Runtime: 90 minutes
Directed by: Bill Rebane
Starring: Dean West, Meredith Orr, David Alan Smith, R. Richardson Luka, Jay Gjernes
From: MTP Productions
Viewing an AI-upscaled version of a movie w/ an AI-controlled monster truck: it isn’t ironic, but “appropriate” probably works. Yes, I do realize that at least on Twitter, there has been a s***storm of Biblical proportions over the AI involved in the arts after OpenAI released a program that could generate Studio Ghibli art from any photo. Many feel this is an insult to Miyazaki himself, his style being ripped off, and for frickin’ memes; this may be something I discuss in the near-future in another review but 4K AI upscales-admittedly, those can turn out horribly, which is another insult to the arts-are far different from that.
A YouTube channel (which won’t be named; as of posting, can be found via an easy search) not only upscaled Twister’s to 4K along with other movies of similar quality, but also episodes of such shows as The Fall Guy. I’ve seen Bill Rebane films before and while Monster a Go-Go doesn’t count due to its troubled production history, The Giant Spider Invasion and The Capture of Bigfoot have their campy charms and it is uplifting to hear that someone emigrated from Latvia to Northern Wisconsin and had a filmmaking career for a few decades, at least for fans of regional filmmakers.
Revenge is really, really stupid; let’s not mince words here. A trio of villains that might as well be named Moe, Larry & Curly seek to steal the computers that control a monster truck named Mr. Twister. Note that due to “artificial intelligence” (to quote the lady w/ 80’s hair that created this using two different computers plus an oscilloscope) Mr. Twister is also sentient and talking to its driver Dave, because Knight Rider was still popular despite already being cancelled by this point. I watched Knight Rider in syndication as a little kid, by the way.
The movie is low-brow entertainment for children (although perhaps not, given some images and moments) which is quite flawed in terms of acting, logic, plot, story beats, editing, music, sound, etc. Heck, the opening credits even misspell “photography” as “photograpy.” Be that as it may, the opening few minutes were at a country fair not too dissimilar to the one in my town as a kid (some of the rides were the same; they didn’t have monster truck events but there was a rodeo, a demolition derby and a country concert which included the likes of The Oak Ridge Boys & Billy Ray Cyrus), the local scenery was charming, and there was a hearty laugh at recognizing locations used in The Giant Spider Invasion.
As I am someone who laughs at such things as exaggerated Wisconsin accents & characters drinking Pabst Blue Ribbon, that helped me enjoy this utter nonsense, which also had some low-budget action and destruction. An unexpected delight: a scene out of nowhere set at what looked like a country music bar-where for some reason the customers were usually dressed in wacky outfits-and even more improbably, the act on stage was a bad New Wave band, led by a tall, heavyset woman. Weird, sincere moments like these sometimes go a long way in charming me.
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