terror. Maximum King.
Just when you thought it was safe, I have a continued streak of bum luck and decide that I have a fever. Everyone knows there’s only one cure for a theoretical fever, and that’s cowbell -but I want some movie-equivalent of a cowbell. Well, cows are pretty dumb animals on average with their moments of understanding, but also can be pretty dangerous, and a bell makes noise, so I guess that mean’s I’m forcing everyone to watch a movie about sonic cows. Haha, nah - I’m just kidding. That’s probably a movie that would be held in higher regard then what I’m about to give everyone an excuse to watch (or re-watch) tonight! Put on your Spider-man outfit, get all those cries of Emilioooooo out of your system and try to do less cocaine than the director - tonight we strap in for Maximum Overdrive.
I need something dumb and entertaining, and this is what I decided on in remarkably short fashion, believe it or not. Our plot is both crazy and simple all at once really - but then again, fear doesn’t matter if you understand it or not. A meteor goes whipping on by the earth, and we on this little sphere are going to be stuck in it’s tail for a while. It’s cool, making the skies a crazy green after a while - well, it’s cool except for that part where electronics start going crazy and murdering people. Yeah, that’s right - lawnmowers, trucks, soda machines, hair driers, walkmans - if you aren’t Amish get ready to have a deadly bad day! Our story mainly follows a couple of would-be survivors trapped in a gas station surrounded by some ornery possessed trucks - and one kid whose trying to make his way there - as they try to survive and figure out just what is going on. Spoiler alert - it’s actually aliens. Are the aliens electricity-beings? Are they just remote controlling everything? How do they know morse code? Look, these aren’t the question that really impact the movie, just people who are thinking way too hard about something directed by a certain well regarded horror author whose admitted a few times to being have a bit too much fun on drugs if all is to believed.
This thing wasn’t received the best. It’s got like a 14% on that tomato site, and it honestly has plenty of areas that make that feel pretty reasonable. Actors, for example. Yes, they are acting to a pretty crazy situation - I mean, “sentient trucks” killing people is pretty wild. Sometimes, they actually have a pretty decent delivery or interaction with each other, other time’s it’s the diner chick screaming “we made you” until you wish it would get on with it already while waving her arms wildly at a truck. Psychotic break? Sure. Feeling like it’s well acted? Not so much. If you are watching it with the expectations of just riffing on it and having a good time, then the acting will never thatfully get worse than that - and despite there being a few times throughout where it feels like people actually did a decent to good job, I’d be remiss to say that it’s less of that and more of the kind of acting you’d expect in a campy flick that largely takes itself seriously. That said, they still do get to have some humor with their deliveries and the likes, so I would argue that it’s actually not nearly as bad as some of the other movies I’ve seen out there.
Characters fair probably far worse than that. If you are looking for some kind of advancement you are definitely watching the wrong movie. If you expect rich back history and full fleshed relationships - you area again in the totally wrong flick. If you expect the same level of character and development as a slasher movie with a few characters being far less annoying than most the slasher victims, then you’d be far more on pace. You’ll hate a character or two because they are either a bit slimey or annoying, and you’ll like a character or two because they are ballsy or nice - but you won’t really get anything drama-tier satisfying, and when you take that into account the acting looks less worse than it already does - hard to really be impressive with some of the stuff the characters give them to work with. The vehicles and stuff at times seem like maybe they have a little bit of character too them, but it’s never really enough to make it really feel like these things are doing more than a cat-and-mouse as far as it goes.
Humans.
The effects work is actually pretty good here. I mean, take it for what it is - it’s the 80’s, a bunch of practical effects and a lot of 80s blood everywhere violence. Nothing crazy graphic, although we do get a little bit of squib work and a few explosions to boot. Plenty of cars hitting things or exploding as well. The most common effect you’ll see is the pretty believably pulled off “nobody driving the vehicle” given they all are basically sentient killing machines. The fancy effect on the sky stands out the most as the most fake of the effects in my opinion - which might say something given some of the dead bodies, but I don’t really think it says a whole lot. The effects are remarkably fine for having not seen the movie in forever - I mean, yeah it might not blow your mind and occasionally you can see something you probably shouldn’t have, but for all the folks out there who constantly complain about computer effects they should find themselves loving the somewhat subdued practical presentations on display here. How violent it is will also change on if you get all those bonus scenes (the copy I watched did not have those scenes, so it wasn’t quite as violent as it could be).
Audio is probably the most stand out part of this movie. Not the line deliveries or the sound effects mind you - those are fine (looking at you “we made you” lady) for the most part. Sounds like it should, gets quiet when it wants for added tensions, sounds like trucks are floating around and had some farts that were largely unrelated to anything important but I’m a sucker for entertainment value out of some fart noises. No, what I’m talking about specifically is the soundtrack itself - good old AC/DC. Yep, about nine out of eleven songs have at least Angus having some role in the songs creation - so if there’s one thing I don’t think people are really going to complain about it’s the soundtrack.
Overall, I would say that the pacing doesn’t really feel too boring at any points - it moves right along. That said, there are some moments of slowness, and there’s a few parts that feel a bit like they just flick from one scene to the next - and part of that could be from a few of those cut scenes. It is somewhat amusing that a movie that feels like it’s trucking on towards the end still finds time to have a few scenes of going from A to B that feel like they probably could have been chopped out instead and not have you miss anything - even if they might have a good joke in there. Humor is subjective, so as usual mileage will vary. It’s a preposterous concept and there’s some dark humor in the suffering of the survivor types as the unexpected happens, and there are a few decent jokes or witty lines in there - but I wouldn’t exactly look at this as an intentional comedy despite I’m sure plenty of it was meant to be funny. For the thinkers out there, I’ve really got nothing for you. It’s alien possessed/controlled trucks murdering folks. Maybe there’s something in there about helping each other out, or taking technology for granted, or how quickly roles can reverse - but for me to say this movie instilled a ton of mind-energy into me would be a complete and total lie. You’d probably be more prone to half paying attention to the movie than you would make a dissertation about all it’s hidden philosophical undertones. Then again, I’m an idiot so I’m not looking for all those undertones anyways, and I mistyped dissertation as though it was the bonus course after a good meal.
I’ll get you Spider-man!
If you are looking for just stupid enjoyment or a background movie, this one really isn’t that bad. It’s not going to really blow you out of the water in any regard. Despite me having fun with it, even amongst all my other favorite King movies being in the sub-50 percentile of common ratings I fully recognize this one probably deserves to be down there. I have fun with it in the same way I would a campy budget flick, although presentation wise this one feels a bit more polished than those. The story and characters not so much above that campy budget flick, but money-back guarantee this isn’t even the worst movie I’ve ever seen. If all else fails, you’ll have a good time jamming to the soundtrack.