Maximum Overdrive

Good news / bad news -- Hollywood Video is going out of business. Of course, I don't rent from Hollywood Video, so for me it's goodnews/goodnews. They're selling the entire stock. So right now I have King movies all piled up. Summer is usually the time I buy a bunch of King movies, and so cheap DVDs are great. And, guess what they had. . . Maximum Overdrive. We're several days into the sale now, and no one has bought this. Hummm, I wonder why!

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My daughters and I watched this tonight. So, here is our review:

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The characters in this film are certainly not on their way to a Mensa convention. In fact, does anyone in this film have an IQ over 75?

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HITCHCOCK!

According to Creepshows by Stephen Jones (my favorite book on Stephen King movies), King said that the inspiration for the story came from Alfred Hitchcock's 1963 film The Birds. So, you get it, right? Birds go crazy and attack people -- machines go crazy and attack people. Subtle. In Stephen King Goes To Hollywood, another cool book, Jeff Conner says, "Like The Birds and Romero's Dead films, the storyline concerns those few plucky survivors; that group of disparate people thrown together in this trying time of fantastical crisis. yes, mayhem ensues." p.119

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Truth is, this isn't a very good film. I know that you're shocked. King said that a reviewer in New York gave it zero stars.

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But I like it. Here's why, in no particular order.

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1. This is so bad, it sinks to the level of Ed Wood bad. Which is a wonderful kind of bad to sink to. Not just any Ed Wood cross-dressing kind of bad. But the lofty position of Plan 9 From Outer Space kind of bad. So bad, it's good. After I wrote that, I read this quote from King in Creepshows, "There was a long period during post production when I thought I had made a worthy successor to Plan 9 from Outer Space." Creepshows, p.46

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2. It's not boring. Lots of action. My kids particularly liked it when the guy sprayed himself in the face with the gas hose. Brilliant. Remind me that when hiding from rogue cars, it is always a good idea to take refuge near a gas station.

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3. Lots of car chases and things blow up. Man food. Better yet, the woman in the cafe yelling at the sky is just great. You really need to see this film -- just for her.

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4. I like the green sky. What is this "comet" made of -- alien farts?

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5. How many movies start with the director getting told he's an a-hole? And, this is no ordinary director, it's the King of horror himself.

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6. No matter what you think of the movie, the AC/DC sound track is well done. My friend actually said that he wore his copy of the sound track out. I wonder if anyone wore their DVD's out.

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7. Listening to Yeardley Smith play a bride on her honeymoon is great. She screams more than Dakota Fanning in War of the Worlds. Of course, you know Yeardley Smith as the voice of Lisa Simpson.

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8. It's nice to peak in at the world of 1986. Very 80's film. I knew cars had changed, but I was unaware that gas pumps had changed so much.

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9. I wish I had seen this as a kid, then I would have had a story to go with all those toy trucks I crashed up -- other than "Crush-Up-Derby."

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10. It's like an evil episode of the Twilight Zone. Jeff Conner says in Stephen King Goes To Hollywood, "The Trucks story is a Twilight Zone kind of affair, pitting Mankind against suddenly sentient, and pissed off, semi-trucks; sort of a Night of the Living Big Rigs deal." p.119

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DVD QUESTIONS:

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Where is the directors commentary? I know King is a busy man, but this classic would be just great with his voice talking over it.

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Where is the "directors cut"? When the movie was rated by the MPAA, it was originally given an "X" for excessive violence. (that would be an NC-17 these days) To get it down to an "R", King chopped a couple of gore scenes.