My favorite Stephen King film is probably Maximum Overdrive, with its Emilio Estevez “performance,” AC/DC soundtrack and Green Goblin truck mowing down everything in sight. That being said, Trucks, based on the same material, definitely isn’t.
I’m not sure who or what gave director Chris Thomsan and writer Brian Taggert the wherewithal to make their own version of King’s short story — I’m guessing the USA Network — but none of Overdrive’s very minimal star power, grinding soundtrack or Marvel Comics-inspired vehicular damage is present; instead, everything is replaced with Timothy Busfield and some people outrunning two or three trucks.
A sullen Busfield is Ray, a grease monkey with a not-so-sullen son, both mourning the death of their wife/mother. They run the local garage/diner and, I think, the town’s premier UFO tour with the incredibly bland Hope (Brenda Bakke). As she brings tourists to town, they run amok of the titular automobiles on the roadway, which eventually trap them in the small diner.
While Overdrive was literally filled with bloody gags — both the funny and the cruel kind — Trucks is more sputtering along a road of bloodless gugs, as each large vehicle saunters around the gas station, barely providing any true fear for the trapped veteran actors or hysterical newbies.
You’d think that remaking what many consider to be the worst King flick — again, not me — it would be nothing but up for all involved, but with Trucks, it’s somehow nothing but down — all the way down. —Louis Fowler