Are you excited for Monster Trucks? Boy howdy, you should be! Especially after Paramount released a brand new trailer and poster for the movie. Check ’em out, and be excited. It’s rare that we get a movie that feels like it was made inside another movie.
Now that’s something, ain’t it? Lucas Till (X-Men‘s Havok) stars as a guy who puts an alien squidwhale inside his truck. Jane Levy (Evil Dead) co-stars as someone who has to react to that. How does one react, Jane Levy?
Well, that’s certainly one way, but I’m betting a more common reaction to Monster Trucks is wondering just who came up with this thing. A four-year-old, that’s who. I’m not joking. Adam Goodman, Ex-President of Paramount, heard the idea for this movie tumble out of his four-year-old son’s mouth. So Goodman did what any good dad would do. Come hell or high water, his son was going to get that dream movie. And, by golly, they were going to release it in May 2015, at the height of blockbuster season! They were planning to make toys and an animated spinoff series!
No, wait! Christmas 2015! That’s a good time for family films.
No? How about March of 2016?
Still no? Okay… I guess that leaves January 2017.
I have to apologize for my snark here. We try to be as celebratory as we can with news of trailers and posters, especially for original movies that could use a promotional boost. But I can’t write about Monster Trucks without acknowledging that someone(s) at Paramount messed up. This film cost over $100 million to produce. Now Viacom (Paramount’s parent company) expects to take a $115 million dollar hit because Monster Trucks is careening over a cliff. Now, I don’t have it out for Monster Trucks, but bombs are an unfortunate truth of the business. Another truth is that financial performance doesn’t prevent you or me or anyone else from finding joy in this goofy and well-intentioned movie. See it on January 13, 2017.