Even though its several months till the temps rise to signal the start of blockbuster kid-friendly entertainment time, the multiplex chefs are ready to whip up something that will satisfy the appetites of the pre-teen crowds. Here’s a tasty mash-up, much in the vein of other blended concoctions. Several years ago some far-sighted studio marketing exec thought, “Hey, kids love their doggies and they love sports, so how about a pooch that plays basketball?”. AIR BUD proved to be quite the franchise, so this new flick should be another “slam dunk”. The tots love their weird creatures (as long as they’re not too scary) and they adore those big-wheeled behemoths that flattened everything in their path. Have some animation veterans sprinkle a bit of magic and slapstick, and you’ve got a candy coated respite from those somber award season contenders. Clear the way for the MONSTER TRUCKS.
This turbocharged tale begins on a quiet late evening as scientist Jim Dowd (Thomas Lennon) drives onto a South Dakota oil drilling site. He darts from his pickup and enters the operation’s command center where he reports to his boss, oil company head honcho Reece Tenneson (Rob Lowe). Seems a huge underground lake exists just above a massive deposit of crude. Now they can’t drill through if there’s any wildlife in that lake. Dowd looks at the video footage, and ,being a good company man, states that nothing’s down there (the glowering light in the water are just reflections of the drill). And so, the work commences until an eruption occurs. It’s water and something else, namely some bizarre creatures. Two of them are captured as Dowd’s truck is nearly crushed in the chaos. It’s towed to the local junk yard owned by Mr. Weathers (Danny Glover) and watched over by his “night man”, high-schooler Tripp Coley (Lucas Till). He’s having a tough time at home. His divorced mom (Amy Ryan) works long shifts at the diner, and Tripp can’t stand her boyfriend Sheriff Rick (Barry Pepper), who dotes on his police vehicle. Tripp dreams of his own big truck as the local rich boys taunt him with their flashy wheels. And he’s having a tough time in school, though he tries to ignore the brainy classmate Meredith (Jane Levy), who is his science tutor. After they drop off the truck, Tripp hears some strange noises. It turns out a third creature, a shiny tentacled, amphibious “beastie” he names “Creech”, was hiding in the truck. Seems that it loves to drink oil and rest inside Tripp’s truck that’s awaiting a motor. With some modifications, Tripp makes the truck into a home for Creech, and finds a way to get it to propel the truck via levers and pulleys. Unfortunately Tenneson looks at the accident video footage and sees that a third monster escaped. He sends his hired “muscle” Burke (Holt McCallany) out to retrieve the beast at any cost. Soon Tripp and Meredith are on the run with Creech from Burke’s crew as they rush back to the drill site to reunite the creatures and stop Tenneson from poisoning their underground home.
Luckily this “off the wall” plot is made surprisingly palatable by this energetic cast. Tripp, who we’ve seen on the big screen as Havoc in the last couple of X-Men flicks and very recently on the small screen as the new “MacGyver”, is very charming as the good-natured gear head, an auto-obsessed toddler in a teen’s body (there’s a long scene of him behind the wheel making motor-noises with his mouth like a youngster playing with his toy race cars. Levy takes a break from her terrific work in the horror genre (the EVIL DEAD reboot and last Summer’s nail-biter DON’T BREATHE) to test her comedic skills (honed during her stint on TV’s “Suburgatory”) as the smitten Meredith, the “geek girl” reduced to swooning puppy (we just want him to notice her, dude!). Well into her 20’s, Levy is more than ready for some grown-up roles. Lennon is endearing as the “brainiac” who finally decides to do the right thing (his repressed panic has echoes of the master, Don Knotts). Lowe effortlessly return to the slimy villain roles that were his 80’s and 90’s staple prior to his recent TV eccentrics (“The Grinder”). McCallany is quite menacing as the single-minded, heartless thug. Glover and Ryan are given little to do (she’s gone after the ten-minute mark, unlike her similar role in GOOSEBUMPS), but Pepper does a nice job as the uptight hot head who sees the error of his ways. And Frank Whaley has a nice seen as Tripp’s pop, a guy who’s not as great as his son remembers.
Animation wizard Chris Wedge (ICE AGE) slips easily into (mostly) live action, making a fairly watchable film out of something that could’ve been just another merchandising “cash grab”. He gets some nice subtle work from the cast while delivering the kind of action that will have the tots bouncing in their seats (guess I’m showing my age, but I cringed at the countless property damage as I mentally calculated the losses to those who just happened to be in the way). The script (credited to four writers) at times, leans too heavily on the “bestest pals” themes of E.T., FREE WILLY, and (“gasp”) MAC AND ME, while its ecology subplot often make little sense (lots of oil and gas-guzzlin’ in order to save the endangered creatures). Speaking of the living truck motors, Creech only shows his teeth once or twice (might make the lil’ ones jumps a bit), but for the most part, he and his kin are cuddly cousins to HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON’s Toothless ( with his shiny-smooth head, spaced-apart eyes, and writhing tentacles I was thinking “Flipper-Cthulhu”). As far “kiddie flicks” go, this is quite bearable. The youngsters will been enthralled by the title creations, while the older folks can enjoy the comic talents of Lennon and the charms of Till and Levy. They provide the sparks that help those MONSTER TRUCKS go the distance (your mileage may vary).
3 Out of 5
