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    Monster Trucks

    Reviewed by
    adamwatchesmovies@

    The first time I saw “Monster Trucks”, I HATED it. Seeing the film a second time, I’m not sure why. This picture isn’t worthy of strong emotion. It’s a knockoff of a knockoff; a movie so watered down it’s best described as bland and forgettable.

    Tripp Coley (Lucas Hill) is astonished when he discovers that Creech, a multi-armed creature that drinks oil has invaded his newly-built monster truck. Tripp, Creech, and Meredith (Jane Levy, serving as Tripp’s love interest) set out to save Creech's home and family from Terravex Oil, whose evil CEO Reece Tenneson (Rob Lowe) wants to destroy the creatures.

    Boy befriends creature. They bond. A villainous adult at the heart of an agency or corporation seeks to tear them apart. You’ve seen this tale before. It’s “E. T. ”, “The Iron Giant”, “Transformers” or even “Mac and Me”. Beat for beat, you can foresee what comes next, which makes the picture dull to everyone above the age of 8. It’s somewhat appropriate, considering a 4-year-old conceived the story. The end results are just as bad as those soulless pictures we so often find in the theater, but it’s somewhat refreshing to find a picture ill conceived because of love. Word is the story was conceived when Paramount Studios’ former president Adam Goodman heard his son ask “What if monster trucks were actually powered by monsters? ”. Originally scheduled for summer 2015, it was only released two years later… in January – widely regarded as the dumping ground for films. The studio lost about $120 million on this bit of nepotism. Yikes.

    Normally, I wouldn’t detail a film's behind-the-scenes or box office results unless it was some kind of revolutionary picture. I’m making an exception because the story behind the story is much more interesting than the end results. Lucas Hill is much too old to be playing a high schooler. Even if they had cast someone of appropriate age, the picture was doomed. Only a small child would dream of sticking a tentacle beast in an truck and then using it as an engine but small children can’t drive, and they sure as hell can’t customize a truck with the necessary openings, flaps and covers – in one night - like Tripp does. Stuck with this “is he a kid, or a grown up” protagonist, the film has difficulty finding what role Meredith should play. Best friend? Potential girlfriend? Quirky sidekick? Unatainable hottie whose attention is captured once the monster comes in? Similarly, Daniel Glover has a small part that adds little but was necessary because a teenager couldn’t own a junkyard. At least the villain is straightforward, in a “all I do all day is fantasize about kicking puppies and killing the environment” kind of way.

    “Monster Trucks” began not with a story, or a premise, but with a title. I’m not sure how much blame screenwriter Derek Connolly and director Chris Wedge deserve. They could’ve done much better than this but why bother? Putting effort into this film would’ve been a waste. Then again, they got paid. What do we reap from this crop? Nothing. There’s no imagination or wonder in “Monster Trucks” at all. There’s maybe one scene that sticks out. Otherwise, it’s a lazy picture full of shortcuts that no one could ever have fond memories of. (August 17, 2018)

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    adamwatchesmovies@  19.2.2017 age: 26-35 2,867 reviews

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