User reviews

I want to commend the filmmakers on this film. There was a lot of bad press about it even coming from the studio as writing it off as a loss before it was even released.

My kids (11 and 8) have been wanting to see it since we saw a trailer ages ago. I thought the concept was a bit crazy, but it did seem like fun.

After reading that Paramount was already writing it down as a loss, pretty much told me the movie must not be that good. I didn't want to not take my kids just because of that.

Cut to today. We saw the fist showing this morning. I have to say the movie was a lot of fun. It called back to films from the 80's when I was a little film-goer. Director Chris Wedge really made a fun film that has monsters and trucks, it truly lived up to it's title. I feel like he (the director) was really pulling from films like the Explorers, Flight of the Navigator, and a bit of Gremlins. Funny, action packed and not long for the sake of being long like so many movies today. It told a cute story and let us on our way.

About halfway through the movie, I realized why I was enjoying it. It was not something from another property, no comic book characters, it wasn't a sequel. It was something to get wrapped up in and enjoy.

I just wanted to say that we really enjoyed it and I hope more people give it a chance. It's not going to solve the world's problems, but it's certainly going to entertain you. First thing my 11- year-old said after it was over was, "Can we see this again tomorrow?" Not sure if there is a better admission of how fun it was.

Very fun!

A young loner discovers a monster in a junkyard and finds he can use it to power his car. Soon he befriends the monster and sets out to help it find it's way home.

Great special effects and some good performances from some likable lead actors makes this an enjoyable movie to watch. Don't expect the plot to hold up to well under strict scrutiny but it is a kids film after all. There are some good positive messages about family and friends with a little bit of a green message too but nothing heavy handed.

The monster is very likable and the film has some funny moments too. Definitely recommended. I know I would have loved this as a kid and would have certainly enjoyed the action scenes in the second half of the movie. I can imagine younger kids of today having fond memories of this movie in the future. I just hope people give the movie a chance.

"Monster Trucks" is one of those movies where you may not start out having much expectation about it but boy it proves you wrong. It's just a good old fashioned super fun action adventure that the entire family can enjoy. The concept may be a bit quirky, I admit, but if the kids laugh and they smile and their parents giggle, I think it's fair to say that "Monster Trucks" does exactly what it's supposed to do.

Directed by the guy who gave us "Ice Age," "Robots," and "Epic," "Monster Trucks" is about a high school senior named Tripp (Lucas Till) who builds his own truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. A nearby oil-drilling site's accident causes subterranean creatures to surface, two get caught by the greedy corporation while one escapes to the junkyard where Tripp works. Tripp encounters the new friend, names him Creech and turns out, Creech has the need for speed.

I think "Monster Trucks" is the most exciting and hilarious feel-good family movie since Disney's "Alexander And The Terrible, No Good, Very Bad Day," a few years ago. In fact I think those two are quite alike in a lot of ways. Sure "Alexander" didn't have the melding cutting edge VFX and state of the art CGI that "Monster Trucks" has but in terms of the humor and tone, both movies aim to entertain and bring up good topics for the younger viewers.

Granted, it always cracks me up whenever I see people in their late 20s playing high-schoolers, such is the case with Lucas Till and Jane Levy with their respective characters, but that's not anything new in this business, and the actual star here is really the creature Creech who drinks oil and loves to ride fast. The car chases are also surprisingly inventive for a family movie, they're no "French Connection" or "Ronin" obviously but they certainly capitalize on Creech's abilities to make Tripp's truck do the impossible. The movie even frequently plays with heights which gives you that roller coaster thrill. All in all, "Monster Trucks" is an excellent way to start this new year for your family at the movies.

-- Rama's Screen --

I did get a small sense of enjoyment cause of the trucks featured in it. It's not the Fast and the Furious, it's no The Transformers, in fact I'm still wondering just how this film got made. My guess it has to do with the really cool trucks that make an small but impactful appearance.

The story was not bad. According to the film, 15,000 new species are discovered in a year and this movie is about one vastly intelligent on that's a cross between whale and octopus that gets discovered while an evil business man (Played by Rob Lowe) was drilling for oil. A kid who wants a car, befriends one of these creatures and uses it as a engine for his truck.

The movie spends a lot of time watching this kid turn a monster into a Truck. I'm usually into this. Like when Tony Stark was developing the Iron Man suit but the guy who plays Havak in the X-Men movies only has the looks and not the personality like Robert Downing Jr has.

It was all too dull at times as we watch him go through the stereotypes of being a rebellious teen who hates his moms new boy toy and does not see the pretty girl who likes him.

But all the nonsense of the picture was almost worth it to see the cool monster trucks that were created for the grand finale. They were really cool and I would be down to see this film get a sequel in hopes that I might get cooler cars in the future.

The story is simple, not a smart one, not a funny one (ok, a bit). Just a simple story for an evening entertainment. Not a great story to be taught. Several months passed since we watched this, only 3 years old boy somehow remembers the monster truck, the rest of kids never discussed it, what I see is quite bad for such a budget.

I am not going to lie; I was sold on this film before I even walked into the theater. Why…well why the hell not? While most denizens of this year's January Graveyard crop have been ludicrously dour and pitifully boring, Monster Trucks looked like it was going to lean into its silly high-concept and provide enough stupid fun for all. Plus a handful of such obvious marketing ploys have been sold to the public in the past and have still managed to be good even if they were armed with preposterous story elements.

Turns out I was partially right (though mostly wrong) about Monster Trucks. In this film's defense at least it has the presence of mind to steal from the best. Just switch the adorable alien from E.T. (1982) with an oil guzzling tentacled stress ball from beneath the surface of the earth, and Amblin Entertainment might just have cause to sue. But I suppose you could also replace Elliott with a characteristically blasé Lucas Till as our nominal human lead. Suddenly the whimsy has been halved, so I guess suing would just be kicking them while they're down. Am I supposed to be brooding or smoldering here?

Monster Trucks also has the presence of mind to include a rollicking hook to its second rate story. Our monster, Creech makes it a habit to hide in our leading man's scrap-heap pickup truck. A habit he gained while avoiding capture from a nefarious oil company looking to cover up any evidence of a looming eco-disaster. From that point forward it's a Ratatouille (2008)-type scenario where driver and monster work together, gleefully off-roading towards the film's inevitable conclusion. Along for the ride is the nerdy Meredith (Levy) whose, quite frankly, unbelievable infatuation with Tripp (Till) cajoles her to the junkyard in the middle of the night wearing knee-high bobby socks.

Yeah a lot about this movie makes no sense. Like why a geologist (Lennon) would be doing intelligence tests and experiments on captured monsters? How do our leads get out of answering for so much property damage? And why, oh why would Rob Lowe, Amy Ryan and Danny Glover agree to be in this movie?

Yet every time I ask myself these sorts of questions the movie wisely slides in some ridiculous CGI car stunt or some awkward corny joke. I'm then reminded of the spirit of this film. It's supposed to be silly, it's supposed to be goofy and while I'm not a fan of using "kids movie" in a pejorative sense, the pro-environmental message of the film is just enough for the film to squeak by on its merits.

Monster Trucks is not a great movie. It's not even a good movie and certainly not the movie it could or should have been. But it's still the movie we got, and what we ended up getting was a movie about a monster that lives inside a monster truck. No bull, it's as advertised just as it is on the box.

This film stayed with me for years now, incredible fun full of high energy and charm you wish to experience again and again, in some ways it kind of reminds me of 1987 film Rolling Vengeance. However, with Monster Trucks they definitely captured the lightning in a bottle, in this film, the music, story, characters, everything is so perfect, the magic and emotions behind this film is what makes it so memorable. It is films like these that can matter the most for uplifting the human spirit in this world.

Thank you Mr.Wedge for another memorable film that is bound to find and engage audience in the years to come.

Like I stated in the summary, this is by all means harmless. The film at no point ever really felt like it was talking down to its audience along the lines of something akin to "Oogieloves" or last year's "Norm of the North". This is more or less a movie trying to launch a toy line, that is more or less what this comes across to me as. "Monster Trucks" isn't terrible or even all that bad...but it is pretty dumb and does have a few issues.

To give a brief synopsis, the movie is about a creature (later to be named 'Creech') that is accidentally dug up by an oil mining company that's run by Rob Lowe; the creature escapes only to be discovered by a "teenaged" boy named Tripp, played by Lucas Till. From there the two get into wacky shenanigans and soon find themselves in a pickle with the oil company a la "E.T." To start off I just want to briefly state that the story is fine, extremely unoriginal in every way, but it's fine. The acting is fine, granted very strange casting choices that include Danny Glover, Rob Lowe, Barry Pepper, Frank Whaley, and Holt McCallany...I mean...what are they doing in this movie? I can understand a paycheck movie, but some of these actors are barely in this movie. Danny Glover is in so little of this movie I had forgotten that he was even in it until the last 20 minutes of the movie, at which point he disappears about as fast as he came into it. Rob Lowe is in it maybe a little longer, but still probably rounds out to about seven minutes of screen time...maybe. Pushing the odd bit part casting choices aside though, all around the acting was fine. The CGI ranges from fine to questionable, but nothing ever seemed downright bad, just nothing all that terrific either. And lastly the creature, Creech, is cute and I did find myself routing for it to get back to its home. Even though you know a movie like this is without a doubt going to have a happy ending.

My biggest issues are with the characters...everyone is pretty much an idiot. I can get passed everyone basically being dumb in a kids movie like this, it's practically a staple of these types of movies by now. You just have to expect that going in...although there is some illegal things that the oil company AND this lead character, Tripp, is doing but doesn't ever seem to result in any legal consequences...it's like in this universe cops are okay with destruction of public property, total destruction of one's home, attempted kidnapping, and murder. And when I mention murder, I don't mean that is what the villains do in this movie but rather the 'hero'. Yeah...there are some scenarios where there is only one logical outcome and that is that people are more than likely dead. So many car wrecks, explosions, people being crushed by a gigantic work truck, a guy being covered in severely lethal toxic chemicals. The film may not show them "die" but you know they did. However, that's all good in their book apparently, but don't you dare make what appears to be a prank call or so help me!

Anyways, that kind of dumb stuff is present but it isn't anything I haven't encountered before and I can easily get over. What I can't get over so much though is the lead character, Tripp. Tripp is a manipulative douche. He's rude to his romantic love interest, played by Jane Levy. Throughout this whole movie I am actually kind of feeling sorry for Jane Levy's character because she has a thing for Tripp while all Tripp does is use her for her money, tools and hideout spots that she can supply for him, dismisses her completely in some sequences, and he is constantly ogling at this other girl that pops in from time to time. But by the end, of course the two get together, but I'm left sitting there asking "why". Now I'd like to clarify that I don't have a problem with the performance that Lucas Till is giving as his character Tripp...stupid frikkin' name...anyway, I just have a problem with how he is written. If he were written to be more likable, but could still retain some his nativity towards Levy's crush on him then that's fine. But he mainly comes across as a jerk that I don't want to wind up with this likably innocent, cutely played girl though.

Alright, so those are my major gripes. Would I recommend it? Hmm...I suppose if you have little kids and you're flipping through channels or on Netflix and you come across this then it won't be too bad to show them. It would make your children dumber or insult your intelligence, but it won't be anything all that memorable. I highly doubt that any child that watches this will carry this with them into their adulthood. This will probably be shortly forgotten, if it hasn't been already. It's fine, but I'm positive that you can find better.

I'm actually quite surprised Chris Wedge, the director who gave us the first Ice Age and Robots giving us his first live action family feature. Now it might have looked good on paper and could have possibly been better as an animated feature but this movie is a monster shame.

X-Men's Havoc, Lucas Till takes the lead role as disgruntled, unhappy teenage Tripp who works at the local scrapyard which also serves his hobby of building his own truck. Jane Levy impressed me earlier this year with Don't Breathe and it's hard to believe that they're both the same actress, here being the sweet yet geeky town girl who has a keen interest in Tripp.

It's a silly plot for a silly film but is too far fetched and weak with too many plot holes in surprised the film stayed together. Strange and undiscovered, intelligent creatures accidentally get released from their underground habitat. Feasting on oil and having an unlikely ability to power vehicles, basically a slimy horse with a metal shell.

There's a few surprises of a supporting cast with me thinking "oh look, it's so and so" but none help prop up the all-round poor performance. I actually wonder what convinced them to star in this film.

It must have been tricky to come up with a monster that's grotesque yet cute and friendly at the same in the end resembling a Jabba the Hutt with the characteristics of Toothless and E.T. Actually the films has some elements of both previously mentioned but more Iron Giant and Mac And Me.

The special effects were good, not perfect but served the film well enough. The stunt driving was impressive and offers the most fun in the story as the film lacked any real comedy value. The soundtrack is okay but nothing memorable from David Sardy.

It's possible this film was doomed from the beginning having problems with post-production that kept pushing the release dates back to well over a year. Even Nickelodeon had pulled out at one stage.

It's unfortunately a step backwards for Wedge and for everyone involved. This might be a film they could possibly want to forget about but, it actually serves a purpose and the much younger audiences actually seemed to enjoy it.

But I'm sorry Wedge, if the future of your live action films end up like this, I suggest sticking to the drawing board. It's brainless and more for the younger geeks among us.

Running Time: 4 The Cast: 6 Performance: 4 Direction: 3 Story: 3 Script: 3 Creativity: 4 Soundtrack: 4 Job Description: 2 The Extra Bonus Points: -5 for being a terrible idea even for a kid's film.

28% 3/10

Not sure why so many are hating on this one, or basing reviews on what happened before it got to screen.

Took my 4-, 8-, 12-year-olds to see it on Saturday. All three of them enjoyed it, and I did, too. Simple enough story for the kids to understand, with little in the way of violence, profanity, sex to battle through.

Acting was good, as was the CGI. don't go in expecting The Godfather or anything -- but for a family-friendly flick with a good message, this serves its purpose extremely well. The "monsters" are cute enough for the most part and, when they bare their teeth, it's Star Wars-level "scary", if that makes sense.

Overall, check it out.

This is a wonderful, sweet movie for little kids that love monster trucks. I love that it teaches responsibility for our animals and environment. It's exciting and doesn't take it's self too seriously. It's the quintessential family film. The kids like it and the adults can sit through it. I even found myself a little teary eyed at the end! I can understand where some people may think the movie is terrible, but honestly I would love more family movies like this one. We don't have enough of these to enjoy with our kids anymore. Make some popcorn, cuddle up on the couch with your littles, and enjoy a silly story.

A young man has a truck which is actually driven by an animal. He also has a girl friend. Now they get stuck at the other end of townsfolk , the company, and the police. After a few stunts,there is the chase. Which is really interesting and thrilling. With the young man and his girlfriend managing to dodge three chasers and the policeman , thanks to the stunts and fins of the animal, hanging on to the walls of buildings and then driving on the roofs of shops and houses. But they do get caught,albeit for a short while. They are helped by a geologist , who helps them escape. And a scrapyard manager who is wheelchair bound, to refurbish 2 more trucks. They fuel up and make good their escape, again being chased by the bad guys. And the cop also helps them. All in a good movie to pass the time with children. It is well directed.

Durchschnittlicher film, keine besonderen effekte.

I was never planning to see Monster Trucks. I had no desire to see this silly film and after seeing it I absolutely regret it. This film can only be watched through a child's eye. I saw it in a packed theater filled with kids and yea kids loved it. They had a good time with it. And I am happy for those kids, but for older kids and young adults this film adds nothing but mindless stupidity with a weird save the Whales thing I felt that it had going on.

What do I mean by that?

Well the creature put inside the trucks are these weird whale like creatures who go under the water. No there not actually whales, but they just really resemble them, but with the add on that they look really ugly. I mean this film does a lot to try and make them cute, but there not. They have weird tentacles and these strange teeth and there just wrong in every way.

Also the acting in this film is god awful. I mean I don't get why some kids films have to make all there characters this over the top.

If you have kids under 12 years old then they might enjoy it, but anyone older than that has no chance of liking the steaming pile of garbage.

Is this a movie that should be nominated for awards? Absolutely not. Is it more enjoyable than a Transformers movie? Probably. It's kind of like Transformers meets Free Willy with a little bit of Iron Man & Mad Max thrown in. The cgi isn't great, and some of the dialogue is Michael Bay-worthy (2 different characters say the title of this review 30 seconds apart- did they forget to change one line? No one noticed during editing?). However the concept of the monster is interesting, and it was fun seeing it's evolution over the course of the movie. The relationship between the monster and the teen was cute, and it was nice to see that a few characters had full arcs. Family films aren't really my jam, but I thought this was pretty good for one. I got a lot of "Flight of the Navigator"/"Batteries Not Included"/"Short Circuit" vibes.

Made me want to watch Supernatural all over again. The kid here reminded me so much of Sam that I couldn't think of anything else. It was a really good movie, just not what it was expected, but it was good.

I took my youngest child, six years old (nearly seven), to see this yesterday. He bounced around like Tigger the whole way through, and only paused to turn around once in a while to tell me "This is the best movie ever!" This coming from a boy who loves everything from Harry Potter, Star Wars, Top Gear (and Grand Tour), to Tractor Ted and Octonauts.

As an adult, it was a perfectly acceptable way to spend a couple of hours enjoying the company of my child. There's not a lot to the story, so if you've seen the trailer you won't be surprised. The monsters straddle the line well between being "monstrous" and cute (my boy acted suitably scared until it became clear that the monsters were on the good side, after which he loved them).

He came out of the cinema asking when it would be available on DVD, so on balance a glowing recommendation from a 6 year old and a warm fuzzy one from me.

There are lots of similarities with other films, maybe not directly. In todays world, it became practice to give kids (and sometimes for women) their own version of what meant for only grownups. So there's no use whining about that. Because those who does might not be the target audience. This is I think purely for kids, otherwise it would have not got bold PG, but like usual for any film, I gave it a try. Even though it's not original, somewhat I enjoyed watching it.

The story was in usual pattern that opened with an intro, then moving to unleash the long trapped ancient creatures into the human society. One becomes friend with it and a few starting to hunt it with the rest are as the neutral or unaware of it. There's nothing unpredictable in it. And so the tale comes to halt with a finale where maximum push was given, but overall it fails to impress on the average expectation.

Good title, good idea, even the graphics were not bad, but not good enough stunts with okay performances. I feel it could have become a good television series than the film. So they should scrap the idea if they have one for a sequel and instead make a shift to television. Other than what I thought, this is a good entertainer for little kids. So it should be watched by them more than their counterparts.

5½/10