Maximum Overdrive

With the long awaited release of the Stephen King novel The Dark Tower to the big screen, I thought I would take a look back at the one time that King sat in the director's chair. The movie was 1986's Maximum Overdrive.

After the Earth passes through the tail of a comet, machines begin to come to life and go on a murder spree. The worst batch is a fleet of semi trucks, led by a truck hauling toys and sporting the face of the Green Goblin on the front. These semi's have a motley group of employees and customers at a truck stop held hostage. The group, led by Emilio Estevez, must band together and figure out a way to escape from the monstrous trucks.

This is a far cry from the better King screen adaptations. That being said, it's not the worst either. It almost plays like a parody of a King movie. This might have been King's intentions. At the time he was quite unhappy with a lot of the films coming out based off his work. Maximum Overdrive kind of feels like King giving the middle finger to Hollywood. He even say's in the trailer that this is a King movie done right. Or it could be the fact that King was coked out of his mind at the time and had no idea how to direct, which he has stated in past interviews. He has even said that this is his movie for morons.

With that being said, the film does have a quirky, redneck charm. Estevez and the rest of the cast, which includes Pat Hingle, Yeardley Smith, Laura Harrington, and Giancarlo Esposito do their best to bring these stereotypical characters to life. Oddly enough, King tried to get Bruce Springsteen for the lead but The Boss declined. King was however able to get rock cred by having ACDC write and perform the music.

Like I said, not the best King film, but you could do a lot worse.

It's available on dvd.