Monster Trucks

Paramount Pictures | Release Date: January 13, 2017

5.4	USER SCORE Mixed or average reviews based on 67 Ratings

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User Reviews

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dm_punksApr 5, 2017

This is a surprisingly entertaining movie about monsters, trucks, and respect. Most of the action involved the "Monster Truck" Creech in vehicle chases with other trucks, pickups, and even a huge super dumptruck. Recommended for familyThis is a surprisingly entertaining movie about monsters, trucks, and respect. Most of the action involved the "Monster Truck" Creech in vehicle chases with other trucks, pickups, and even a huge super dumptruck. Recommended for family viewing, this is a kid-friendly and feel-good movie that teaches good values.… Expand

2 of 2 users found this helpful20

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nicholi0901Mar 8, 2018

why is everyone given it bad reviews i think it's awesome alot of action but I would like it more if it had some comedy but for me a pass make a sequel

1 of 1 users found this helpful10

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TintenseherJan 17, 2017

Monster Trucks has a beautiful, elegant simplicity to it. It is a beacon of brilliance in film, and all artists and storytellers should look to it for guidance. No, I'm not kidding.
Maybe it's just because a lot of dull and poorly-made moviesMonster Trucks has a beautiful, elegant simplicity to it. It is a beacon of brilliance in film, and all artists and storytellers should look to it for guidance. No, I'm not kidding.
Maybe it's just because a lot of dull and poorly-made movies have come out lately, but Monster Trucks blew me away by being so much better than I thought it would be. It has a sensible plot, likable and believable characters, arcs with payoff, foreshadowing, a fantastic cast, and so much more.
It's convinced me that it must be harder to make a bad movie than a good one. It begins with a simple premise: what if monster trucks were actually trucks with monsters in them? Then, everything in the movie builds off of or supports that premise. It was carefully thought-out, and it has heart, and it has some seriously awesome action sequences. Everything was meticulously planned, from the tiny brick jokes to the actually important plot stuff.
It sounds like sarcasm, but I would easily put Monster Trucks in my top 10 movies of all time if I knew what the other movies on that list were. For me, it beats out any of the big movies recently, like Rogue One or Passengers, and even movies I really liked, like La La Land or Hidden Figures.
It's not getting the attention it deserves. Seriously, people, it has monsters, trucks, monsters in trucks, monster trucks, and monsters in monster trucks. And best of all, it makes all of that MAKE SENSE! And be funny! And even maybe make you cry a little bit at the end! What more could you possibly want?!… Expand

2 of 4 users found this helpful22

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SimpsonFansJan 14, 2017

The idea is unabashedly silly, yet Monster Trucks is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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ThisIsSparta666Jan 14, 2017

The idea is unabashedly silly, yet Monster Trucks is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.

1 of 2 users found this helpful11

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Tiber5Jan 13, 2017

The idea is unabashedly silly, yet Monster Trucks is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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Creepers200Jan 13, 2017

The idea is unabashedly silly, yet Monster Trucks is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.

1 of 3 users found this helpful12

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thedaarkbattyJan 20, 2017

Arguably the next step in human evolution. Monster Trucks prove that even thought Donald Trump is {resident that mankind will prevail and defeat the forces of evil.

1 of 12 users found this helpful111

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PAMAJan 14, 2017

The idea is unabashedly silly, yet Monster Trucks is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.

0 of 1 users found this helpful01

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Pama300Jan 14, 2017

The idea is unabashedly silly, yet Monster Trucks is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.

0 of 2 users found this helpful02

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stephaniieApr 1, 2017

One of the best things about the 1988 comedy “Big” was Tom Hanks’s main character, a kid stuck in an adult’s body who used his playful imagination to rise through the ranks of a toy company. At one point, he pitches the idea of a robot toyOne of the best things about the 1988 comedy “Big” was Tom Hanks’s main character, a kid stuck in an adult’s body who used his playful imagination to rise through the ranks of a toy company. At one point, he pitches the idea of a robot toy that turns into a bug, arguing that kids will prefer something that’s both unexpected and fun.

The premise of “Monster Trucks” is in that same spirit. What would happen, the film wonders, if cute, otherworldly creatures operated hulking cars (which already appeal to children)? The idea is unabashedly silly, yet “Monster Trucks” is more involving than it sounds. Characters and conflicts are sharply defined, and director Chris Wedge handles the action with clarity.

Lucas Till plays Tripp, a sullen high school student who dreams of escaping the North Dakota hamlet where he lives. Tripp has a part-time job in a junkyard, where, during an evening shift, he makes a startling discovery: a giant, oil-guzzling monster with tentacles is hiding there, scrounging through scrapped vehicles for any drop of oil it can find. The monster was once living deep beneath Earth’s surface until a greedy oil executive named Reece (Rob Lowe) destroyed its underground habitat. Tripp nicknames the monster Creech (short for Creature), becoming buddies with it, since it is smart and has big, dopey eyes and a friendly disposition. When the monster takes refuge inside the metal body of the vintage pickup truck Tripp is restoring, the boy sees an opportunity. He rigs the truck so that Creech can serve as its de facto engine.

In addition to Lowe, “Monster Trucks” features many familiar character actors in supporting roles. Danny Glover, Amy Ryan, Barry Pepper and Thomas Lennon all make appearances, dialing down their screen personas so that younger audiences can focus on the plot. Since the oil company wants to destroy the monsters — the presence of a new species would mean they must halt drilling operations — the film turns into a contest of wills between Tripp and the evil corporation. Help comes from unexpected sources: Lennon plays a scientist who joins the good guys, and Jane Levy plays Meredith, the plucky if stereotypical girl next door. Screenwriter Derek Connolly shrewdly uses archetypes for many characters, while also leaving room for modest surprises. Motivations may not be complex exactly, but they bear a satisfying resemblance to actual human behavior.

The special effects strike an admirable balance between the cutesy and the creepy. Creech, for example, is less humanoid than E.T., but the CGI character designers give him personality and heft. More importantly, Wedge uses the monster-in-a-truck conceit as a springboard for some imaginative chase sequences. With Creech inside, Tripp’s truck can jump, tilt and even climb walls. Unlike Michael Bay of “Transformers” fame, Wedge shoots these sequences carefully, so that we always understand where Tripp is in relation to his pursuers. Camera placement and editing are coherent, not chaotic. (Note to more “serious” action filmmakers: You could learn a thing or two from this film’s respect for spatial elegance.)

“Monster Trucks” is far from deep. The good guys don’t experience major life lessons, and the comeuppance meted out to the bad guys is only perfunctory. But the conflict is simple enough so that kids can recognize what’s at stake. Broad gags are thrown in alongside sly jokes — including asides that suggest that the filmmakers know that the 26-year-old Till is way too old to play a teenager.

This is a film where adults needn’t count the minutes until the end credits. “Monster Trucks” does not rely on bright, flashy colors to maintain the attention of the intended audience. Long after the novelty of the premise runs out of gas, it’s sheer moviemaking craft that fuels this effects-driven action-family hybrid.… Expand

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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The_D4RknesSNov 13, 2022

this movie is really crazy and the vehicle is a monster truck literally.....

0 of 0 users found this helpful00

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