videorama-759-859391 This oz flick which took over two years to hit video, is hardly worth the wait. In the not too distant future, which by the hardly changed backdrop, unconvincing, really, give two or three years ahead, unemployment is really taken a slump. Dole bludgers, what have you, have made the dreaded mistake of going to the outdoor flicks one too many times, where scores of going nowhere youth, have become prisoner of the drive in, it's fences electrified. In drives our hero Crabsee, (Manning) and his hot date Carmen (McCurry) who tries to defy the odds, and the other youth who've much accepted their fate, for rotting away in this dive of takeaway of crummy movies, courtesy of some of the director's other flicks. Manning is hell bent on getting out, that's his objective, the plot of the whole flick, while even his girlfriend, has accepted her situation. Only Crabsee can't, the antagonist being the owner (a wonderful Peter Whitford, wasted in this trashy junk as is the middle aged woman running the refreshment stand) who he and his outside forces try and hinder his efforts, which Manning is a guy you don't want to get pi..ed, another instance when he realizes his predicament, as he blows off some steam to Whitford, really good in the role, who slyly tries to offer him a partnership. The movie too, takes a stand on race, as when truckloads of Asians enter the dirty gates of this establishment, Crabsee is the only one, sticking by em'. Oh, I didn't mention, Crabsee can fight too, his little fracas with another of the trapped being Wilbur Wide, his uninspiring acting performance, as one can expect. Still this insipid, if original movie with it's weak plot is worth a view, as McCurry's goodies when pashing Crabsee in the back of the panel van. This movie just won't appeal to all tastes. Too imagining the reality of the movie, if you were those unfortunate youth, is enough to bring anyone down, but remember it's just a movie and not a reall good one.

Michael_Elliott Dead-End Drive In (1986) ** (out of 4) Australian cult film takes place in the (then) future as crime, unemployment and various other issues have taken over everywhere. A variety of punks, criminals and lowlifes end up pulling into a drive in to enjoy a movie but little do they know that they'll be trapped there due to it being turned into what's basically a prison camp. DEAD-END DRIVE IN comes with a great title, an interesting concept and a likable lead but unfortunately there's very little else working in the picture. I'm not sure what the budget of this thing was but I'm going to go out on a limb and say that had it featured a bigger budget then perhaps they could have done more with it. As it stands, the film is simply interesting on a few levels but not enough to make it a complete winner or really worth watching unless you're a fan of Australian cinema. The main plot deals with a couple (Ned Manning, Natalie McCurry) entering the drive-in and getting trapped. While Manning wants to find a way out, it seems everyone else is happy with the worthless situation. The biggest problem with the movie is the simple fact that there's really not too much that happens. I'm sure having the setting in one placed helped the budget but there's just not enough going on inside the walls to make it interesting. We see the different types clash, we see Manning wanting to escape and every once in a while we'll get some exploitation in terms of nudity and silly violence but that's it. There's really no way to connect to any of the characters and it's really impossible to care about what happens to them. I thought Manning did a pretty good job in the lead role and he certainly helped keep the film moving. Director Brian Trenchard-Smith handles the material quite well but I'm sure he wishes he had a bit more money. What money was available seemed to go towards one terrific stunt at the very end of the picture, which almost made the entire film worth sitting through.

vitalymakievsky 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.

Woodyanders 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.