Review of Maximum Overdrive (1986) by Allan C — 14 Jun 2013

Stephen King is pretty self deprecating about his sole outing as a director, calling his film a "moron movie", but he's actually made a pretty entertaining film if you're in the mood for some entertaining cheese along the lines of a SyFy Channel movie, ala "Sharktopus" or "Alien Apocalypse".

The acting and dialogue are very stilted. There are more gaps in logic than are worth mentioning, although if that type of thing is going to bother you, you'd better just avoid this film altogether.

However, if you can get into the B Movie spirit of the film, it's a pretty fun ride about a group of survivors trapped in a truck stop diner that's under siege from a world where machines (truck, blow dryers, electric knives, etcâ¦) have become sentient and want to rebel against their human masters.

The best parts of the film are the small touches and ideas King litters throughout the film; the slow moving, blood splattered ice cream truck trolling neighborhoods with it's menacing calliope music, a mass of semis honking in chorus, the machine gun car communicating in morse code, lawn mowers lunging at their masters, or the opening scene when a draw bridge raises up while filled with cars.

It's not a King classic, but it's entertaining if taken on it's own level.