Directed by: Stephen King
Starring: Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, Laura Harrington
Man, there have been some pretty bad movies based off of Stephen King stories over the years (Sleepwalkers and Dreamcatcher come immediately to mind), but I think Maximum Overdrive may have managed to beat them all. Maybe it’s because it was also the only one directed by King as well? Maybe it’s just a fucking stupid story. WHO KNOWS?!
A comet passes close to Earth, and the green glowing dust from it’s tale brings the machines to life! Well, certain appliances and semi trucks, anyway. Our story takes place at a truck stop, where these homicidal trucks are holding them hostage. Luckily, Emilio Estevez is working there as a line cook, and his boss (Hingle) has a basement full of assault rifles and bazookas and grenades. They strike back against the automated antagonists (quite easily, in fact), and sail away to the middle of the ocean, where not even the most intelligent MAC truck can follow.
There are so many holes in this plot, after a while I just gave up and said, “whatever, movie. You just keep on truckin’, I’ll meet up with you at the end.” Maybe that was the point? I don’t really know. What I did learn from this movie was to always keep a bazooka around in case some machines decide to come to life and kill everyone, and also that putting in “the best of AC/DC” is not really a good way to make a movie soundtrack.
Films in Boxes 
Leave a comment