Rating: 
Summary: Essential Post-Blackout viewing
Review: Anyone caught in the Blackout of 2003 must surely have thought of this movie. When the T.V. stopped working, the familiar drone of the fridge was eerily gone and trucks kept rumbling by on the unlit streets... all that was missing was the psychotic roar of a lawnmower springing to life and chasing you down the street!
I have two confessions to make.
1) I hate almost all Stephen King adaptions except two.
2) The two I like are Carrie and Maximum Overdrive.Maximum Overdrive is a great film (hear me out before clicking on the "Unhelpful review" button!).
First of all, it is set in a situation that we can all relate to, everyday life in an urban environment, compare this with an empty hotel at the top of a mountain for example.
It preys on one of our biggest 21st Century fears, that we are no longer in control of our environment. Humankind has become so detached from the everyday rigours of surviving that our ancestors went through that we have no idea what we would do if our civilization broke down. No electricity, no fridge, no food, no machines, no information, no phones. Maximum Overdrive brings these fears to life, and then adds the horrific twist, that the machines then turn on their masters, although slightly after the Terminator franchise had started rolling. Surely this fear is easier to relate to than that the girl you bully at school may turn out to possess supernatural powers she can deploy for revenge purposes...
The movie also deals with alienation while in an urban environment. Like the group stuck in the mall in George Romero's "Dawn of the Dead", the people isolated in the truck stop are at once in a familiar environment, and at the same time stuck in a totally foreign world, making it easier for the viewer to relate, and amplifying the horror felt watching it.
The best bits of the film occur in the opening sequences, when the machines go crazy, decimating the world's humans. The middle section deals with the increasing tensions between the people caught in the truck seige and the final part deals with their escape and eventual triumph over the machines, culminating in Emilio Estevez's final, hilarious quote...
Maximum Overdrive is a fantastic modern horror movie, bringing terror to familiar situations, and Post-Blackout, I recommend you watch this movie again and allow yourself to think "What if..."
Rating: 
Summary: [not good]
Review: WELL WHERE DO I BEGIN? THIS MOVIE [is not good] HOW ABOUT THAT? - THE STORY WAS GOOD IDEA BUT THEY MADE THE FILM HORRIBLE- ONLY GOOD SCENE OUTA WHOLE FILM WAS WHEN THE SODA CANS FLEW AT THE KIDS- OH MAN THOSE TRUCKS WERE SO STUPID AND EMILIO ESTEVEZ AND HIS STUPID CREW - THEY HAD SOME OF THE UGLIEST CHICKS IVE EVER SEEN IN THIS MOVIE AND THEY HAD A DUMB REDNECK GANG OF DUDES- wow ive never seen more annoying characters in a movie than (( MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE))THIS TAKES THE CAKE. THIS IS ON SAME LEVEL AS (( PYTHON)). STEPHEN KING UR A GOOD DIRECTOR AND ACTOR BUT COME ON - this is nuts. OH BOY THESE CHARACTERS WERE BAD. THE TRUCKS WERE DUMB ALSO , and acting bad. i cant imagine anyone liking this film except for 13 yr olds and rednecks. big beer drinkin rednecks. trust me this movie is a waste of ur time. THE AC/DC WAS COOL AT FIRST THEN IT GOT ANNOYING jesus ive had enough ac/dc.enough hicks/etc.. thank god i said when movie ended THANK U VERY MUCH AND HAVE A NICE DAY
Rating: 
Summary: Stephen King, the director
Review: This was King's one and only stab at being at hollywood director (so far), and the trailer has him saying he will "scare the hell out of you, and that's a promise." That promise wasn't exactly "kept", but that didn't hurt the movie too much. It involves a comet that will be real close to the earth for the next eight days. In fact, too close. It causes machines all over the planet to function on their own, and they appear to be fed up with be the slaves of mankind. Next thing you know, we've got everything from drawbridges to vending machines going berserk and attacking humans. At the Dixie Boy truck stop, about a 12 big trucks come to life and encircle the resturant full of people inside, like Emilio Estevez, Pat Hingle, one VERY dumb waitress, who takes every chance she get's to shout at the trucks, "We made you!", and alot of others who meet quite gruesome ends. There's something here for everyone; there's horror, comedy, action, suspense, romance, etc. Even the soundtrack is cool, since it was done entirely by AC DC
Rating:
Summary: "Jesus is coming and he is @#$$#@!"
Review: In 1987, a comet will pass close to the Earth, and the planet will be enveloped in its tail. During the next seven or eight days, all machines go wacky, and rebel against their human masters. The patrons and workers of a truck stop must band together to fight off the killer trucks, electric knives, arcade games, vending machines, etc. to stay alive and find out what is causing this mess. Finally, a not so rare version of the cult classic! Anchor Bay has done a splendid job with this box-office bomb (yet one of my favorite films), from the disc (that looks like the front of the toy company truck),The chapter card/poster replica, the menus(the main menu and extras menu include the two main AC/DC songs from the film, but the main menu is the only place on the disc where you will hear the entire "Shook Me All Night Long" instead of just music snippets like on other discs from big-name companies), video, sound, and extras, which is my only gripe: NOT ENOUGH! Sure, a trailer and King bio are good, but what about commentary (I'm sure that Emilio Estevez, Yeardley Smith, and Stephen King would have been up to it, don't you?), still galleries, TV spots, behind the scenes,interviews, the whole nine yards? Anchor Bay should consider doing a special edition of this title(along with My Science Project, Condorman, and any title that doesn't have extras. Sure, I'd like a DVD of my favorite movie as much as the next guy, but I'd like my movies with at least a trailer and commentary, or just a trailer would be fine). Anyway, they did a good job on a (critically) ... movie. MAXIMUM OVERDRIVE
(1986, R)
Bill: Emilio Estevez
Hendershot: Pat Hingle
Brett: Laura Harrington
Connie: Yeardley Smith
Curtis: John Short
Wanda June: Ellen McElduff Director: Stephen King
Writer: Stephen King Disc Review (1 the lowest, 5 the highest)
Movie: 4
Sound: 5
Video: 5
Extras: 2
Menus: 4.5
Overall: 4
Rating:
Summary: One of the WORST movies EVER made.
Review: One of the only films I've ever walked out of - and I got in for free. The music soundtrack was great though, but just pull out your old AC/DC albums instead. This movie was utter garbage.
Rating:
Summary: Four for gore!
Review: I was really glad to see one of my favorite splatter flicks from my young years finally released on DVD. The only complaint I have is that there are no extras on the disc. Also, it would have been nice if the "ultra-violent" version that Stephen King had originally wanted was present on the disc instead of the theatrical release.
Rating:
Summary: Cheesy but entertaining
Review: Okay the concept is a little bit out there, but I loved this movie. It's cheesy, and the acting is stiff, but the silly story makes up for it. The special effects are decent for an 80's flick. You may have to suspend belief a bit to enjoy this but it's a definate saturday night and bored out of your mind movie.
Rating:
Summary: Not bad but the soundtrack is awesome
Review: This movie is pretty cool.I love the soundtrack,if your an
AC/DC fan you'll love the soundtrack.The soundtrack is also
one of AC/DC'S studio albums "Who made Who".
I wonder if Stephen King is an AC/DC fan.Some of his movie's
can be far fetched and cheesie.But at least they only had one
good actor in this film, Emilio Estevez.
I love some of King's movie's but this movie has the best
soundtrack ever.Overall I gave this movie 4 stars because
of the soundtrack and it's got some action,suspense and
most of all it's considered a horror movie.It's really
not scary at all but it's pretty cool.
Rating: 
Summary: Stephen King probably should've let somebody else direct!
Review: The idea of machines coming to life and killing people does not sound scary, but I consider it a great idea. This movie lacks intelligence though, most of the characters act pretty stupid. Another bad thing is that most of the movie takes place at a truck stop and once the machines come to life, everyone runs to the truck stop! It would've been interesting to see more of the carnage caused by the machines in other places{You do, but not for very long}. It seems that only the trucks are coming to life and not the cars. You see a steamroller in one scene and a lawnmower later but Stephen must be very fond of trucks. He must also be very fond of truck stops because by the time all the main characters arrive that's all we'll see until they escape.It's quite obvious they're going to make it because lo and behold, there is an armory under the truck stop! They get away on a boat at the end. Wouldn't the boats be coming to life too? I give it three stars for great idea, great action, and ACDC.(I don't know what heck I was thinking when I wrote this, this movie SUCKS!!
Rating:
Summary: GREAT OPENING
Review: But it's all downhill from there on. For about 20 minutes this movie promises to be cool and funny thru-out but quickly becomes boring and stupid. The characters just do not use simple logic and it is way hard to side with them. I really did want the trucks to run them over. -Beware, there may be some spoilers here.- Everyone at the truck stop knows that Mr. Hendershot has a truckload of weapons and rocket launchers in the basement. So why don't they just use them against the trucks? Duh? The dialogue [is bad] too. There is not one memorable line in the entire movie. And the acting is sporadically bad. The girl who becomes Emilio Estevez's girlfriend is very beautiful but she cannot act her way out of a linen closet. The pointless AC/DC soundtrack is totally worthless and contributes ZERO to the film. For Spiderman fans (like me) there is a bonus tho, as there is a huge face of the Green Goblin on the toy truck. But that's still no reason to watch this farce. The reason these trucks are coming to life is because the earth is caught in the tail of a comet (which we never see) and all machines are rebelling against mankind. We don't see many other machines other than the trucks but it turns out that it was all just a plot by aliens to sweep us off the planet. This is unseen also, we are simply told this from words on the screen at the end of the movie. COME ON! Stephen King should stick to writing as he has handled this film VERY badly and this is very strange as he should know how to transfer his book to film. There is another movie version called TRUCKS. Perhaps you should check that out instead as I cannot imagine anything being worse than this. I do think that if John Carpenter directed this film it could have been cool, but let's just forget about it¡¦quickly. The DVD is in remastered Dolby 5.1(from the original Stereo tracks) and is anamorphically enhanced at 2.35:1.
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