If you're looking for a horror movie so bad that you are reduced to laughter, then Trucks is for you. If you're looking for a 'good' movie, you're in the wrong place. Check it out, and pay special attention to my favorite character, the little remote controlled truck - vicious little guy. Think a low budget Maximum Overdrive. It's not well written, well acted or even a well conceived idea, but it's fun if you're looking for a laugh with friends. It's possibly one of the worst movies I've stumbled across at the video store. I enjoy introducing my friends to the wonder that is the ridiculous level of idiocy in this movie. Grab some popcorn and enjoy.

This movie is based on a Stephen King short story which surprisingly isn't about a writer in Maine who is stuck for ideas, which is his usual hero. Instead there's some people in a truck stop who get menaced by trucks that come alive. Already you've got a plot that wouldn't look out of place in a Garth Marengi novel.

In the short story there is little explanation as to why the trucks have turned hostile and that kind of works, well it works better than any explanation a rational person could come up with because it's patently a bit silly. Better to just leave it as a mystery hey? So what does the movie do? Delves right in there looking for answers.

Various explanations come up, each more risible than the last. One fat guy thinks the trucks have come alive because of pollution or something, someone else thinks its to do with aliens. What I love best about the explanations is the way the actors look totally shamefaced as they say their lines. They know this is the lowest point in their probably now dead careers.

You've already got one shiny nugget of comedy gold right there even before you factor in the bad acting but wipe it against your sleeve and you'll see it really shines with much more.

A guy gets attacked with the most rubber looking axe in the history of film making. Honestly, I swear I had to watch that bit five times. Another guy gets attacked by a toy truck he could easily drop kick across the street and has to pretend to be knocked over so it can ram him in the head a few times.

This is priceless straight-faced comedy the like of which you rarely see these days. It's so poor it really deserves a 1 but I can't bring myself to give it less than 2 because it made me laugh so much.

If you love bad movies this one needs to be on your shelf. I would love to have seen Stephen Kings face when he first saw this aired.

A group of people at a truck stop are terrorized by possessed trucks.

This is another attempt at Stephen Kings' short story. But this time,with few exceptions, only the trucks are possessed. No evil electrical knives.pop machines, or arcade machines. Its not as entertaining as Maximum Overdrive,but it is still interesting. Except, we still have truck drivers who cant out think or out maneuver a bunch of lumbering trucks. Bob and Pete;quit looking at Hopes' ass,get out there and start puttin' crowbars in radiators. Then blind them by smashing out their headlights. A running man can accomplish this in no time flat.

Gene Pyrz drives the Western Star 18 wheeler.

An Unknown Actor drives the Freightliner chemical big rig.

That Unknown Actor and Gene Pyrz are permanent A list actors.

Brenda Bakke and Sharon Bajor are hot.

Brenda Bakkes' performance was outstanding!!

erldwgstruckermovies.com

It's not a remake of Maximum Overdrive, it's an unmake - what that film should have been.

Trucks is based pretty closely on the short story, which is one of King's best in his Nightshift collection.

The action is constant. It never lets up. And for a TV movie, there seems a lot of explosions, or budget in other words. Apart from The Car (1977), or Killdozer (1974), it's a unique movie - well, trinique - being the only films of vehicular possession that I recall. Woops I forgot Christine (1983). Quadnique.

A few times it snaps reality, when, I think, adding ideas King maybe didn't.

It was a relief and pleasure seeing the ideas King developed faithfully appear as the movie progressed, making me remember the story I read ages ago. The acting, especially at-times-terror-stricken Timothy Busfield, and character, is de-fine.

And about the people who can't believe it, or the intriguing and various hard trying attempts at explanation, which added more fun, depth, and reality to the black magic of the story, I think of what Stephen King said when he heard of people who can't believe in these stories:

I feel a kind of sadness.

Now if they just unmake The Mangler in the same way, which was the best story in that book...

Stephen King's sole directorial effort MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE (1986) apparently wasn't silly enough (or didn't bomb hard enough) to kill the will of producers to remake his short story "Trucks" just over a decade later. In this incarnation, folks are held captive by the title beasts in a rustic truck stop run by Ray (Timothy Busfield). This was made-for- TV with a low budget and is decidedly less goofy so one has to wonder, "Why bother?" I mean, outside of the obvious, "We'll put Kings name on it and make a ton of money." The cast of mostly Canadians is fine and the illogical scenes are abound (if machines are turning on you, why is your plan to ride a motorcycle to steal a helicopter from the Army base? ). The funniest bit is a truck using its mirrors to spy on someone and then trying to play it off when someone catches it. And since when do cars with unexplained sentient powers need to see from the driver's viewpoint? There are a few gory and unrelated kill scenes that look like they were added in post-production, seemingly confirmed by an "additional scenes" end credit. Interestingly, they were produced by William (SCARECROWS) Wesley.

Why bother re-making 'Maximum Overdrive'? This is just another of the universe's imponderables, but stick with this movie, your patience will be rewarded with what must be the funniest movie death ever: a gormless mailman is battered to death by a Tonka toy, and the gore sprays like raspberry jam from a doughnut. In the cast is the marvellous Brendan Fletcher, one of the finest actors of his generation, and again the question recurs:WHY WHY WHY?

You heard me. It's so bad. The way the cars honk at each other to communicate will make you laugh. If you want to see a movie where a spirit possesses an unmoving object and kills people, see Child's Play. Don't waste your gas seeing this movie (pun intended).

Director Chris Thomsen does superb work in bringing the Stephen King story to the screen as a truly exciting work of cinema. With excellent special effects and stunning cinematography, this is what King's own directorial effort with Maximum Overdrive should have been. Here, King's vision is fleshed out and fully realized as never before. The cast is terrific as well, with Timothy Busfield giving one of his most powerful performances. The tension is unrelenting and beyond endurance at times but those who stay with this fine film until its shattering climax will be richly rewarded by the incredible cinematic experience that is Trucks.

What do you say when you seem to be one of the few people who enjoyed a particular film, and everone eles loathed? I loved the acting, the charecters and the action scenes, but so many others have blasted this film. I guess all I can say is, rent this one and see what you think. It's definetly worth a look, at least.

I guess it's safe to say that "loosely based" is a good thing. What I'm talking about is that, according to Wikipedia, Maximum Overdrive (which is an EXCELLENT movie) was "loosely based" on the short story "Trucks". I don't really know if this story was meant as a remake of MO, but it should have been left in the can and burned. The acting is deplorable, and overall just not worth wasting your time on. For a really good "killer vehicle" movie, take this back to the video store and exchange it for MO...you'll be glad you did. In fact, break the disc on the way there and tell them it was damaged when you got home..that way no one ELSE will make the mistake of renting it.

Trucks does stephen king very little justice. It is a film about a small town of people terrorized by unmanned trucks. It is basically a standard length movie, it is compiled of a cast including sharon Bajer and Jay Brazeau. It also has a notable Cameo of Alexander Cowan who is the lead guitarist in the group "Michelle Bear" This film has a number of parts which somewhat resemble maximum overdrive, including the truckstop e.t.c. But I watched this film and now that it is over I am anxiously awaiting a sequel.

TRUCKS is based loosely on Stephen King's short story of the same name. This same story line was used in MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE(1986), so I guess this is a cheap remake for TV. Toned down language; violence is throttled. There seems to be a lack of power...no overdrive. And trucks...dump trucks, tanker trucks, wrecker trucks, semi-trucks mysteriously take control of themselves and run amok attacking their owners and drivers. A group of people are trapped in a truck stop and it isn't Emilio Estevez to the rescue, but a more mature Timothy Busfield. Busfield tries to convince trapped vacationers, truck drivers and some good-old-boys to stay calm until a plan for a rescue is devised. Let's see...let them run out of gas, duh. How about shooting out their headlights, so they can't see where they are going. Like I said, the excitement and urgency of MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE is not here. Rounding out the cast: Brenda Bakke, Victor Cowie, Brendan Fletcher, Amy Stewart and Jonathan Barrett.

Trucks! "U-Turn U-Die!" More like "U-CRAP U-WORSE THAN 2FAST 2FURIOUS" If you watch this film you will want to shoot the television. If you are a Steven king fan you will want to shoot the television and shoot the producer. If you like the story however, you will still hate this movie. One could say that it is not a bad movie, in the same way Hitler was fond of fluffy kittens and donating to charity. This film is terrible, but it has one strong point, it has the temptation no other crappy horror film that i have ever seen has. It makes you want to keep wasting it. Hit it with an axe. Time and time again and you will never get bored.

I'm sorry to say this but, this movie is one of the worst movies I've seen so far. And that includes the movie with the magic crab that brings you loooove ... I'm a BIG Stephen King fan (Much to my brothers discomfort), and I defend him EVERY single time my bro tells me that he's the "King of bad-horror movies". Because that's not true, and Stephen King so does not deserve it. But this movie, it's just .. a bad horror movie. But then again, I'm not sure that he has so much to do with this movie, more than that it's his story it's based on. But hello, honking trucks that can drive their self and want to kill everything in it's way, I just don't find it scary, I Actually find it hilarious. But that's just me. But I practically laughed my ass of for an whole half an hour because of this film. And I think, the funniest must have been all the roaring the trucks did, it was freaking hilarious! But there was one great scene thought, the one with the plastic toy truck kills the mailman. I loved it. I just loved it.

I bought this movie not knowing exactly what it was about, and buying it, it something I really don't recommend if you're not a big Stephen King fan.

But I give it credit thought for the good laugh, and maybe the 1 or 2 so good scenes.

Dear brother, and everyone else out there who wants to teach us Stephen King fans that he suck or anything else. It's so not worth it, so don't bother, because we wont listen. Right guys?

No really, you have to see this movie. If for no other reason than all the awful reviews. I actually enjoyed this movie. It was entertaining. I liked the characters. They made sense... well I guess if you consider the trucks as characters that kinda makes my statement invalid. I swear, the Sci-fi channell looks for the worst movies ever. I am, however, standing by my review: not worse than "Night Shift". I'd even say it was better than that because the characters were entertaining. There was nothing good about "Night Shift". It was horrible. You should really see that one too. Awful. Nothing redeemable in "Night Shift".

Trucks starts in a junk yard just outside the small American town of Lunar whose only claim to fame is that it is located near the infamous Government/Military facility Area 51. As Phil (Harry Neeken) the owner goes about his business an old rusty wreck of a truck suddenly develops a life of it's own & kills Phil. A short time after a large refrigerated truck seems to take control of itself & locks it's driver (Gene Pyrz) in it's trailer & sets off for the nearby town of Lunar where the local mechanic Ray (Timothy Busfield) his son Logan (Brendan Fletcher), two truck drivers Bob (Aidan Devine) & Pete (Rick Skene) are trapped inside the towns diner run by George (Victor Cowie) by the numerous trucks that have gathered & now circle outside ready to run anyone down stupid enough to leave the diner. Meanwhile a guide named Hope (Brenda Bakke) & three hikers on a camping trip Jack (Jay Brazeau), Thad (Roman Podhora) & his young bratty daughter Abby (Amy Stewart) stumble across Phil & are almost killed themselves by a truck, upon their return to Lunar & the diner they discover that all the trucks in the area seem to have a life of their own & aren't friendly towards humans...

This Canadian made-for-cable TV production was directed by Chris Thompson & is pretty average stuff although I liked it in a dumb sort of way, I suspect the only real reason I say that is because I was in a good mood when I watched it. The script by Brian Taggert based on the short story by Stephen King has obvious similarities to King's own Maximum Overdrive (1986) & in fact could easily be described as a remake. A remake of Maximum Overdrive? Great, just what the world needed! I will say no more & concentrate on the film in hand, Trucks moves along at a fair pace to start with but slows down considerably as our bunch of stranded clichéd character's emote with each other & seem to sort all their personal problems out, you know the sort of thing Father makes peace with Daughter whom he has neglected blah blah blah you can probably fill in the blanks yourself. Besides this no explanation is given for anything that happens in the film whatsoever, can someone please tell me why every truck in Lunar & the surrounding area suddenly develop the power to drive, think & even communicate with each other? Why can't they attack the diner & motel rooms? Why do they just circle it for hours? Why does this mysterious force not effect normal cars & motorbikes? What has the mysterious Area 51 have to do with anything? So many questions so few answers... Now for the (slightly) good stuff, namely the scene where the toy dump-truck comes to life attacks & kills an unlucky postman by ramming his ankles & then repeatedly driving into his head! This is a scene that words can't do justice to, by the end of the scene the toy truck is covered in blood & bits of flesh! There is another scene in which a contamination suit comes to life & hacks two men to death with an axe in the films only gory moment, I have no idea why an empty suit would inflate, start walking around & killing people with an axe I just don't & I doubt anyone involved with Trucks did either. What it all boils down to is that Trucks isn't a masterpiece but it just about kept me entertained for 100 odd minutes in a silly lame sort of way. Trucks was made-for-TV & it shows with it's bland cinematography, low key small scale stunts & action scenes which consist mostly of trucks smashing into plywood buildings, forgettable music & a general OK but nothing special feel about it. The acting is average & of TV soap opera quality. Maybe I'm being a bit lenient on Trucks but I found it a fairly decent watch if nothing spectacular, I don't think I'd sit through it again anytime soon. Worth a watch just for the scene when the toy truck smashes the postman's head in, although the scene itself is psychically impossible as a plastic truck simply wouldn't have the weight to generate the forward momentum need to crush someone's skull, would it? Then again it is only a film...

Trucks. Another faithful Stephen King adaptation that doesn't work.

Compared to this work, Maximum Overdrive RAWKED!! It was a GREAT movie based on Stephen King's "Trucks." Stephen King even wrote the screenplay for it which is a complete surprise to me, since I normally deTEST his screenplay translations/adaptations of his literary work.

Not only did he write the original work, "Trucks," but he directed the movie Maximum Overdrive, and had a bit part in it. This made for TV version, called..."Trucks," is about as well done as a piece of Steak Tartare.

The acting is shallow and campy, the characters possess about as much depth as a child's wading pool and I'm SO SORRY, but I needed to hear Yeardley Smith (Connie) screaming, "CURRRRRTIS! ARE YOU DA-YED???!!!"

Brian Taggert should be writing greeting cards and Chris Thomson should be directing TRAFFIC somewhere in the rain with no hat! Trucks lost a lot in the translation. A LOT.

While Maximum Overdrive was not billed as highly as it should have been, this remake makes Maximum Overdrive look like Stewart's "It's A Wonderful Life," in comparison.

Aaaand, I'm not even a casual fan of Emillio Estevez but Timothy Busfield?! Jeez, why not get Steve Webber? Wait!!...you already DID that. *coughs* The 1997 Made 4 TV Shining Remake *coughs*

The cellphones are from the '80's as they attempted to "date" this piece to compete with Maximum Overdrive. Why, I'll never know. It's no where near the same level of excitement. Yeardley Smith MADE that movie. Without her, it's just some dumb truck movie.

It's probably not as bad as all that. But compared to the movie it's supposed to "remake," it ranks down there with Mom and Dad Saved the World.

Sorry Timothy Busfield fans...wait...are there any?, but it just reeks.

Amy Stewart's and Brendan Fletcher's characters were the only ones which had any depth or believability to them, whatsoever. Their performances were rich as French Roast in comparison to the rest, and that ain't saying much.

It has some good spots, but it just isn't much of anything. When the TonkaT truck is killing the Postal Guy, we laughed uproarously. It was campy and puerile and we couldn't help but laugh. We actually rented this movie, to write this review. Poor us. *lol* And tell me this...Just how many times can you chop someone with an axe in the SAME place without going more than 1" deep? C'MON! *lol* The axe actually FLEXED in it's plasticity right there in front of our EYES! WoW this movie was baaaad!! Okay, wow. And when the truck drove through the old man who'd been Ray's Father's service mate? The CGI is so bad, you can literally SEE the truck drive straight through the old guy, and the guy's feet are still THERE IN THE SHOT!! *lmao* We laughed SO HARD.

If you're bored and there's absolutely nothing else to do, clean your house, clean out the garage or worm your cat, but DON'T see this movie.

"They're getting smart!" "Well, we gotta stay smarter." *lmao* Wow, with dialogue like this, no wonder it currently has 3.3/10 stars with the IMDb.

The pivotal moments are weak and as flaccid as overcooked pasta, as the cast embers are picked off one at a time for utter stupidity.

And the ending? WHAT ENDING??? WT...?!?!

If you like this movie, see a shrink. Okay, okay, there's no accounting for taste. If you LIKE this movie, check out Maximum Overdrive. It's much, MUCH better.

I was going to give it a half a point out of 10. I don't know why it gets that much; perhaps in memory of Maximum Overdrive, a MUCH BETTER MOVIE!

But because of the really botched ending, it gets absolutely NOTHING (that's 0.0/10) from...

the Fiend :.

Let me start off by saying this: I love Stephen King! He's one of my all-time favorite writers, and no one else can match his imagination. Now, many of his novels and short stories have been turned into films. Some are great, some are so-so, some are bad, and some are horrifically bad. Unfortunately, this film falls into the latter category. Both this film, and 1986's "Maximum Overdrive" were based on a short story that King had published. Many, many people have claimed that "Maximum Overdrive" is the all-time worst Stephen King adaptation ever made. In my personal opinion however, that's really unfair. Because trust me, you can do a WHOLE lot worse than "Maximum Overdrive". I've seen many Stephen King movies over the years, and I must say: this movie is beyond a shadow of a doubt, the worst one I've ever seen in my life! Worse than "It", worse than "The Tommyknockers", worse than "Sleepwalkers", worse than "Golden years", worse than "Thinner", worse than all those movies combined! If you think that "Maximum Overdrive" is King's worst, then you clearly haven't seen any of the movies I mentioned previously, or this movie. comparing "Maximum Overdrive" to this film, is like comparing a Calzone to a Totino's pizza roll! The reason why "Trucks" fails where "Maximum Overdrive" succeeds, is because "Max" doesn't take itself seriously. The concept is ridiculous, so it just has has fun with it. which is basically what the movie is, a "turn your brain off" fun movie. "Trucks" is about as "fun" as watching paint dry! "Trucks" also plays the concept totally straight. I suppose they were trying to make it scary, but it's not, it's just stupid! Not to mention the fact, that the film lacks everything that made "Max" good. No good actors, no intriguing characters, no awesome soundtrack, and no big bad killer truck! I can only guess what the filmmakers were trying to accomplish with this movie. Maybe they thought "Maximum Overdrive" was a mistake, and were trying to make up for it, but you can't make up for a "mistake", by making a bigger, far worse, one!

This movie truly sucks! Nothing happened! It was the longest 100 minute movie I've ever seen. But the extremely high level of suck is not completely consistent. There are two hilarious scenes (one involving a remote control truck the other an axe). If you have the misfortune of having rented this piece of crap search through and watch these two scenes for a few laughs.

Say, do you remember that below par Stephen King flick about all machines going mad and killing people that King directed himself-- Maximum Overdrive? Well, take the same basic plot, remove Emilio Estevez from the lead, and King as director, and oh yea, one more thing, attempt to make a silly story into a serious film, and then you'll have Trucks! I wasn't a huge fan of Maximum Overdrive, but at least King redeemed himself by admitting he was merely attempting to make a junk movie for the fun of it. This appeared to be a serious attempt at making the King short story of the same name, Trucks, into something it was never meant to be. The homicidal soda machine and profane ATM provided moments of comic relief in Maximum Overdrive, Trucks however has nothing of this sort.(I doubt it had the budget for these types of special effects) If you catch this gas of a flick on TV just keep on Truckin' to the next channel.

Okay, I watched this movie today, and I hated it. It's like someone thought that it was a good idea to take EVERYTHING that was bad about the far superior "Maximum Overdrive", and put it into this movie. It is my opinion that this movie is just one big carbon copy of Stephen King's aforementioned work... Only with a MUCH smaller budget, worse actors, and no AC/DC. Save yourself some time and rent the original.

I love this movie! Yes it is "camp" and not scary but it's still entertaining in my opinion. Best screamers in film here. Great acting for a nonsense type movie. Love the lady who helped at the trucks, "we made you!!!!!" I pull it off the shelf every so often, enjoy some wine and popcorn and escape the travails of the real world for a little while.

I recently bought this film on DVD, and I have to say it's a great movie. This film is some what a remake of Maximum Overdrive (1986), a film Stephen King wrote and directed, but disrespected the original story, Trucks. Now this movie is more like the story, and at least this time the same title was used. There was no Green Goblin truck this time, I thought that was stupid, and this time the lead truck so to speak is a huge white freezer semi. The film ended the same way I was gonna do if I were to write a Trucks 2 screenplay, with the helicopter, but I guess that's trash in my book. I watched it twice now, and have an urge to watch it again.

In this riveting tale, semi-trucks take over a gas station and trap several people inside. Character development is both interesting and uniquely presented to the viewer. Special effects are Grammy caliber. The powerful acting of the lead actress, Sharon Bajer, will keep you on the edge of your seat throughout the films entirety. The movie portrays the viewpoint of the truckers as they cope with the loss of their trucks to the evil Refrigerator Truck who is the Lord of Evil Trucks. A heartwarming display of a father's fight to save his son is manifested by the lead actor Timothy Busfield will bring tears to your eyes and bring you back to the days when YOUR father saved you from killer trucks and other inanimate objects of Satanic proportions. Truly a must see film.

As a side note: I know Timothy Busfield.

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs

I saw this movie at a hotel I was staying at on friday night,passingly as I thought I might as well.Stephen King seems to not be doing himself many favours by so constantly having his name plastered on direct-to-video horror duds,and I'm sorry to say that this is certainly no exception to the rule at all.I don't know that much about the film 'Maximum Overdrive'yet that is the film title so constantly thrown up whenever I read a review of the movie.As a film on it's own,I personally thought Trucks made very little sense indeed.The motivation behind the trucks getting up and wreaking havoc is never explained,and the ending is pitifully resolved.As I am actually reviewing the movie 2 days prior to having seen it,a lot of it has faded from my mind now,which is to say Trucks was rather unmemorable on just about every level.*