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Maximum Overdrive (1986, Dir. Steven King)
Steven King adaptations have always been a case of hit and miss. Sometimes for the audience, and sometimes for Steven king himself. He reportedly hated Kubricks 1980's horror-fest The Shining whilst the public lapped up the on screen horror. So with the on screen adaptation of one of his short stories Trucks from the Bachman Books, King took no chances and chose to make his first, and last attempt at directing. The result was the wonderfully 80's Maximum Overdrive.
Like with a lot of Steven King adaptations, you know the story is going to be good, you know there is going to be some wonderful characters and you know there's also going to be some dark comedy and Maximum Overdrive delivers all of this. The story is that, at some point in 1987, Earths orbit passes through the tail of a comet which last for 8 days. During this time the gasses present in the tail of the comet have a strange effect on all mechanical objects on Earth. They become homicidal and begin killing everyone. Seriously. If you can get past your astonishment for the ludicrous plot, it is actually quite interesting to see what might happen if this ever should occur (Which, lets be honest folks, is EXTREMELY likely.)
The film opens with with the accompany of an 80's rocking AC/DC soundtrack and a short Star-Wars-esque epilogue telling us about the comets tail, and then we are shoved straight into the machines homicidal beginnings. The massacre starts off light with cash machines calling unsuspecting business men (a Steven King trademark Cameo to be exact) "A__hole" and electronic bill boards telling the public to "F_ck off" but the action quickly moves onto naughtily messing around with Traffic Lights and Train Crossing signals. Ooooh those craft machines! But not 20 minutes into the film we begin to see the real horror. A packed bridge full of the unsuspecting public driving to work have a bit of a problem when the bridge begins to seperate with no warning. Ensue a lot of people sliding into eachother, cars flying into the water, peoples heads exploding, final destination style against windscreens and watermelons and other paraphenalia becoming objects of mass destruction as they fly into peoples faces. Lots of gory fun. From here onwards the film highlights all kinds of problems we could have if this did actually occur. Car windows strangling poeple with their heads caught in them. Coke machines firing coke cans at Kiddies like bullets. Steam Rollers going on rampages, electronic meat clevers attacking their hungry victims, arcade machines electrocuting unsuspecting gamers. The list is wonderfully endless. The highlight of the film is when Deke, a young lad who has narrowly escaped the onslaught of a coke machine, is hunted down by an incredibly eerie Ice Cream Van, playing its tune to attract the kiddie winkles....then mow them down!
After the initial massacre of the public, the story focuses around our main prtoagonist, Bill Robinson played by Emilio Estevez. Bill with a group of other survivors sit it out at a truck stop along an empty highway. Their attempts to escape from the truck stop are hindered by a convoy of evil trucks and lorries circling the truck stop, all under the command of an evil green faced lorry and a machine gun mounted war vehicle. From here onwards the already visible cracks in the film begin to show. Along with Estevez's 'Bill the hero', the truck stop is also home to a bunch of stereotypical characters ever-present in your average horror movie. Angry un-caring fat man, lunatic bible basher, Lonley frightened kid, impulsive waitress lady and sexy love interest for our main protagonist.
Along with some increasingly shoddy acting from most of the cast, they portray each of these characetrs in a way that it is a delight to watch them die. Estevez is as bland and as boring as ever as 'the hero' whilst Laura Harrington as the love interest does an acceptable job as the tough nut girl. As mentioned we have cameo's from writer, director Steven King at the beginning, and even Yeardly Smith AKA Lisa Simpson plays the convincing part of the newly wed trying to get to her honey moon. King does a good job at directing, trying to adapt his ideas to the big screen, but unfortunatly bad editing lets it down. However King's use of camera angles and cinematography allow us to get an idea of the personification of these inanimate objects. Everyday lifeless companions turn to homicidal human killers as we see them hunt down the public through the eyes of their windscreens and twitching steering wheels.
Plot holes and ridiculous twists in the story start to make the film sink into UBER obscurity with a rushed ending that the audience is left unsatisfied with. Also the gore is pretty tremendous throughout with several nasty household accidents making a good laugh but might be too much. So if your looking for a an interesting yet ludicrous story with some cheesy 80's gore then this is the film for you. Just a bit of fun. But if your looking for another Shawshank Redemption then you really are malfunctioning.
An AC/DC, goretastic 80's story with some malfunctioning components
Steven King adaptations have always been a case of hit and miss. Sometimes for the audience, and sometimes for Steven king himself. He reportedly hated Kubricks 1980's horror-fest The Shining whilst the public lapped up the on screen horror. So with the on screen adaptation of one of his short stories Trucks from the Bachman Books, King took no chances and chose to make his first, and last attempt at directing. The result was the wonderfully 80's Maximum Overdrive.
Like with a lot of Steven King adaptations, you know the story is going to be good, you know there is going to be some wonderful characters and you know there's also going to be some dark comedy and Maximum Overdrive delivers all of this. The story is that, at some point in 1987, Earths orbit passes through the tail of a comet which last for 8 days. During this time the gasses present in the tail of the comet have a strange effect on all mechanical objects on Earth. They become homicidal and begin killing everyone. Seriously. If you can get past your astonishment for the ludicrous plot, it is actually quite interesting to see what might happen if this ever should occur (Which, lets be honest folks, is EXTREMELY likely.)
The film opens with with the accompany of an 80's rocking AC/DC soundtrack and a short Star-Wars-esque epilogue telling us about the comets tail, and then we are shoved straight into the machines homicidal beginnings. The massacre starts off light with cash machines calling unsuspecting business men (a Steven King trademark Cameo to be exact) "A__hole" and electronic bill boards telling the public to "F_ck off" but the action quickly moves onto naughtily messing around with Traffic Lights and Train Crossing signals. Ooooh those craft machines! But not 20 minutes into the film we begin to see the real horror. A packed bridge full of the unsuspecting public driving to work have a bit of a problem when the bridge begins to seperate with no warning. Ensue a lot of people sliding into eachother, cars flying into the water, peoples heads exploding, final destination style against windscreens and watermelons and other paraphenalia becoming objects of mass destruction as they fly into peoples faces. Lots of gory fun. From here onwards the film highlights all kinds of problems we could have if this did actually occur. Car windows strangling poeple with their heads caught in them. Coke machines firing coke cans at Kiddies like bullets. Steam Rollers going on rampages, electronic meat clevers attacking their hungry victims, arcade machines electrocuting unsuspecting gamers. The list is wonderfully endless. The highlight of the film is when Deke, a young lad who has narrowly escaped the onslaught of a coke machine, is hunted down by an incredibly eerie Ice Cream Van, playing its tune to attract the kiddie winkles....then mow them down!
After the initial massacre of the public, the story focuses around our main prtoagonist, Bill Robinson played by Emilio Estevez. Bill with a group of other survivors sit it out at a truck stop along an empty highway. Their attempts to escape from the truck stop are hindered by a convoy of evil trucks and lorries circling the truck stop, all under the command of an evil green faced lorry and a machine gun mounted war vehicle. From here onwards the already visible cracks in the film begin to show. Along with Estevez's 'Bill the hero', the truck stop is also home to a bunch of stereotypical characters ever-present in your average horror movie. Angry un-caring fat man, lunatic bible basher, Lonley frightened kid, impulsive waitress lady and sexy love interest for our main protagonist.
Along with some increasingly shoddy acting from most of the cast, they portray each of these characetrs in a way that it is a delight to watch them die. Estevez is as bland and as boring as ever as 'the hero' whilst Laura Harrington as the love interest does an acceptable job as the tough nut girl. As mentioned we have cameo's from writer, director Steven King at the beginning, and even Yeardly Smith AKA Lisa Simpson plays the convincing part of the newly wed trying to get to her honey moon. King does a good job at directing, trying to adapt his ideas to the big screen, but unfortunatly bad editing lets it down. However King's use of camera angles and cinematography allow us to get an idea of the personification of these inanimate objects. Everyday lifeless companions turn to homicidal human killers as we see them hunt down the public through the eyes of their windscreens and twitching steering wheels.
Plot holes and ridiculous twists in the story start to make the film sink into UBER obscurity with a rushed ending that the audience is left unsatisfied with. Also the gore is pretty tremendous throughout with several nasty household accidents making a good laugh but might be too much. So if your looking for a an interesting yet ludicrous story with some cheesy 80's gore then this is the film for you. Just a bit of fun. But if your looking for another Shawshank Redemption then you really are malfunctioning.
An AC/DC, goretastic 80's story with some malfunctioning components