Dead End Drive-In (1986)

Thanks for the memories!

Sorry, this movie sucks

Excellent adaptation.

The thing I enjoyed most about the film is the fact that it doesn't shy away from being a super-sized-cliche;

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.

I thank Toddy and Dr Gillard for referring this film to me. It is one of the best comments on Australian society in feature film format. not only does the film depict Australia for what it is--A RACIST CORRUPT PRISON ISLAND, represented by the drive in. I also found it to be a profound comment on the class structure and police/government corruption. I did however find it sad to see many old Falcons in states of disrepair, and what did they do to that charger in the beginning???, such a waste of car. I loved this movie, it also had one of the biggest explosions I've ever seen in an Australian feature film. all thou the film was made in 1986 it still has the same (if not more) potency now days under the Howard REGEME. this is another Peter Carey CLASSIC. rent it if you can find it!.

1990: Following a second catastrophic Wall Street stock market crash and a horrendous bloodbath called "The Great White Massacre," as well as a sudden drastic food shortage, inflation skyrocketing and unemployment hitting an all-time high, society has gone completely down the stinky toilet. The cops are ineffectual, savage hordes of uninhibited youths in souped-up hot rods ("car boys") run amuck on the devastated streets, and the ratings hungry media ghoulishly document the general blood-spilling chaos for every last morbid thrill they can milk from all the anarchy (gee, this bleak future sure seems a lot like the early 21st century, now doesn't it?). Jimmy "Crabs" Rossinni (winningly played by scrawny runt Roger Manning, who makes for a refreshingly unmacho brains over brawn hero), a cocky, blustery, but basically decent and resourceful bloke, and his newfound airhead gal pal Carmen (brunette cutie Natalie McCurry) go to the local outdoor passion pit Star Drive-In in Jimmy's gorgeous '56 Chevy to catch a flick. While Jimmy and Carmen are preoccupied doing just what you think, the cops steal two of Jimmy's wheels, therefor stranding him and Carmen at the drive-in. Jimmy finds out that the authoritarian police are rounding up wild-assed punk kids and dumping them into sprawling concentration camp-like drive-ins which pacify its inhabitants with a mentally stultifying diet of greasy diner food, cheap beer, raucous rock music, and cheesy low-grade exploitation movies (any similarity between this plot synopsis and my real lifestyle is purely coincidental). Jimmy, not one for being submissive to any uptight restrictive establishment, plots to escape from the drive-in's repressive confines so he can live his life the way he wants to again.Smoothly directed by Aussie B-pic specialist Brian Trenchard-Smith (who also did the grim futuristic "The Most Dangerous Game" variant "Turkey Shoot," a clip of which can be glimpsed playing on a drive-in screen), this bang-up little beaut bubbles, burns and blazes brilliantly with a brash, cheeky, waggishly irreverent tone, handsome, dexterous, sun-bleached, neon-hazed cinematography by Paul Murphy, a fantastically catchy and thrashin' New Wave rock'n'roll soundtrack, fresh, dynamic acting from an exuberant no-name cast, a top-drawer lowdown bluesy score by Frank Strangio, a very cool funky-punky look and feel, and several extremely visceral, muscular, gut-rippingly thrilling knock-you-flat-on-your-bum dazzling action sequences (an appropriately brutal hand-to-hand fight scene, a few incendiary shoot-outs, and a couple of explosively frenzied sparks a flyin' and autos going' BOOM! car chases which are topped off with a rousing do-or-die final victory jump). All that above cited stuff certainly smokes, but what really makes "Dead End Drive-In" such an absolute dilly is the surprisingly meaty and provocative thematic substance found in Peter Smalley's wittily right-on script, which ingenuously uses the familiar central premise of a lone stubborn individualist tenaciously refusing to kowtow to an oppressive square system to thoughtfully explore the stimulating topics of independence vs. conformity, assertiveness vs. passivity, racism (when the cops discharge a gaggle of Asian immigrants into the drive-in the white majority immediately takes offense and feels threatened), fascism, and how the strongly felt need to act and think for yourself creates an indomitable iron will that won't buckle regardless of all the fearsome obstacles one has to surmount in order to achieve true freedom in life. The excellent Anchor Bay DVD offers a fine widescreen presentation along with a very enjoyable and informative Brian Trenchard-Smith commentary, the theatrical trailer, and a rather paltry still and poster gallery.

This one has it all.There's violence,sex,car chases,explosions,cheezy '80s music,a '56 Chevy,and most importantly a drive-in! In a futuristic 1990 the government is keeping the unemployed youth locked up in a drive-in and giving them snack bar food,drugs,beer,and all night movies for free.Where do I sign up? Yes it's a bit silly at times,and the premise is unbelievable,but after all it's a "B" film.You just can't expect perfection in films like these,and I (for one) wouldn't have it any other way.There's nothing like stepping back to a simpler time and place.This fine little independent film from Down Under is just like taking a mini vacation in the way back machine.Pop this one in the DVD break out the popcorn and a cold Fosters and enjoy this blast from the past....8)8/10 on the Drive-in-Freak-O-Meter...ya just gotta check this out!