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What's the Story, Mornin' Glory?
Maximum Overdrive
(1986)
On June 19, 1987 a rogue comet, Rhea-m passed by the Earth and we were caught in the tail of it. According to scientists we were going to remain in the comet's tail for the next 8 days, 5 hours, 29 minutes, and 23 seconds.
After a rogue comet passes by Earth strange things begin to happen all over the world. First, a draw bridge suddenly raises without warning causing major damage. Then, a soda machine shoots cans at people at an alarming speed, killing many. Next, a steamroller runs over kids after a baseball game and a turkey carver attacks a waitress. Everywhere cars are starting up on their own and mowing people down. In Wilmington, North Carolina a group of people become trapped at Dixie Boy truck-stop. A band of big rigs continuously circle the truck-stop promising death to anyone who tries to escape. Now a cook on parole, a drifter, a newly married couple, an orphan, and the rest of the surviving customers at the Dixie Boy must find someway out before the trucks decide they have no more use to them.
You Learn Something New Everyday...
 The 1st Bank of Wilmington hates you.
Never look straight into a gas pump nozzle.
There's always time for sex.
Some people weren't cut out to pump gas.
Rats are more disgusting then sewage.
Zing!
"Curtis! Are you dead?" -Connie
Survey SAYS...
Maximum Overdrive made absolutely no sense. I think my favorite part about this movie is the fact that no one really seems to question what's going on. Like, they just accept that mechanical things are turning on, on their own and are murderous. There's not even one person who even tries to reason this out or is like "Hey, why is this happening?" I'm curious if Maximum Overdrive was really meant to be a horror movie (it's genre is horror and I couldn't tell if Stephen King was being serious in the preview or not...). It was just so over the top and ridiculous, I find it hard to believe that anyone would find it scary. That aside, this flick was made up of pure hilarity and awesome-ness.
I like how the story starts out as everything that's mechanical starts taking people out and then they seem to just kinda push that aside and only cars (and really 99% semis at that) are murderous. There are many unanswered questions that this movie left with me. What would the machine gun car done if there wasn't someone who understood Morse code? What if they translated the Morse code wrong? Why don't the trucks crash into the buildings to kill the people earlier? Why does that kid only bother to check if the bible salesman is alive, but no the ten other bodies he passed by before? Why do all the trucks target THAT gas station? Why is Stephen King so utterly hideous? When were you able to get 25 gallons of gas for 12 dollars?
My biggest complaint about Maximum Overdrive was that there wasn't nearly enough Yeardly Smith in the movie. In fact, why wasn't Yeardly Smith in more movies? Anything she touches turns to gold my friends. I like how Brett and Bill know each other for, like, two hours and then suddenly their in love and how Brett's this tough vagabond chick and then for no reason at all she starts to cry and wants to be held. But, who's watching this movie for accurate portrayals of interaction between human beings right? Everyone in this movie was hilariously dumb. I love how the machines growl and don't understand how humans get tired. Y'know how usually during the opening credits it says “music composed by” and some fancy name is written. Not in this movie. This movie's music is by AC/DC. That's right. The best scene in the entire movie was when the steamroller came out of nowhere and started running down the kids in the baseball park, that and any scene where Yeardly Smith is talking. Really, there's not much to say about Maximum Overdrive except that it's 100% pure entertainment. No movie has truly instilled such a satisfying sense of entertainment that M.O., has done for me today. If you watch this movie for only one reason, let it be for the steamroller scene. It alone is worth this movie. So, if you like 80s lightening effects, unnecessary explosions, rocket launchers, use of the movie title in a punch line, watching others poo, last supper jukebox, Morse code, Yeardly Smith, and murderous ice cream trucks, then this is the flick for you. As for us, we give Maximum Overdrive:
That Wasn't so Bad Was It?
I was left Feeling: Extremely Amused
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