Friday, 29 April 2022

BITE-SIZED: Monster Trucks (Chris Wedge, 2016)

When an oil company drills into an underground water system, they they a new organism.

When a few members of the new species escape, the company is determined to capture them so that they do not have to report a new endangered species (which would shut down their drilling).

One of these escapees finds its way to a scrapyard where local teen Tripp (Lucas Till) works. 

After finding ‘Creech’ hiding inside his car, the pair become fast friends and start working on a scheme to find Creech’s family and get him home.



A warm throwback to the kids movies I grew up with, Monster Trucks is a solid creature feature that  is better than its box office would suggest.


It hits all the familiar tropes:


  • A kid from a troubled background who dreams of escaping his surroundings

  • the creature abandoned and lost in a new world who he forms a bond with

  • The corporate bad guy intent on capturing the creature for his own ends 


The movie even features an environmental message that would not feel out of place in a nineties kids movie.


Creech is a fun blend of cute and Cthulhu. With his big eyes, teeth and slimy arms he resembles a weird blend of shark, salamander and octopus.


Nothing about the movie is original, yet it all works.

The acting and the effects work are solid, and director Chris Wedge (of Ice Age fame) keeps the whole confection moving at a clip.

If you are sick of superheroes and want to introduce your young'ins to something else, Monster Trucks might do the trick.

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