Saturday Night at the Movies 3/21/15!

Who cares what picture we see?


This blog's good buddy JP Mulvanetti of the brilliant blog The Nostalgic Attic most certainly does, and one of his latest posts inspired this choice for tonight...

Directed by the man himself and shot right here in Wilmington, NC - this is not great cinema by any measure of the normal film review yardstick - but as a big "blow stuff up and let the actors chew the scenery" flick it's pretty damned fun.


A comet's tail covers the Earth as it passes, and every mechanical device on the planet comes to life with murderous intent. After establishing the mayhem on a wider scale, the story boils down to a dozen or so folks stranded inside the Dixie Boy truck stop near Wilmington NC as sentient semi trucks patrol the parking lot - waiting to kill. Of particular menace is the toy truck with the Green Goblin's face mounted on the front. The cast is also worth mentioning - Emilio Estevez, Laura Harrington, Pat Hingle (the movie that convinced him to live out the rest of his days in the area), Yeardley (Lisa Simpson) Smith, and before we knew him - Giancarlo Esposito (Gus from Breaking Bad).


It's the only movie Stephen King has directed (so far, anyway, and likely to remain so, and you can read more about why that is over at The Nostalgic Attic's post about the movie HERE) and is worth watching for that alone - but it's also an entertaining movie for those so inclined.


I also got to hang out with one of the movie's main stars a few years later:

This sat out on the studio backlot here for years after the movie - I took this pic in the early 90's.
The head disappeared some years later - rumored to have blown away in a hurricane - but it might
also be in someone's backyard a few miles from here too...

Maximum Overdrive is in the video vault on a double feature disc with what seems a strange choice for a second feature - Arnold Schwarzenegger in Raw Deal - but that movie was shot here too - so it's a clever Wilmington NC double feature (and likely not together for that reason - but more because both were made by Dino De Laurentiis's DEG Studios.) We could be watching one - or both - at any time - even tonight - if you're brave enough to dodge any trucks between here and there and come watch it with me...






Until next post, you Can Poke Me With A Comet, Cause I Am Outta Here!