Plantiana Yawn. Poorly Filmed Snooze Fest.

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Derrick Gibbons An old-fashioned movie made with new-fashioned finesse.

Isbel A terrific literary drama and character piece that shows how the process of creating art can be seen differently by those doing it and those looking at it from the outside.

Brian T. Whitlock (GOWBTW) What do you do when the law is not on your side? You build a monster truck and teach these bullies a lesson. That's just the case in "Rolling Vengeance". A father and son trucking team deliveries liquor to a bar owner name Tiny Doyle(Ned Beatty). He has 5 sons who run rampant through the town: Driving drunk, running people off the road. They killed the trucker's wife and daughters. He would go after the person responsible after a technicality in court. He too would end up losing his life. Joey Rosso (Don Michael Paul) would get extreme by building a monster truck consisting of parts from a junkyard. He takes it on its first test drive after the first two brothers when they attacked another trucker. The van was totaled on the encounter. Before that, Joey used the truck to turn Tiny's used car lot in a junkyard. Tiny's next two sons were next after they raped Joey's girlfriend Misty (Lisa Howard). This truck makes Bigfoot look like a normal vehicle. This movie is for truck lovers. It's not for everyone. I wouldn't put this movie down. It could use more scenes to make it fun. But it was fine for me. 2.5 out of 5 stars

sol- 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.

Schabe I *loved* this film. It's a classic, universal story -- the story of a young man named Joey whose entire family is killed by Ned Beatty's mentally retarded offspring. Unable to cope with his feelings of loss and helplessness, Joey makes a decision we can all sympathize with. He builds a gigantic, flame-spouting tank with 7' tires and proceeds to take revenge on those who have wronged him, as well as their vehicles and buildings.The vehicle itself is impressive -- it's not just a pickup truck on huge tires, it's a wholly scrap-built "Mad Max" battlewagon. It carries a gigantic retractable drill/metal cutter on its front bumper, apparently scavenged from some gratuitously suggestive metal-rendering machinery. There's a great scene involving the drill, a drainage pipe, and the protaganist's girlfriend that conjures echoes of Tetsuo, the Iron Man.The thing that surprised me most was the acting. Let me make this clear -- the script is awful, a tissue-thin vehicle intended to carry the film from one scene of gasoline-fueled mayhem to the next. Yet, this cast of mostly unknown actors all rise far above the occasion, adding unexpected dimension to a movie that's really all about the sound of crunching metal and breaking glass. Ned Beatty, the sole recognizable name in the lineup, delivers a stellar performance as an aging greaser and single parent, trying to protect his quasi-legal business interests and his fetal-alcohol-syndrome afflicted bastard children as they are crushed one by one under the wheels of a vengeance-crazed truck driver. Even the weepy girlfriend and the one-day-before-retirement county sherrif are played as low-key, believable characters.So, there you have it. Rolling Vengeance -- a timeless story of tragedy, family, and monster trucks. See it with someone you love, and a case of cheap beer.

emm The first time you look at it, ROLLING VENGEANCE looks like it's going to be a cool picture. Sadly, movies like this do not translate well as full-length features. In addition, it suffers from the same old formula where somebody takes revenge on another and wins. An interesting point about the movie is that our lead character is in a no-win situation against both the criminal and the law, but our revengeful modern age prince saves the day as usual! Those who enjoy watching monster trucks do some killer stunts just like at the arena will be greatly discouraged. There's nothing special in the world other than just a cookie-cutter action movie.