Insomina File #77: Rolling Vengeance (dir by Stephen Hilliard Stern)

What’s an Insomnia File? You know how some times you just can’t get any sleep and, at about three in the morning, you’ll find yourself watching whatever you can find on cable or streaming? This feature is all about those insomnia-inspired discoveries!

If you’re having trouble getting to sleep tonight, you can always go over to YouTube and watch 1987’s Rolling Vengeance.

Rolling Vengeance supposedly takes place in Ohio but one look at the perpetually wet weather and the misty country side leaves little doubt that this film was shot in Canada. Joey Russo (Don Michael Paul) is a trucker who seeks revenge after the antics of Tiny (Ned Beatty) and his redneck sons lead to death of first his mother (Susan Hogan) and sisters and then his father (Lawrence Dane). Joey’s way of getting revenge is to go down to the junkyard, collect a bunch of parts, and build his own monster truck. Soon, Joey is tracking down Tiny’s men. Somehow, Joey is able to sneak up on people while driving a gigantic truck. Also, for some reason, it never occurs to anyone that the best way to escape from the path of a big, lumbering vehicle is to do anything other than run in a straight line.

It’s a bit of a stupid movie and there’s a gratiotious rape scene that is hard to sit through and which leaves a sour taste that runs throughout the final 20 minutes of the film. Don Michael Paul makes for a blank-faced hero. On the plus side, the truck destroys a lot of poorly constructed buildings. Fan of vehicular mayhem will find a lot to enjoy here. Fans of great character actors going totally overboard in genre films will enjoy watching Ned Beatty as he wears a leather jacket and talks like the leader of the Canadian Hell’s Angels.

As I watched the film, it occurred to me that, if it had been made in the 70s, it would have starred William Shatner as the good trucker and Leslie Nielsen would have played the Ned Beatty role. Lawrence Dane would have still played the father.