Le Drive in de l'enfer

Yes this movie stinks with 80s pompous acting and tackiness, yet from another perspective it becomes an interesting time-capsule into the resent past, and for someone who did not experience the 80s I watched the film with an anthropological curiosity. Though this film suffers from logical loopholes. They are easy to overlook since the plot holes are there for the purpose to present a socially satirical world. Overall the acting was fine and the message interesting, though what really stood out in this movie to me are the great set designs and first class cinematography. Also the story is engaging and the characters charming in a comic way. I recommend this movie to the already fans of the genre and to those who are like movies that are offbeat and satirical.

I really enjoyed Dead End Drive In. This is a sci-fi film with great looking sets, decent acting and an illogical story line. Put it all together and add a few explosions and you have a fantastic ride.

The film tells the story of Crabs a young man who borrows his brother's car and goes to the drive in with a date. Then the government steals his tires and he is forced to live at the Drive In with about a hundred other teens who are also stuck there. It is never clearly explained WHY the government wants them to stay there (or even which government). Director Brian Trenchard-Smith makes the most of the story and pulls off some rather clever camera work. An aside from a racism subplot that is never really resolved, the story never drags. The sets are very extravagant and include some very funny touches (a poster for Rambo 8 hangs in one scene). Overall, the film is fun and is really good for anyone who likes futuristic, tongue in cheek sci-fi flicks.

Brian Trenchard-Smith is probably not a house-hold name even for B-movie fans, however, this Australian director has created among the wackiest and most original movies ever. While his work may not be of high quality (his two "Leprechaun" films are a good example of this), they are always creative as his wild imagination seems to be set loose every time he sits at the director's chair. "Dead-End Drive In", probably his best film, is a perfect example of this: writer Peter Carey constructs a very intelligent tale set in an apocalyptic wasteland, and Trenchard-Smith takes fully advantage of the plot to construct one of the best Australian b-movies. A cult-classic.

After the world's economy collapsed, Australia was turned into a wasteland where the unemployed youth uses the street as a battlefield and the law is forgotten. To fight this, the Government uses a Drive-In to lock them and keep them controlled using fast food and movies. A young man named Crabs (Ned Manning) is trapped in this way, but instead of becoming a conformist member of the nihilistic youth, he decides to fight back and escape no matter the cost.

Hidden under this sci-fi/horror tale of an apocalyptic society is a very well-written plot with social commentary included. "Dead-End Drive In" is a great story against the conformism. Crabs is trapped in an apparent paradise where he can get all the fast food he wants and do nothing but live each day, but instead he chooses to fight back and try to escape from the Drive-In and to return to his family. He knows this "paradise" is false, and that the only thing worth fighting for is real freedom.

Stretching the budget to the max, Trenchard-Smith manages to create very well done scenes with the very few resources he has. He makes a great use of his locations and the film is packed with high-octane action and a healthy dose of humor. Still, the film remains focused on its message and Carey makes a portrait of present-day society, as racist, conformist and violent as the youth depicted in the film. It is not a horror movie in the sense of being scary, but it is haunting in the sense that even when it is a fictitious scenery, it is not hard to believe that humanity will behave the way the conformist teenager do in the film.

Ned Manning is very good as Crabs, as he has the looks of a common young man trapped unfairly in a living tomb. His character is very likable and his performance makes the most of it. Natalie McCurry, playing Crab's beautiful girlfriend Carmen is also an important character, as she begins to lose hope in Crabs' idea and starts to behave just as the rest of the cattle. The rest of the cast is very good, but really nothing memorable.

The films's biggest flaw is the sad fact that the film looks terribly dated. The film has that distinct 80s feeling and look and it can't come up as "futurist" anymore. Anyways, that is not really a serious flaw as it adds up to the charm the film has. The movie still manages to be quite entertaining and some effects (like the use of explosives) still look great after 20 years.

"Dead-End Drive In" is a very interesting sci-fi movie from Australia that it's definitely worth a rent. With its 80s feeling, high-speed action and social commentary it still delivers the goods. This film is more than a cheap "Mad Max" rip-off, it is a terrific (and hopefully not prophetical) vision of the future. 7/10

DEAD END DRIVE IN is set in a sort of post-apocalyptic 1990. That's a bad thing, to date your movie like that. They should've known better, they're from Down Under, for god sakes. This is the land THE ROAD WARRIOR came from! So if you're going to take a chance on this film, try not to think of it as 1990. Also try not to think about the mid-80's synth soundtrack. There's nothing futuristic about it either. You really have to suspend your disbelief on this one.

After you've done that, DRIVE IN moves along a nice pace, getting in some required nudity, violence and car crashes. Crabs and his girl go to the Star Drive-In for some hanky-panky and realize they can't leave. It's a government program that traps the youth inside and shows them exploitation films and feeds them junk food. No reason why, guess it keeps part of the population off the streets. After awhile, social significance starts creeping in with allusions to welfare states and institutional racism. This is where it begins to falter. It's too heavy handed and frankly, quite embarrassing. Trenchard-Smith is a decent B-movie vet, and he should know better to pile it on like this. A great car jump saves the day though and takes you home, and you realize that even though you could've lived without DEAD END DRIVE IN, you really enjoyed the heck out of it. Look for the director's own ESCAPE 2000/TURKEY SHOOT playing on the drive-in screen during the film. If you enjoyed this, you'll dig that too.

What we have here is a genuinely oddball, atmospheric and undeservedly obscure apocalyptic-themed adventure from the land of the Aussies and directed by no less than the dude who brought us the ultimate guilty-pleasures "Blood Camp Thatcher" and "Night of the Demons 2". Brian Trenchard-Smith's "Dead-End Drive In" combines practically all the greatest elements of the 80's decade in one giant derivative yet surprisingly refreshing and entertaining film. The grim plot and disturbing undertones are more than obviously inspired by "Escape from New York" as well as that other Aussie cult landmark "Mad Max", but at the same time there's also a lot of light-headed comedy and cheesy 80's tunes in the film. You simply have got to love any movie that opens with depressing newspaper headlines about mass murder and economic crisis and then subsequently plays an exaggeratedly cheerful pop song during its opening credits! The story, albeit severely flawed in some departments, is very well elaborated and I even daresay quite ambitious since it even offers some effective social mockery that assaults issues that are timeless, like racism and the typically human herd mentality. In the year 1990, when the entire world is rotten and there ain't much left resembling law and order in the streets, Jimmy – or "Crabs" like the friends tend to call him - invites his funky voluptuous girlfriend for a night at the Star drive-in theater. The romantic date quickly turns sour when someone steals the wheels from underneath his "borrowed" 1956 Chevy and they're forced to spend the night at the drive-in. Only in the morning it becomes obvious that the drive-in serves as a prison camp for punks and juvenile delinquents. Crabs refuses to accept his situation and plans and escape, but all the other prisoners – including his girlfriend – seem to like the place because they have easy access to fast food and plenty of free movie. Quite the contrary, whilst Crabs is risking his life trying to get out, the rest of the drive-in crowd complains about the increasing number of Asians in the prison camp. "Dead-End Drive In" is a vastly amusing and often wittily scripted cult gem that is ripe for rediscovery by fans of Sci-Fi and action cinema all around the globe. It's available on DVD already, so what are you waiting for? The locations and set-pieces are convincingly grim, the soundtrack is – as said – quite exhilarating the Nathalie McCurry's female curves are a joy to look at. As briefly indicated before, the screenplay does have its shortcomings, though. The first, say, fifteen to twenty minutes of the film are in fact entirely pointless since they revolve on Crabs' "family" situation which is completely irrelevant. Also, the actual reason for his and Carmen's admission remains somewhat unclear. My biggest (but still forgivable) complaint about the movie is that it isn't as violent and bloody as it should have been. There are some notably sadistic moments, but – seriously – an exploitative and unscrupulous "Mad Max" clone like this ought to feature more sickening carnage, despicable rape sequences and relentless footage of mass destruction. Although I disagree, I can easily understand why some people think "Dead-End Drive In" is disappointing and even a bit boring. It's a fun and unexpectedly intelligent movie, but a little more panache would have been welcome.