Looking for any way to get away from the life and town he was born into, Tripp (Lucas Till), a high school senior, builds a Monster Truck from bits and pieces of scrapped cars. After an accident at a nearby oil-drilling site displaces a strange and subterranean creature with a taste and a talent for speed, Tripp may have just found the key to getting out of town and a most unlikely friend.
Objectively ridiculous but mostly fun, this is better than you could have predicted given the title but squarely aimed at a young and undiscerning audience.
It has tentacles and hot wheels, yes, but not the legs or bright ideas to sustain itself.
In its own demolition derby-like way, the film has a certain outlandish charm. Its script, though, makes no sense whatsoever.
Monster Trucks is more surreal than anything Jeremy Clarkson and Top Gear ever devised. It is also one of the strangest and silliest films of 2016, and such a throwback to the live action Disney films of the 1970s you expect a young Kurt Russell or Herbie The Love Bug to join in.
Gas-guzzling monsters are the heroes in an over-inflated action yarn that is full of inconsistencies.
There’s a reason this has sat on a shelf for two years.
With its release pushed back several times, perhaps Paramount had regrets about greenlighting this one as, despite a perky pace and a serious eco message, Monster Trucks is far from fresh.
General release. Check local listings for show times.