Where the ‘Robert’ meets the road!
Normally I like movies that are unusual and don’t require much thought to watch, but Rubber made me question my tastes. I heard the concept was basically about a killer tire on the loose and I got REALLY excited about seeing this movie; yet shortly after the film got rolling (ha ha) . . . I regretted my enthusiasms. The TIRE was the only element that made the movie remotely enjoyable, and I wish I was joking!
Rubber starts off in a small southwestern town where Lieutenant Chad (Stephen Spinella) comes out of a car trunk to “introduce“ the movie to the audience, presumably the viewing audience, but in actuality, there is an on-screen group of people standing in the middle of the desert to “watch” this movie.
This is our first glimpse of the tire (Robert), the star of the movie. Robert is learning how to roll, much like an infant walking, and coming across certain items in the desert in which he chooses to just roll over to display dominance. Meanwhile, the audience in the desert is watching these actions and coming to their own conclusions of what is going to happen next.
We meet our next “important” character, Sheila (Roxane Mesquida). Sheila is driving along when she sees the tire rolling, and gets passed by an angry motorist who just runs right into poor Robert. Sheila continues driving along when she sees the angry motorist and chooses to flip him the bird; when the tire meets up with our angry motorist, we get the first glimpse of his “killing powers”. Needless to say, this was one of the more humorous parts of the movie.
Night falls and Sheila has checked herself into a hotel room. The tire rolls up to the same hotel and peeks inside Sheila’s room as she showers and when she slams the door shut, he magically appears in the adjoining room and LITERALLY stays on the bed and watches television at higher amounts of volume.
Day comes, and the audience is still in the desert. While most slept, only one man, the Man in the Wheelchair (Wings Hauser) continues to watch everything that is happening. While the audience is complaining of hunger, the Accountant (Jack Plotnick) arrives to feed the audience.
Sheila awakes and looks around the small town; the tire gets kicked out of his room by the cleaning lady while he was taking a shower. (I can NOT make up this shit!) After getting thrown out of the room, Robert, the tire, takes his revenge on yet another that has gotten in his way. But, Robert was not alone at the time, and wtiness Zach (Remy Thorne) saw everything.
Lieutenant Chad arrives on the scene to explain that this is all nonsense that is occurring around them. The tire decides to hide out in the pool when hotel owner, M. Hughes (David Bowe) orders Zach to retrieve the tire from the pool, and then kicks the tire away. I think you can see where this is going.
Days go by, and the people finally realize that the one thing that is killing all the people is the tire. They stage a stakeout, and Lieutenant Chad believes he has taken care of the problem, or has he?
Most should pass on this film, but if you must watch Rubber, fast forward to the scenes with Robert, the tire! Robert was the ONLY enjoyable thing about this movie. The way the scenes with him were portrayed, and the sheer humor that came across the screen made it watchable at pretty much only those points.
The plot was non-existent, but I must admit the fact there was the attempt at a plot made me wish that Robert WAS real and that he would do to me what he did to those who got in his way. Just make it quick, Robert, I can’t stand another one of your films!
