Maximum Overdrive

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Has anyone seen the movie Maximum Overdrive based on the book by Stephen King?

Yeah. For some reason, it is considered one of the worst movies of all time. I don't know if it was THAT bad.

It didn't strike me as scary by any means. It just was creepy considering the fact that this all came from Stephen King's nightmares.

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Why try to talk to me about things you care about, when we could talk about things I care about

Actually, Maximum Overdrive was based on King's short story, Trucks, which was infinitely better than the movie. One of the failings of the movie was how King had to tack on a happy ending, whereas the story ends with the narrator pumping gas for a long line of self aware trucks, knowing that when he finally drops lifeless from exhaustion, another disposable human would take his place. Another failing was the beginning, with a cloud from space passing over the earth, and somehow causing the machines to come to life, perhaps sent by aliens. While in the short story, there is no real explanation why the trucks have suddenly come to life, except for the speculation by the narrator that we humans had over time given them a collective consciousness. I don't know why King had to butcher his own marvelous story, but one thing is for sure, King had no one else to blame for this stinker but himself.

I love 'Maximum Overdrive'. It used to be played on cable TV all the time when I was a kid and I saw it quite a few times. It was always intended to be a cheesy B-movie in the vein of the golden age of the '50s drive-in sci-fi/monster flicks and it, eh...more or less succeeded. It has its moments. I mean, AC/DC did the soundtrack, I hardly think King was trying to go for genuine scares.

I've heard bad reviews, but I've never heard it called one of the "worst movies of all time" before. Whoever called it that obviously doesn't watch a lot of bad movies, and has obviously watched even less of some of the other awful flicks and miniseries that King's name has been attached to. I'd much rather kill some time watching goofy fun like 'Maximum Overdrive' than being bored to death by the '90s 'Shining' miniseries, 'Desperation', 'Dreamcatcher', etc.

Or heck, does anyone even remember that 'Trucks' was re-adapted into a film in 1997? No, because it sucked. Watch that and you'll have a greater appreciation for Emilio Estevez shooting bazookas at demon big rigs to the tunes of AC/DC.

Maximum Overdrive is so awfully entertaining.

It just brings back really fond memories of my childhood when I used to stay up late watching low-budget horror movies on cable TV. They re-ran a lot of the same movies over and over again...I must have seen 'Phantasm II' more times than any other kid my age.

A smile came to my face when I saw this post title.

Maximum Overdrive is actually one of my favorite oddball/obscure movies in my collection. I even have an original 1980's VHS copy of it as well as a DVD copy. As a horror movie it fails miserably, but I view it as a black comedy and in doing so it is just an overall enjoyable movie for me. Stephen King was on cocaine during the filming of this movie which explains a lot of things about this movie.

I actually have that movie as well on DVD. I agree with your statement Skibz888, I don't like Trucks as much Maximum Overdrive. It lacks the cheesy charm of Maximum Overdrive. Maximum Overdrive had a much better variety of 'villeins'. From the Caterpillar D7 Bulldozer to the Mule to the Ice Cream truck with the kids trike in the grill to the Black Kenworth toy truck with the goblin face on the grill. All Trucks had was a Ford cherry picker, a GMC and Ford dump truck, and a Western Star refrigerator truck.
(can you tell that movies and motor vehicles are my aspie obsessions yet? )

I loved that movie, as a diesel mechanic, the goblin rig was my fav. Love the sound of that old Detroit Diesel it had under the hood. The old Mack wrecker was nice to, with its air powered starter. Also love the Phantasm movies that someone brought up, with the Tall Man and his flying death spheres. Mike

'Phantasm' is really quite amazing. I tout the first one as one of the most original and inventive horror movies of all time. The second one is less psychological and more schlocky, but it's still a great mess of gory fun. The third and fourth ones are pretty much for fans only, as the plot only got more convoluted and the production value got cheaper. It was a total shock to me that the fifth one finally got made, but I'm really quite skeptical since Don Coscarelli's not directing it, plus...uh...well, the original cast is kind of elderly at this point...

That's a film that I really wouldn't mind seeing remade by a studio, but it would be really hard to cast someone as iconic as Angus Scrimm was as The Tall Man.

Totally agree! I first saw Phantasm on cable as a kid while sleeping over with a friend, and I still remember the experience very well. I can't believe Angus Scrimm is still alive - how the hell old is he even?!?!

88, which isn't that bad. I've seen him pop up in the occasional horror film numerous times over the last decade and he's always looked pretty decent, in the sense that I could believe he could do 'Phantasm V' and not look all that different from how he did in part IV (with a little makeup, provided). However, in the teaser trailer, he just looks...old. I can look past it if the movie itself is good, though.

Holy crap! Has the new Phantasm movie come out yet?

Not yet. Apparently it was finished in March of this year and has been sitting on the shelf without an official release date.

Well, that must mean it's good, right?

Release it to the public to determine if it's good or not.

Eh, 9 times out of 10, movies which are kept on the shelf for a year or more are done so for a good reason. Every now and then you get a rare gem like 'Trick 'r Treat', but that's an exception to the rule.

However, 'Phantasm' has a built-in audience and there's already a guaranteed profit, so I'm assuming that maybe they just haven't found a good distribution deal. I have some friends who made a feature-length indie horror film which sat around for over two years after completion because they couldn't find a good DVD deal until a few months ago. I'm sure it's the same for 'Phantasm V'.