Clip It: Each day, Jon Davis looks at the world of trailers, featurettes and clips and puts it all in perspective.
Some people might say, “Hmm this is a movie about alien creatures who double as truck engines so that humans can insert the alien into the body of the truck and drive super fast and jump great distances. Interesting, I guess but who exactly is this movie for?” I don't know, how about anyone with a soul?
Oh, what's that, you don't like things that are fun? Then I guess you're going to have to watch The Model instead. But for those of us who think trucks are terrific, monsters are awesome, and the combination of the two is the best idea since a quill pen scribbled the American Constitution, then this is real cinema. I was pretty much in as soon as I read the title Monster Trucks. I got my Sour Patch Kids and I'm ready to go. I don't need much else. But the trailer itself is charming, cute, energetic and fun.
The fall is when movie distributors release most of the Oscar contenders. There's some worth to that kind of movie, but is a film like American Pastoral going to have a truck that drives up a building and then jumps from that building to another building? Unlikely. Sometimes filmmakers have to take risks. The kind of risks a Philip Roth adaptation won't take. Like trucks jumping over a cliff, then reaching out with a tentacle to grab the wheel that just fell off. That's an image I can take with me forever. And I will.
My only problem is I wasn't sure about the other truck-monster hybrids. I like what I've seen so far from the alien “Creech” but when we meet his entire family, I'm skeptical. They have a long way to go before they're as cool as Creech. And that's fine. The movie will have much more footage the non-Creech monsters, presumably.
Well guys… I'll see you at the movie theater. We're doing this.