Amazon.co.uk Review
"I'm gonna scare the hell out of you" intones Stephen King in the trailer for his sole directorial effort, the much-maligned
Maximum Overdrive. While the end result doesn't live up to that boast, this SF/horror tale isn't as awful as it's been described. King's script (based on his short story "Trucks") focuses on the patrons of a North Carolina truck stop, which comes under attack by a convoy of trucks and other machines animated by Earth's passage through the tail of a "rogue comet".
King's fans, tired of half-baked screen adaptations such as Cujo and Children of the Corn, expected a horror home run from Maximum Overdrive and instead got an old-fashioned drive-in movie filled with car crashes, cheapjack gore and fart jokes. Needless to say, they stayed away in droves; the film's failure helped ruin producer Dino De Laurentiis's DEG Films and forced King sheepishly to claim that he had created a modern-day Plan Nine from Outer Space. While the film is torpidly paced and often amateurishly acted, it's no worse than any direct-to-video thriller, and King's ear for dialogue occasionally shines through the gloom. Emilio Estevez and Pat Hingle register as a heroic cook and his black-hearted boss, respectively; the cast includes Yeardley Smith (Lisa Simpson's voice), Giancarlo Esposito and Marla Maples as a victim. --Paul Gaita, Amazon.com
Synopsis
Stephen King directs, for the first time, this story of a crazy night-mare world which is slowly being overpowered by domestic machines, lawn mowers, soda dispensers etc. Soon the attacks become serious, building to a last-ditch stand against a horde of massive trucks. Soundtrack features AC/DC.
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