- Title: Monster Trucks
- IMDb: link
Obviously aimed at kids, Nickelodeon’s Monster Trucks would feel right at home in a double-feature with some of the live-action Disney films of the 50s and 60s (albeit with better special effects). The film follows the misadventures of teenager Tripp (MacGyver‘s Lucas Till) who ends up with a monster in his truck after it is forced out of its natural environment by a local oil drilling company. At first afraid of the creature, Tripp discovers having a monster be the engine of your truck has some advantages.
We also get Jane Levy as the smart girl attempting to tutor Tripp who gets pulled into helping save the monster in his truck and the two others captured by the evil oil company run by Rob Lowe. The pieces are better than the whole including a solid cast filled out by Danny Glover, Amy Ryan, Frank Whaley, Barry Pepper, Thomas Lennon, and Samara Weaving as the girlfriend of the local jerk Tripp’s age in a plot thread that feels like it was not all that carefully whittled down for the final cut of the film.
Like many made-for-kids films, Monster Trucks relies on the stupidity of adults who are constantly oblivious to the giant tentacles coming out of Tripp’s truck (which somehow also manages to drive on top of several buildings without ever crashing through a roof). As for the monster, he’s cute enough not to scare small children (who are also the only ones likely not to questions how Creech works the truck and melts through a sewer opening). Both a box office and critical disappointment, the film has earned some love in recent years on home video.