Maximum Overdrive (1986)

"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 sci-fi/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 like 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 to sheepishly 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. Anchor Bay's letterboxed print is the R-rated theatrical version; the film was cut extensively after receiving an X rating for violence. The original trailer and a thorough biography on King are also included. --Paul Gaita Amazon.com

maximum overdrive review

i had been looking for this movie for weeks. a friend of mine suggested trying google to find it. there it was. this movie is a classic. November 26, 2008

B Movie

So many ppl give this movie a bad review, but really what did you expect? Its about killer trucks ppl, isnt that crazy enuf for ppl to understand ur not guna get riveting story telling and acting, but if you want one of the best b movies this is it! Bad acting, horrible accents, over kill on the blood, and yeardley smith...This will always be my fav movie, you dont think, you just watch...better than putting in some movie thats trying to be the most amazing thing youve ever watch, and it being full of holes, mistakes and errors. September 30, 2008

What Were You Expecting?

You read the box; knew what the premise of the movie was. Why the petulance? This movie is a classic cheese fest with good performances throughout.

Pros: Decent acting, hilarious plot, unforgettable neighborhood sequence, awesome soundtrack, great pacing, awesome atmosphere, uproarious ending.

Cons: The suspension of disbelief can be hard to swallow at times, but try and you will reap rewards.

Whatever, this movie is awesome. I recommend it with friends, but, hey, its entertaining on its own. Good MST3000 material. January 10, 2008

It was good until

This movie is considered one of the worst films of all time. Well the first half hour was pretty good and then it all went to hell from there. The newlywed couple were very annoying and the gerenade launcher was stupid. Pat Hingle puts on a great performance in a lackluster movie. September 25, 2007

Your Momma!

Maximum Overdrive has earned a place in movie history as a dud, both critically and commercially(my memory's not too good on this, but I do believe it did so-so at the box office). I guess expectations were high considering Stephen King was taking on writing and directing credits himself. People had been complaining for so long about how other directors and writers had botched King's works when adapting them for the big screen that it seemed like a great idea to have King himself have free reign over one of his stories. The results? Not what people were expecting. I think a big reason this movie failed is because people were expecting a truly frightening film from King. I mean, Stephen King is a household name and is synonymous with some of the most well known horror stories of all time. Even someone who's never read a book in their lives knows this. One can only assume that expectations for this film might have been a little high. Much to everybody's shock and disappointment, King turned out, not a nail biting tale of terror, but a campy drive-in B movie! Stephen King is a man with a sense of humor. Even in his scariest novels he can't resist cracking a joke wherever he can. His black humor can be found in practically everything he does. He's even described himself as the "literary equivalent of a Big Mac and fries". When this film came out he described it as a "cinematic equivalent of a Big Mac and fries". Now, you take the subject matter of Maximum Overdrive(kind of a cross between Night of the Living Dead and King's own Christine) and you gotta think to yourself, "could this really be scary?" Of course not. No director could make such a ridiculous concept rise above the level of B movie status, not even Stephen King. A story like this plays out a bit scarier on the printed page than it does on the screen. King isn't a moron, and seemed well aware of this. Obviously his intent wasn't to make a scary film , otherwise he would have chosen a totally different story to make a film out of. The first few minutes of the movie set the tone as King tries to get money from a profanity spewing ATM machine. Then, during a pileup on a malfunctioning bridge, what appears to be a human head flies through a car's windshield, but you soon see it was only a watermelon. It's all camp, folks. And I'm not sure audiences knew exactly how to take this. So this was horror master Stephen King's directorial debut? Was he making a comedy?? Or was this just a really bad attempt at a horror film? Most people thought it was the latter, and just filed it away as a miserable failure. King has since disowned this movie and hasn't made one since, probably never will. Hey, if he's unhappy with it, then he's unhappy with it. I like it personally. It's certainly not perfect. It's a bit slow at times and alot of the characters are kinda blah, but it is a fun B movie. It's got some over the top gore, some hilarious lines, some catchy tunes, and of course, no redeeming value whatsoever. Big Mac and fries indeed. August 20, 2007

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