Maximum Overdrive
Maybe tomorrow it will be our world again
I'm delivering a review! Praise be to Oprah, I finally sat down and relaxed enough to watch a horror movie. And since I've been reading more Stephen King than usual, I thought it was time to finally watch King's directorial debut; Maximum Overdrive. And boy was it awful and amazing and a tone of fun to watch.
Let's talk about it!
In 1986 Stephen King wrote and directed this glorious piece of garbage that is based on his short story "Trucks" which was included in his first collection of short stories, Night Shift. It stars a very young Emilio Estevez and the soundtrack was composed by AC/DC, one of King's favorite bands. King was coked out of his damn mind when he directed this movie, but we still love him anyway.
There are many reasons I love this movie, the first being because it's Stephen King, and Stephen King has a great cameo in it right at the beginning, "this machine just called me an asshole." The second being that it has what I love the most about Stephen King, his ability to throw a group of strangers into a bizarre situation and make them lovable. He has such a good grasp on how people act in strange situations and how people come together when times are not so great. And the third thing I love about this movie is that a steam roller kills a kid. It's amazing.
The premise of this hot mess of a movie is that the tail end of a comet passes earth, this causes inanimate objects to come alive and start murdering people. So that carving knife you were using to cut your turkey? Now it's cutting you. Your trusty walkman from which you listen to the greatest hits of the 80's? That thing just exploded your ear drums. Chaos erupts as machines start killing everyone but a few survivors manage to get together at a roadside truck stop in North Carolina. Our lead character Bill Robinson takes control in keeping everyone safe alongside the hitchhiker Brett. Of course, the two quickly fall in love and have sex as big rig trucks circle the truck stop menacingly.
Luckily in the basement for some reason there's a giant stockpile of weapons which the group use to keep themselves safe. The next morning the vehicles use morse code (because why not?) with their horns to demand that the survivors fill up their gas tanks. Because I guess even if you're a machine running on alien energy, you still need gas to keep running? Logic? Another lucky chance for these survivors is an island close by where no vehicles or machines are allowed. No explanation as to why this island exists or what that even means. But the survivors decide to escape, using their grenades and rocket launchers.
As they sail off to safety we are told through the credits that two days later a UFO was destroyed by the Russians and everything was happily ever after.
I mean, good god. This movie was all sorts of ridiculous amazing. I actually had a really fun time watching it. It's just so absurd and dumb that you can't take it seriously, so you just laugh and enjoy the show. The gore is minimal but enough to keep you happy. The characters make no sense and are all sorts of stereotypes but it was the 80's so you gotta give it to them. And the soundtrack is so great!
Oh, and also I have a new favorite quote from this movie. Brett is in the car with this greasy bible salesman who keeps putting his hand on her leg, and Brett goes:
If you don't get your hand off my leg, you're going to be wiping your ass with a hook next time you take a dump.
Amazing.
I give it a strong 8/10, will watch again, would recommend. It's just a stupid good time.
Stay spooky ya'll!
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