Review of Maximum Overdrive (1986) by Michael M — 15 Apr 2013

This is basically the definition of a midnight movie (in fact, I first discovered it at 1am on TV). It's certainly a bad movie, but it's not a badly made movie. It's competently directed, there are some decent performances, and there are plenty of entertaining moments of high-concept silliness destruction.

The movie really has two main problems: the character development and writing is pretty bad, and there's a definite lack of focus. There's three main points of focus in the movie: a newlywed couple driving to their honeymoon, a young boy trying to find his father, and a group of people at a truck stop. All of these have interesting potential in them; truck stop group figuring things out holds the same intriguing premise as Night of the Living Dead, and the boy looking for his brother uses virtually no dialogue and has some moments of genuine suspense. However all these stories are basically competing with each other, and none of them get enough development. As such, when the action stops and we return to the characters, the film stops dead.

It's still a fun movie though. It's definitely a b-movie, but it's a b-movie that still manages to entertain. The complete ridiculousness of the concept provides a lot of stupid fun, and the action is undeniably cool. No matter how you slice it, blowing s*** up will always look cool.

It's not a masterpiece, but it's not trying to be one either. It's something to throw on in the background at a party of watch over a few beers with some friends. It's a piece of cheesy 80's fun; go in with that mindset and don't take it too seriously and you might have a good time.