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Monster Trucks

Monster Trucks: Goofy, Cheesy, Kids-Only Fun

  • Jane LevyLucas Till...
  • Action & AdventureAnimation
  • Chris Wedge
reviewed by
Marija Loncarevic
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Monster Trucks: Goofy, Cheesy, Kids-Only Fun

Following a troublesome production thus suffered numerous delays, it definitely hasn’t been an easy ride to the big screen for family-fun feature, Monster Trucks. Directed by a long-time animation specialist, Chris Wedge – see Epic, Ice Age – Monster Trucks is not, regardless of its hollow premise and ridiculous propositions, a complete miss.  However, it’s not exactly a winner either and unless you are twelve – or below – you might not exactly walk away enlightened from the entire experience.

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The story follows Tripp (Till); a high school senior living in a small North Dakota town.  He spends most of his days dreaming of one day leaving his hometown whilst keeping himself busy working at a local junkyard run by Mr. Weathers (Glover). After an accident at the local drilling site allows three weird-looking sea creatures to emerge from below the surface, Tripp soon gets a chance encounter with one of them at the junkyard and the two are very quick to form a bond.

Naming the creature Creech, Tripp soon discovers that his new buddy enjoys feeding off of oil, finding a particular interest in his car. He also finds out that Creech can act as a super-turbo engine, allowing Tripp to drive around comfortably with him nestled within. However, Creech’s emergence to soon attracts unwanted attention from oil company owner, Reece Tenneson (Lowe), who desperately wants to get his hands on the oil located in Creech’s local habitat.  Hoping to prevent that from happening, Tripp teams up with biology tutor, Meredith (Levy), and together they embark on an adventurous journey to return Creech back to where he belongs.  

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It’s hard to overlook the silliness of it all and even harder to ignore the Disney-movie clichés that seem to take over the picture most of the time. The story of a boy and his monster, as ridiculous as it may seem, does have its moments; however it won’t be too difficult for kids to fall in love with Creech, who is the beating heart of the story.  The connection and the general dynamic between Creech and Tripp is relatively entertaining, but, just like Tripp’s character and life at home, not entirely fleshed out.  Till’s acting limitations and lack of leading-man-charisma don’t exactly work in the film’s favour, either.

Relatively competent in the live-action department, Monster Trucks boasts a few exciting car chase scenes and Wedge is mostly successful when it comes to finding a way to put on an exciting show. However, it does tend to lean towards the goofy side of things and it’s not particularly memorable. But, hey, the kids will certainly get a kick out of it.

Like This? Try

Herbie: Fully Loaded (2005), Cars (2006), Monsters vs. Aliens (2009)

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The movie was shot back in 2014 -three years before it was finally released.

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