Les Roues de la mort

Distraught after the hooligans who killed his mother and sisters avoid conviction thanks to a heartless judge, a young rig driver designs a monster truck to enact revenge in this action film from Canada. The film gets off to a slow start with nearly half the duration elapsing before the trucker designs the machine, but the tension never ceases once it goes into action. The vehicle is a remarkable feat of imagination with flame throwers and a giant drill, plus the wheels of a tractor, and it is startling to watch it crush other cars (like a tank), break through walls and run people over. If all this sounds over-the-top, it is because it is, but no matter, such exaggerations fit in well with the film thematically, which is about a young man reacting in the most extreme way he knows to an adverse situation. Quality supporting turns (from Ned Beatty as the hooligans' father and Lawrence Dane as the protagonist's father) help matters too, and the film has a few acute things to say about the risks of working for scumbags - something that his father tells him is necessary, but something that also leads to the demise of half his family. The film may have worked better with the hooligans being fleshed out in further depth (they are pretty much interchangeable) but no doubt half of the film's audience will come from those in it for the truck, which is indeed great even if it only appears somewhat late.