Monster Trucks

Year: 2017

Genre: Comedy

Directed: Chris Wedge

Stars: Lucas Till, Jane Levy, Thomas Lennon, Barry Pepper, Rob Lowe, Danny Glover, Amy Ryan, Holt McCallany, Aliyah O'Brien, Daniel Bacon, Faustino DiBauda, Jedidiah Goodacre, Samantha Weaving

Production: Nickelodeon Movies

I am not going to lie; I was sold on this film before I even walked into the theater. Why…well why the hell not? While most denizens of this year’s January Graveyard crop have been ludicrously dour and pitifully boring, Monster Trucks looked like it was going to lean into its silly high-concept and provide enough stupid fun for all. Plus a handful of such obvious marketing ploys have been sold to the public in the past and have still managed to be good even if they were armed with preposterous story elements.

Ahem...

Turns out I was partially right (though mostly wrong) about Monster Trucks. In this film’s defense at least it has the presence of mind to steal from the best. Just switch the adorable alien from E.T. (1982) with an oil guzzling tentacled stress ball from beneath the surface of the earth, and Amblin Entertainment might just have cause to sue. But I suppose you could also replace Elliott with a characteristically blasé Lucas Till as our nominal human lead. Suddenly the whimsy has been halved, so I guess suing would just be kicking them while they’re down.

Am I supposed to be brooding or smoldering here?

Monster Trucks also has the presence of mind to include a rollicking hook to its second rate story. Our monster, Creech makes it a habit to hide in our leading man’s scrap-heap pickup truck. A habit he gained while avoiding capture from a nefarious oil company looking to cover up any evidence of a looming eco-disaster. From that point forward it’s a Ratatouille (2008)-type scenario where driver and monster work together, gleefully off-roading towards the film’s inevitable conclusion. Along for the ride is the nerdy Meredith (Levy) whose, quite frankly, unbelievable infatuation with Tripp (Till) cajoles her to the junkyard in the middle of the night wearing knee-high bobby socks.

Yeah a lot about this movie makes no sense. Like why a geologist (Lennon) would be doing intelligence tests and experiments on captured monsters? How do our leads get out of answering for so much property damage? And why, oh why would Rob Lowe, Amy Ryan and Danny Glover agree to be in this movie?

Pictured: A "silly" monster orgy.

Yet every time I ask myself these sorts of questions the movie wisely slides in some ridiculous CGI car stunt or some awkward corny joke. I’m then reminded of the spirit of this film. It’s supposed to be silly, it’s supposed to be goofy and while I’m not a fan of using “kids movie” in a pejorative sense, the pro-environmental message of the film is just enough for the film to squeak by on its merits.

Monster Trucks is not a great movie. It’s not even a good movie and certainly not the movie it could or should have been. But it’s still the movie we got, and what we ended up getting was a movie about a monster that lives inside a monster truck. No bull, it’s as advertised just as it is on the box.

Final Grade: C-