MONSTER TRUCKS (Chris Wedge). 105 minutes. Opens Friday (January 13). See listing. Rating: NN
Monster Trucks manages to scrape some fun out of a junk-pile premise. That’s not to say this grossly over-produced attempt to sell a new toy line is any good – only that it’s better than you’d expect for a movie conceived by a studio boss and his four-year-old son.
The idea that there are actual monsters in those trucks takes a long, laboured, goofy set-up to establish. That process begins with a greedy oil company accidentally drilling into an untapped waterway, which squirts up a CGI species looking like a cross between a Humboldt squid and a baby seal. Two are captured and one escapes, finding a hiding place in the dilapidated truck belonging to Lucas Till’s Tripp.
Tripp’s the quiet, unappreciated type and Till seems to be waiting to get through puberty so he can flex his muscles for Michael Bay. But while Bay’s Transformers movies are clearly the kind of rip-roaring event this movie tries and fails to be, Monster Trucks is actually more enjoyable because of its earnest attempt to salvage its plot.
Once all the gears are engaged, there’s a car chase through town, with Tripp and the critter he’s named Creech bouncing over rooftops and getting as much mileage as they can from that four-year-old’s premise.
My own four-year-old was pleased.
