Trucks

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The movie that sets up the great Choppers vs Trucks War of 2006.

Trucks is what happens when you take a Stephen King story about murderous vehicles, remove most of the things that made it interesting, and then somehow replace them with even more nonsense. Like Maximum Overdrive before it, this adaptation manages to botch King's source material while still producing something that is far more entertaining than it has any right to be. The central problem remains the same: they're trucks. Just run away from them. Yet Trucks compensates for its complete lack of credible tension with bizarre decisions, ridiculous characters, and enough questionable filmmaking to make it an absolute gold mine for riffing.

The movie's biggest strength is that it understands, perhaps accidentally, that watching people hide from trucks isn't particularly exciting. Instead, it keeps throwing increasingly stupid complications at the survivors while the trucks continue doing truck things. There are moments where the movie seems to forget that these are supposed to be unstoppable killing machines and instead treats them like particularly aggressive parking-lot hazards. The result is a strange mixture of horror, action, and roadside slapstick where you can spend as much time wondering what the characters are doing as you do worrying about whether they'll survive.

It doesn't quite reach the deranged heights of Maximum Overdrive, which remains in a league of its own when it comes to bizarre performances, insane choices, and general "what the hell am I watching?" energy. But that's not necessarily a bad thing. Maximum Overdrive can become surprisingly tedious between its moments of glorious insanity, whereas Trucks keeps things moving and continually finds new ways to be ridiculous. It may not have a Green Goblin truck or an gatling gun vending machine, but it has its own special brand of nonsense that makes it extremely riffable. And, of course, Brenda Bakke is in it, which is always a point in its favor.

Ultimately, Trucks is a ton of fun for virtually any level of bad-movie fan. If you're looking for a faithful Stephen King adaptation, you're going to be disappointed. If you're looking for genuinely frightening killer vehicles, you're probably going to be disappointed. But if you want a cheap late-'90s made-for-TV horror movie where homicidal trucks chase people around while everyone makes questionable decisions, Trucks delivers the goods. It's not quite the same as Maximum Overdrive, but it doesn't need to be. It's goofy, dumb, surprisingly watchable, and packed with enough material to keep a group of riffers busy from beginning to end.

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