Purely Joyful Movie!

hyped garbage

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

A brilliant film that helped define a genre

After their tyres are stolen while making out at a drive-in theatre, two Sydney youths find themselves trapped in the drive-in theatre, unable to phone for help, along with several social misfits in this absurdist thriller from 'Turkey Shoot' director Brian Trenchard-Smith. The film is quite slow to warm up (it takes 25 plus minutes for them to reach the drive-in) but once it gets going, the film rarely lets up, milking the outrageousness of the offbeat premise for all that it is worth. Initially there is much mystery as to why they have been trapped; with food coupons and many amenities, the drive-in has clearly been designed for long-term living. Even more interesting is how many residents prefer living in the drive-in to the outside world; "I was four years out of work, nowhere to go" states one happy resident. As the protagonist's girlfriend quickly grows to like the place too, the film offers a satire of relationship commitment as he soon finds himself forced to live with a woman who he saw as no more than a 'squeeze' day-in, day-out. The film loses some edge in the final half-hour as immigrants are shipped into the drive-in, with the film adopting a tiresome racial tolerance stance as it becomes obvious that the drive-in is a government sanctioned facility for 'undesirables'. Even with a weak final third though, 'Dead-End Drive-In' is potent, thought-provoking stuff and meticulously well crafted. All the glorious tracking and panning shots and constant low lighting combine to make the picture very atmospheric with a genuine sense of doom and dread in the air.

1995 AD. Following years of economic turmoil and social decline, the world is tearing itself apart. Punks roam the streets in packs, mugging at will, and stripping the cars of the dead. Jimmy (Ned Manning) is a young man who's looking to make his honest way among the madness. One night Jimmy takes his girlfriend Carmen (Natalie McCurry) to the Star Drive-In, but while they're making out, his car's wheels are nicked. It rapidly becomes apparent that this is just the start of an elaborate setup. The drive-in is in fact a huge concentration camp for controlling feral teens, who are systematically trapped there and fed on a diet of bad food and bad movies. Can Jimmy persuade Carmen to escape the system and break out with him? Arriving at the fag-end of the Australian New Wave, Brian "BMX Bandits" Trenchard-Smith's 1986 post-apocalypse teen flick strongly echoes the Mad Max series as well as cult classics like Night of the Comet and Repo Man, using the 80s consumerist boom as the basis for its social commentary. That commentary is broad and direct, but it's also laudable and eerily relevant at times. When a group of Asians are bussed into the compound, threatening to upset the white males' dominance, it's hard not to see parallels with the situation in the West today. While the film is heavy on allegory it's light on plot. The focus instead is on the apocalyptic atmosphere, gaudy production design, shambolic action, and crazy characters – and on these counts the movie delivers. This isn't a film about mass revolution, it's saying that freedom begins with the individual. The individual is Jimmy and he's unusual in teen cinema: conscientious and defiant from the start. All he lacks is the physical strength to survive in this post-apocalyptic madhouse. But then we see him use his ingenuity in a series of well- crafted action sequences, and we're rooting for him. Carmen is given less to do, ultimately serving a cautionary function: she represents the path of least resistance.If you can get beyond the ridiculous premise and you run with the barebones plot, there's much fun to be had with Dead-End Drive-In. It doesn't quite have the discipline and craft to bring it to the standard of the aforementioned cult favourites, but it's no shame to be one notch down.

The opening of 'Dead-End Drive In' quickly sets out its world. There's been a series of disasters that have led to society struggling to survive. A food crisis, a financial crisis, and then an unemployment crisis. And Australia is suffering with the rest of them. Gangs of punks are fighting authority and crashing cars. As an Aussie movie, there's shades of 'Mad Max' to this, but it's given a more populated feel. Instead of empty streets, there's a bunch of people in 'Dead-End Drive In'. Despite the lack of budget for the movie, Brian Trenchard-Smith gives a real sense of lots of people suffering from the consequences of economic failure.The movie follows Crabs and his girlfriend Carmen, who end up stranded in an almost post-apocalyptic drive-in cinema after their tires are stolen by the police. The drive-in cinema has nearly 200 people in a similar situation, lighting fires and glaring at each other. The stranded are given food vouchers to eat takeaway from the on-site greasy restaurant.Crabs is a very engaging character. He wants to become a tough guy, but no matter how much he works out, runs and eats, Crabs is still regarded as a "scrawny b*****d". Yet, as soon as he's stranded in the drive-in, he wants to get away. He wants this so badly, he irritates his girlfriend and also incurs the wrath of people spray painting "Crabs can't get it up" on his car. Carmen, incidentally, is so attractive I spent the movie slightly slack jawed.For a supposedly trashy movie, it's actually very cleverly done. The car crashes are spectacularly choreographed. Don't expect a special-effects laden movie - it's not that - but when effects are used they're used well. Sparks fly up as cars speed through large fires. Bullets ping off the walls and cars with some canny squib effects.Above all, there are some great undercurrents to the movie. The way the drive-in deals with the unemployed seems to ring very true with the concept of ghettos. The controller of the drive-in cinema even provides them with drugs. Crabs becomes even more likable because - like us - he sees the drive-in as a huge prison infested with unfair racial divisions.'Dead-End Drive In' is, naturally, a little rough around the edges. But by limiting the movie to the confines of a drive-in cinema, it creates a well realised world. It's also great to see everyone throwing their all into a movie. Maybe by focusing more on characters and a basic story of "me versus them" it simply doesn't overstretch. It's an enjoyable - and sometimes thought provoking - way to spend 92 minutes of your life.

It's the future. Economy is bad, unemployment is up. Crime waves spread, government clamps down. Every place looks like downtown L.A. One day a guy goes with his girlfriend to a drive-in theater and while they're having sex in the car, the wheels get stolen. He now has no way to drive home. But guess what? He can't call his brother, 'cause there's no phone. And he can't catch a bus or cab, 'cause there aren't any. And he can't walk home, 'cause walking on the highway is illegal. So they are, quite literally, stuck living in the open space of the drive-in, which conveniently allocates them blankets and $30 a week.It sounds interesting enough, assuming it was played seriously but it's not. The entire film is boring, silly, with no tension, no villains, no danger. It is basically harmless, cartoon-like fare. The protagonist--the only one in the place who doesn't look like an extravagantly decked out Ramones concert attendee--is apparently the only one who wants to "get out," while everyone else has sunk into complacency.Once they find out they're stuck there, the rest of the film is a pointless, meandering mess. The most bizarre thing, however, was when a bunch of freaks go from harmless, obnoxiously bad actors to um...suddenly being the leaders of a "white Australia" meeting. You see, the government (who has "secretly" turned drive-ins into concentration camps for undesirables) has now also started bringing in Asians and other foreigners. So, out of nowhere, with NO prior motive whatsoever, COMPLETELY OUT OF THE BLUE, we see some innocuous little nerd who was only a peripheral character begin chanting against the "slopes," "rice eaters" and whatever else.The sudden twist not only fails miserably to create any kind of effect, but it's so DUMB that you don't know whether to laugh or puke. I just stared at the screen in amazement. Oh God, someone please cue in the irony, the irony!! They all had it "pretty good" there, living on the government dole before the "slopes" came. And what if the "rice eaters" go and "rape their women"? What is RETARDED about this entire needless plot twist is, firstly, that like so many buffoonish, imbecilic, dim-witted "white self hatred" narratives, it assumes Australians are somehow not entitled to desire to live in a country of their own. Whites wanting to pass their land to their children instead of having it systematically squandered by racial and cultural aliens (no matter how "nice" or well meaning they may be) via state-sponsored genocide by demographics are somehow "r..." Oh, you know... the big bad "r"-word! Mind you, feeling guilt for wanting to live amongst your own kind is only evil when whites do it. But all incredulously asinine attempts at politicizing aside, why did the writers do this? My only guess is they suddenly realized how pointless their entire college project was and made a last dash attempt to lend the movie some sort of relevance by pandering to sheep sentiment, right around script page number 86 or so.