MONSTER TRUCKS

OUT NOW / CERT PG / 105 MINS Chris Wedge DIRECTOR Lucas Till, Jane Levy, Thomas CAST Lennon, Rob Lowe

A THROWBACK TO the 1980s family creature features, this achieves *batteries not included levels of charm, though it never approaches the heights of E.T. Till stars as Tripp, a put-upon teen who’s building his own truck when he encounters an intelligent squid-like creature. It’s up to Tripp and bright chemistry student Meredith (Levy) to protect his new friend from an oil company by, er, hiding him in the truck. The monster is sweetly puppy-ish and well-realised, but Tripp himself veers from childish silliness to action hero machismo too often to convince. Only Levy and Lennon’s squirrelly scientist inject the necessary humour to keep us going until an entertaining action finale.