BroadcastChic Excellent, a Must See

SpecialsTarget Disturbing yet enthralling

CrawlerChunky In truth, there is barely enough story here to make a film.

Philippa All of these films share one commonality, that being a kind of emotional center that humanizes a cast of monsters.

Coventry Practically throughout half of the film, I kept on wondering why that imbecilic ginger head of the lead actor looked so damn familiar. And then suddenly, maybe because he pulled a particularly stupid facial expression or something, it just hit me! It's Arnold Pointdexter from the original "Revenge of the Nerds"! You know, the guy with the enormous curly hairdo and glasses as thick as strawberry jelly jars! Apparently he also appeared in a trillion of lousy TV-series, but since I never watched any of those, he's still just Pointdexter to me. I mean, this already should give you some sort of indication of this movie's quality level, no? "Trucks" is a TV-remake of the only (not very successful) horror movie that its author Stephen King directed himself, about a bunch of lifeless trucks in the Area 51 region going berserk without apparent reason, and the fate of humanity lies in the incompetent hands of the ginger artist formerly known as Arnold Pointdexter the nerd! Indeed, "Trucks" is a pretty bad film, but at the same time it also has to be said that it's a tremendously FUN bad film! Like many of the other reviewers have already pointed out, director Chris Thomson and writer Brian Taggart (usually a quite reliable choice) totally didn't grab all the great opportunities you get with murderous wheels! The whole film simply features a handful of trucks, and only one of them is a genuinely impressive eighteen-wheeler. Instead of bombastic machines, the script somehow prefers to generate horror situations through remote-controlled toy trucks and even self-inflatable safety suits. Needless to say these sequences look quite ridiculous and completely sucks out all the scary potential of the basic concept. I must admit, however, that I was pleasantly surprised with the body count and even the amount of gore and bloodshed in "Trucks", especially considering the fact it's a made-for- TV effort. The characters are hopelessly stereotypical; your average assembly of local yokels, reluctant tourists and troubled teenagers. Their acting performances are quite poor, though I have a weakness for the stunning Brenda Bakke. She's a genuine 90's beauty and I never really understood why her career didn't skyrocket. The ending is relatively decent, even though you can see it coming from fifty miles away.

TBJCSKCNRRQTreviews Yes. Glorious line, innit? What I personally love about above expression of frustration and wonder is how clearly and thoroughly nonsensical it is. Who, pray tell, is the speaker directing the insult at? The car? I believe I read the short story of King's(or perhaps a similar one by another author), and I frankly see reason to attribute the aforementioned and other bits of silly and forced dialog(which is not all of it) in this to him. On the other hand, I haven't watched Maximum Overdrive, but I can imagine that it's better than this. So this plays upon our fear of, well, trucks, and other large, noisy machines that can crush us. We get a couple of Christine shots, and the concept is treated with a pretty considerable amount of respect, with the gradual build-up early on being somewhat reminiscent of such obviously superior pictures as The Birds. This backfires at times, as it leads to goofy sequences that are utterly impossible to take seriously. The editing and cinematography are standard. More coverage here and there would have helped loads. This does contain one of the funniest movie deaths of all time, and there are laughs to be had, if most are probably unintentional. There is some OK suspense and tension in this. The acting is lackluster. Several of the reasonably developed characters are obnoxious and just complain. The FX vary. On the whole, this is relatively satisfying if you don't expect too much from it, and the ending's not bad. There is a lot bloody(if a little of it looks ludicrously fake) violence and infrequent strong language in this. I recommend this to fans of the idea. 5/10

Woodyanders Stephen King's sole directorial effort "Maximum Overdrive" still qualifies as one of the single most horrible cinematic adaptations of his work to date. It's a total mess that's fatally undone by intolerably obnoxious nincompoop characters, sloppy plotting, and a simply dreadful sense of rancidly unamusing toilet bowl humor. Granted, the central premise -- a comet which brushes perilously close to the Earth's atmosphere somehow causes all the trucks to take on a murderously intelligent and malevolent sentient life of their own, with a bunch of demonic semis holding a motley assortment of people hostage in a besieged diner -- was promising, but King's messy, clumsy and horrendously diffuse (mis)direction and a narrative ridden with enough gaping plot holes to drive a Diesel through 'em failed to due said premise any justice.Fortunately, this second celluloid take on the short yarn "Trucks" rates as a markedly better and more effective picture: It's smart, absorbing and suspenseful, with sure, low-key direction, a tight, sharply focused script, a few nifty violent episodes (a mailman getting gruesomely snuffed by a vicious tiny toy dump truck provides a blackly funny highlight), a refreshing paucity of both needless pretense and equally unnecessary razzle-dazzle, a commendably straightforward, matter-of-fact, down-to-earth sober tone, realistic sounding dialogue, a genuinely eerie atmosphere of total desolation (the dry, dusty desert locations help immensely here), spare, unflashy cinematography, appealingly plain everyday country folks main characters, and a splendidly bleak surprise ending punching up the quality level to a finely high and well-sustained standard indeed. Timothy Busfield as an affable nice guy gas station proprietor and the fetching Brenda Bakke as the quick-thinking, level-headed heroine lead the uniformly solid no-name cast (Jay Brazzeau is especially engaging as gentle, philosophical old hippie Jack). Moreover, this film mean business throughout and doesn't play fair, actually going as far as to bump off some of the more likable characters. It's this latter element of grim seriousness that makes all the difference, thus enabling a fantastic premise to acquire a reasonable semblance of plausibility which in turn puts this feature over as a good little fright flick.

Paul Andrews Trucks starts in a junk yard just outside the small American town of Lunar whose only claim to fame is that it is located near the infamous Government/Military facility Area 51. As Phil (Harry Neeken) the owner goes about his business an old rusty wreck of a truck suddenly develops a life of it's own & kills Phil. A short time after a large refrigerated truck seems to take control of itself & locks it's driver (Gene Pyrz) in it's trailer & sets off for the nearby town of Lunar where the local mechanic Ray (Timothy Busfield) his son Logan (Brendan Fletcher), two truck drivers Bob (Aidan Devine) & Pete (Rick Skene) are trapped inside the towns diner run by George (Victor Cowie) by the numerous trucks that have gathered & now circle outside ready to run anyone down stupid enough to leave the diner. Meanwhile a guide named Hope (Brenda Bakke) & three hikers on a camping trip Jack (Jay Brazeau), Thad (Roman Podhora) & his young bratty daughter Abby (Amy Stewart) stumble across Phil & are almost killed themselves by a truck, upon their return to Lunar & the diner they discover that all the trucks in the area seem to have a life of their own & aren't friendly towards humans...This Canadian made-for-cable TV production was directed by Chris Thompson & is pretty average stuff although I liked it in a dumb sort of way, I suspect the only real reason I say that is because I was in a good mood when I watched it. The script by Brian Taggert based on the short story by Stephen King has obvious similarities to King's own Maximum Overdrive (1986) & in fact could easily be described as a remake. A remake of Maximum Overdrive? Great, just what the world needed! I will say no more & concentrate on the film in hand, Trucks moves along at a fair pace to start with but slows down considerably as our bunch of stranded clichéd character's emote with each other & seem to sort all their personal problems out, you know the sort of thing Father makes peace with Daughter whom he has neglected blah blah blah you can probably fill in the blanks yourself. Besides this no explanation is given for anything that happens in the film whatsoever, can someone please tell me why every truck in Lunar & the surrounding area suddenly develop the power to drive, think & even communicate with each other? Why can't they attack the diner & motel rooms? Why do they just circle it for hours? Why does this mysterious force not effect normal cars & motorbikes? What has the mysterious Area 51 have to do with anything? So many questions so few answers... Now for the (slightly) good stuff, namely the scene where the toy dump-truck comes to life attacks & kills an unlucky postman by ramming his ankles & then repeatedly driving into his head! This is a scene that words can't do justice to, by the end of the scene the toy truck is covered in blood & bits of flesh! There is another scene in which a contamination suit comes to life & hacks two men to death with an axe in the films only gory moment, I have no idea why an empty suit would inflate, start walking around & killing people with an axe I just don't & I doubt anyone involved with Trucks did either. What it all boils down to is that Trucks isn't a masterpiece but it just about kept me entertained for 100 odd minutes in a silly lame sort of way. Trucks was made-for-TV & it shows with it's bland cinematography, low key small scale stunts & action scenes which consist mostly of trucks smashing into plywood buildings, forgettable music & a general OK but nothing special feel about it. The acting is average & of TV soap opera quality. Maybe I'm being a bit lenient on Trucks but I found it a fairly decent watch if nothing spectacular, I don't think I'd sit through it again anytime soon. Worth a watch just for the scene when the toy truck smashes the postman's head in, although the scene itself is psychically impossible as a plastic truck simply wouldn't have the weight to generate the forward momentum need to crush someone's skull, would it? Then again it is only a film...