Wrecker (2016) Reviews

• Essentially plagiarism

  zack-beseda2016-03-20

  I don't even know where to begin with this movie. The first thirty minutes (after a pointless and confusing pre-credit scene) is not only a "remake of Duel" but a beat for beat, practically shot for shot, at times line for line rip-off of Duel. I mean, despite the fact that there is no mention of Steven Spielberg or Richard Matheson in the credits of Wrecker, the first half of this movie copies EVERYTHING from Duel. Lines, shots, framing... Like, I'm fairly certain that someone has grounds for a legal suit here. I mean, if I just remake a complete shot for shot, line for line (plus f-words) remake of a TV movie from 40 years ago and basically call it my own work, is that just okay? After copy and pasting the first half of Duel into his Final Draft script-writing program, hack writer/director Michael Bafaro then got to work on changing the middle of an already excellent movie. The only difference in the set-up is that instead of one man on the road alone, it's two completely unlikable girls. They go through, step by step, the exact same beats as Dennis Weaver's character in the original Duel. And then, halfway through, when hack writer/director Michael Bafaro has to deviate from the original script for a variety of reasons (among them being he's not a very good film maker), he does so by writing out the other girl completely, never to be seen again. ...Then why did hack writer/director Michael Bafaro make it two girls in the first place? You'll have to ask hack writer/director Michael Bafaro. So yeah, the other girl disappears and the remaining girl continues to get terrorized. There's some terrible acting, a lot of boring driving, a telephone booth sequence taken whole from Duel, and then it eventually ends with a terrible and lame CGI rendition of the evil tow truck falling off a cliff. And these are not spoilers. Watching this movie is the spoiler. It spoiled my evening and my mood. If you haven't seen Duel, go watch it and stay clear of this movie. Unless, for some reason, you want to see the same script interpreted by someone with a passion for film making and storytelling (Steven Spielberg) vs. someone who has no clue and apparently has no problem plagiarizing someone else's work (hack writer/director Michael Bafaro). Then perhaps it could be an interesting learning experience. Michael Bafaro sucks. Just for example, real quick.... The entire time you're watching Wrecker, you're like... why don't these two idiot girls just turn around and either go home or find another way to get to their... stupid ski resort or whatever it was. While that makes no f'ing sense here, in the original Duel, Dennis Weaver has an important work meeting to get to and frankly has no choice but to keep going and hope he can shake the crazy truck driver. You see, because hack writer/director Michael Bafaro is not a creative person and when left to his own devices, can not differentiate between logical character motivation and people just doing things for no reason. Michael Bafaro sucks and so does this movie. I'm offended by Wrecker both as a writer myself and as a movie fan. Even if he was given remake rights to Duel (which I don't think he was), that's no excuse for using 3/4ths of the script and not even crediting the original writer.

• A good alternative for valium.

  djangozelf-123512015-11-06

  This was a real boring film. 15 minutes in I all ready had the idea that the car the 2 girls were driving in (the most expensive piece of this film)wouldn't suffer any real damage in this. At the end only the rear bumper has some scratches and that's it. The truck on the poster you never see in this movie and the girls characters are so annoying you'd wish they would die an someone you can actually care for take their place so it would be at least watchable. No action,horror or even thriller here but mostly a lot of scenery which felt like they used it over and over again. You're much better of watching "joyride" again and even the by now outdated flick of Spielberg "duel"was a thousand times better than this. This movie is only good if you have trouble falling asleep because it really is a snooze fest. I don't recommend this,I think they made this film with out a script and just wrote one idea on a paper napkin and started filming. This was failure with a capital F. If you actually spend money on this you got F'd. This just falls flat on every level. Devote your time on something else because this is not worth it. A worse than B-movie. Next!

• among the worst movies

  jarletollefsen2015-11-07

  The production of this movie is horrible... The girls go crazy before anything really scary is close to happen. The mustang is V8 5.0 and has trouble outrunning an old truck.. even the European 4cylinder bad version would outrun that truck.and after the truck hits the car there are no damages on it. And the girls get angry at the truck driver when they can easily overpass him... To make this movie better the editing needs improving and the girls needs a better reason to go ballistic. They also make a wrong turn because some GPS stopped working.... In 2015 there is GPS in the car and on the girls phones... There are so many holes in the story that is impossible to fill them

• None of this is even plausible

  ryanpbeam2018-06-13

  How does a heavy wrecker tow truck (while also towing another car) consistently keep pace with a 2013 5.0 Mustang GT? The mustang can go 0-60 in 4.3 seconds. The heavy wrecker can go 0-60 in 30 seconds. The mustang's top speed is 155 mph while the heavy wreckers top speed is 75 mph. This whole movie is impossible and boring.

• You have to watch it

  allencclayton2018-04-20

  You can read all these reviews, but nothing can prepare you for just how terrible this movie is. It becomes painfully evident that all driving scenes are shot on the same quarter mile stretch of road. Some how, SOME HOW, a heavy wrecker is able to keep up with a model year Mustang. And worst of all, you can't stop watching it.