DVD / Blu-ray review (region 2)
Directed by Quentin Dupieux
Starring Stephen Spinella, Roxane Mesquida, Jack Plotnick, Wings Hauser
Release date 11 April 2011

A tyre with the power to make heads explode stalks the Californian desert. A group of spectators watch on…

Rubber sounds like the stuff of classic exploitation horror-comedy: a killer tyre named Robert comes to life and goes on the rampage!

However, director Quentin Dupieux – perhaps better known as Mr Oizo, the man behind the 1999 electro anthem Flat Beat – is more concerned with creating an art movie, and the simple-sounding plot is weighed down by meditations on voyeurism and consumerism. As the TV-loving tyre kills anyone that comes into his path, a group of spectators watch proceedings through binoculars, gratingly commenting on the action like a junk-hungry modern Greek Chorus.

While the attempt to create something off-the-wall and original is admirable, it’s difficult to really warm to Rubber. The dialogue is deeply pretentious, the pacing slow, the story repetitive and the characters non-existent. Sure, it’s beautifully filmed and is mildly amusing for about five minutes, but the whole thing feels like an ultra-hip high-concept music video stretched out to feature length.

Extras include an inevitably clever-clever interview with Dupieux (speaking to a blow-up doll), interviews with the cast, and the original camera tests. Matt McAllister

VERDICT: 5/10
Sadly, this would-be intellectual oddity isn’t quite the blast it appears from the trailer. An exploitation film for people who hate exploitation films.