Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		4.0
Overall		2.0

Maximum Overdrive Blu-ray Movie Review

Did Christine have a bunch of rowdy brothers?

Reviewed by Jeffrey Kauffman October 25, 2018

Cars and trucks have become so computerized over the past several years that it’s almost easy to think of them as having a mind of their own. Maybe that’s one reason my wife dubbed a Chevy Volt we used to own “Christine”, since it often did rather odd things, like crank the heat up to unbearable levels despite the thermostat being set at a reasonable temperature or (in one of the oddest anomalies) suddenly start futzing with the door locks, sending them up and down at intermittent intervals for no discernable reason. All sorts of devices, including cars and trucks, seem possessed by something with malevolent intent in Maximum Overdrive, but this fitfully engaging film, the only Stephen King adaptation directed by the Master of Horror himself, might be thought of as brain dead in a certain way, since its campy humor is kind of hit or miss and its supposedly “scary” elements often end up being more unintentionally funny than any of its ostensible comedy. King himself has not exactly championed the film, and seemed to take it all as a wayside on an otherwise literary journey, but King fans are a hardy lot, and even despite the naysaying by King, some folks find Maximum Overdrive at least a bit of silly fun.

One of the kind of interesting things about some King outings is that the “evil” in any given tale is at least at times not given an “origin story”, and in fact that unknowability is part of what gives a spooky ambience to the proceedings. Perhaps one of the fatal mistakes that Maximum Overdrive makes is trying to provide an explanation for all the machinated mayhem, in the form of a mysterious comet whose glowing green “tail” intersects with the Earth’s orbit through the heavens. Suddenly all sorts of supposedly inanimate objects spring more or less to life, with early vignettes documenting a kind of snarky ATM machine (whose customer is one Stephen King) or a lift bridge that seriously malfunctions, causing chaos and, one presumes, several casualties.

A number of characters are introduced courtesy of vignettes offering the “uprising” of various machines. These include Bill Robinson (Emilio Estevez), a cook at a truck stop, and a kid named Deke Keller (Holter Graham), whose father Duncan (J.C. Quinn) also works at the truck stop and is one of the first (non fatal) casualties of things going seriously awry. The truck stop is run by a kind of affable martinet named Bubba Hendershot (Pat Hingle). A sidebar of sorts documents the travails of newly married couple Curtis (John Short) and Connie (Yeardley Smith of The Simpsons) who are ostensibly driving to their honeymoon but first get to reenact selected scenes from Duel (so to speak) before they, too, ultimately get to the diner at the truck stop.

The problem with Maximum Overdrive is that, unless one accepts the film as an outright comedy (something commentator Tony Magistrale avers was certainly not that far off of the mark King intended), the film just never works up to anything very effective, including providing any significant scares. Several scenes which could have been at least a little frightening are actually kind of handled discursively, perhaps because of King’s undeveloped directorial acumen. Even scenes where carnage is explicitly shown tend to be funny (again, perhaps intentionally) or kind of sloppily shot and/or edited, which deprives the film of some of its shock value. The whole “Green Goblin” and “Crazy Clown” truck aspects often just come off as random conceits, much like the mysterious magical comet trail that supposedly started the whole thing.

Maximum Overdrive Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Maximum Overdrive is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of Lionsgate Film's Vestron Video imprint with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.35:1. These Vestron releases have often provided some fantastic supplements (this one included), but they frequently lack any detailed technical data on the provenance of the element(s) utilized for a release, and that's once again the case here. This is actually a generally pleasing Vestron release, at least in terms of color timing and lack of any significant damage, but there's still a certain variability in terms of clarity and detail, and some of the later material in the darkened diner has a kind of "dupey" look to it at times, with milky blacks and some wavering contrast. Much of the daylight material also looks soft as can pretty easily be gleaned from the screenshots accompanying this review, but I have to say I feel at least part of that is actually due to inconsistent focus pulling and what almost looks like malfunctioning lenses at times. Considering the amount of "misty" shots that feature things like smoke emanating from engines, there are no serious resolution problems, though as with clarity and detail, the grain field is also somewhat variable. While the overall palette looks very healthy, I personally thought that fleshtones were just a little flushed looking at times. Depending on whether or not you have a history with this title in previous releases, I could easily see this getting a wide variety of "scores" from viewers, so parsing the screenshots included with this review may help to define your opinion.

Maximum Overdrive Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The Blu-ray disc offers the film's theatrical stereo exhibition courtesy of a great sounding and often nicely directional DTS-HD Master Audio 2.0 track, but for those wanting the AC/DC score turned "up to 11" (so to speak), they may want to at least sample the DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track, which pretty significantly ups amplitude and especially the lower frequency ranges (you'll hear noticeably more "oomph" in some of the explosive effects in the surround track, as well as some of the scoring). That said, the surround track does not consistently engage the side and (especially) rear channels, though occasionally discrete effects may pop now and again. Fidelity is fine on both tracks, and this is actually one release where each soundtrack option has its own selling points, as well as perhaps some deficits.

Maximum Overdrive Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary with Writer Tony Magistrale, author of Hollywood's Stephen King is moderated by Michael Felsher, who actually probably does as much commenting as Magistrale. As Felsher gets into in his introduction, this is more of a career spanning look at many King adaptations, rather than merely focusing on this particular film.


• Audio Commentary by Actor and Comedian Jonah Ray and Blumhouse Film Executive Ryan Turek is a good deal "chattier" than the other commentary, and also kind of hilariously has moments where the two just shut up and watch the film for a while, only to break out in laughter at some ridiculous moment, where they pick things up again.


• Truck Stop Tales (1080p; 15:39) offers producer Martha de Laurentiis, who seems to have a sense of humor about it all.


• Rage Against the Machines (1080p; 9:57) is an interview with Laura Harrington.


• Honeymoon Horrors (1080p; 18:18) features John Short and Yeardley Smith.


• A Kid in King's Court (1080p; 17:10) offers both (brief) archival and contemporary interview footage of Holter Graham.


• Maximum Carnage (1080p; 16:33) focuses on special make-up effects artist Dean Gates and his work on the film.


• The Wilmington Factor (1080p; 29:32) is an interesting longer form piece which features a number of Wilmington based technicians who worked on the film and have become part of that city's film production community.


• Who Made Who? (1080p; 6:32) is an ode (sorry) to AC/DC.


• Goblin Resurrectus (1080p; 9:49) features Tim Shockey of The Goblin Project.


• Behind the Scenes Footage (1080i; 8:44)


• Still Gallery (1080p; 8:49)


• Theatrical Trailer (1080p; 2:06)


• TV Spots (1080p; 1:06)

Maximum Overdrive Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

When even Stephen King himself is on record as being, well, not all that enthusiastic about this film, it's probably wise to temper expectations. There's a certain goofily amenable quality to Maximum Overdrive, but as even the combined commentators seem to recognize, this is probably a curiosity in the King canon more than anything. As with many Vestron releases, the supplemental package is outstanding, while technical merits are generally good (video) to excellent (audio).