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[videoreligion]

Rolling Vengeance (1987) Review by RevTerry

[barbietienecoche]

"Faster Pussycat! Kill, Kill! -Russ Meyers, 1965

[videoreligion]

Rolling Vengeance (1987)

“Monster trucks initially didn't appeal to me at all. Nothing like that had ever piqued my interest.  As a kid, I was into things like dinosaurs and monster-monsters not "big trucks," and I never went through an obligatory manly car phase of any sort. Smashing shit can be cool, but I have always preferred being the smasher in that case, not just some asshole watching from fifty feet away. From my limited knowledge (completely formed by Matchbox cars and cable television) it was an amalgamation of NASCAR and wrestling, and for a long time, that appeal escaped me completely. Altogether, it had some exciting components (the word monster, a "bigfoot," possible explosions), but it just didn't seem to be my type of jam, and I kept my distance. That was until, dragged along by a pushy family friend, I actually attended a real-life monster truck rally. Not fifteen minutes into the event, did I realize I had judged monstrous trucks too harshly. At an elementary level, I had imagined the event correctly, as it centers around some big ass trucks going in circles, driving off ramps and crushing cars. What I didn't account for, in my ignorance, was the in-person experience and overall spirit that comes from sitting in a crowd while that happens. Like all magic, It's hard to explain, and it has to be experienced to be truly understood. It's basically like watching a sport; you cheer when something "good" happens. Only, in the case of monster trucks, there isn't really a competition going on in front of you, just random acts of twisted mechanical violence. There are no permanent teams, important stats or designated moments of happiness based on geographic happenstance, you yell or act excited whenever the fuck you want. If seeing a truck do donuts gets you going, throw a whistle its way--same goes for any time flames shoot out of something. Fireballs are almost always tight in my book, so after I see one, of course, I'm going to cheer like I'm my dad when the Patriots just scored a touchdown. Included is all the good stuff you get with baseball games, nachos, beer, eccentric sunburnt nutbags, sans the boring sports part and substituted with chrome-plated chaos. It's pretty much a circus, only instead of abusing animals they playout the exciting vehicle moments from action movies--live.  It is like an artsy Vegas show, and a schlocky trash tape had a baby, starring big-wheeled mechanical creatures that each get a theme. Still in the parking lot, immediately after that first gasoline rodeo, I had to ask myself,  "How have I shunned something so beautiful?"   Right there, I vowed to look upon majestic beasts of motorized metal differently. Eventually, The new life philosophy also led to me watching Rolling Vengeance (1987).”

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