tavm After a little more than three decades of only watching the last 30 or more minutes of this movie on the "ABC Friday Night Movie", I finally saw the whole thing on Google Video just now. Taking place on a day in a Texas town, Drive-In has an ensemble feel as we view many events like the opening of the drive-in theatre, a couple of men planning to rob it, a teenage girl breaking up with a gang leader, and a teenage boy and his little brother talking about the former's shyness around girls among other subplots. When we get to the scenes of the feature playing at the outdoor screen, it's filled with parodies of various popular disaster flicks like the Airport series, The Towering Inferno, The Poseiden Adventure, and Jaws (I loved when both TTI and Jaws got referenced). This was both a funny and touching take on the various characters' foibles especially that of the teen lead of Orville Hennigson who I just found out was played by actual teen of that time Glenn Morshower-the future Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce on "24"! Another scene of that film-within-film I thought was hilarious was the way many people in the water was just calm when that shark's tail was moving around just nonchalantly! And how about that model plane crashing into a model building (post-9/11 irony notwithstanding)? So on that note, I highly recommend Drive-In.

godspellgroupie Once upon a time there were drive-in movies which provided double and even triple features.including cartoons,and endless intermission ads between the films,and snack bars which sold a coil shaped mosquito repellant called Pic.This film captures that time even though it features only one movie called Disaster 75 which beat airplane to the punch in parody of Airport and Posidion Adventure type movies.It does include one of those intermission ads {when it was shown on ABC-TV of course they took a commercial break}.The film includes as its characters a gang member,the good guy and the lady he defends,a pair of inept robbers,and many more who make this night in Texas a real fun night at the movies

Woodyanders This enjoyably wacky and frantic film centers on a single wild'n'crazy night at a Texas drive-in theater called the Alamo. The interconnecting stories include nice, but shy guy Orville Hennigson (the supremely affable Glenn Morshower) taking sweet, yet sassy Glowie Hudson (adorable brunette spitfire Lisa Lemole) on a date, a couple of inept would-be big time thieves attempting to hold up the concession stand, two rival gangs confronting each other in the parking lot, and a henpecked dude sharing a joint with his unsuspecting nagging hag of a mother. Meanwhile, a hilarious mock disaster opus named -- what else? -- "Disaster '76" plays on the big screen; this honey pokes blithely silly fun at everything from "Airport '75" to "The Towering Inferno" to "Jaws." Director Rod Amateau, working from a colorful and eventful script by Bob Peete, does an expert job of maintaining both a nonstop snappy pace and amiably breezy tone throughout. Moreover, Amateau injects a positively infectious sense of zany and inspired good-natured fun that's impossible to either resist or dislike. The lively and enthusiastic acting from an appealing no-name cast rates as another major asset: Gary Lee Cavagnaro as Orville's precious and mischievous younger brother Little Bit, Billy Milliken as cocky jerk Enoch, Regan Kee as the geeky Spoon, Trey Wilson as bumbling crook Gifford, Gordon Hurst as Will's equally blundering partner Will Henry, Kent Perkins as swaggering local stud Bill Hill, the luscious Ashley Cox as Hill's fed-up girlfriend Mary Louise, Louis Zito as the cranky, no-nonsense drive-in manager, and Bill McGhee as an extremely antsy Dr. Demars. Granted, the characters are a bunch of broad Texas caricatures (the often witty dialogue in particular is peppered with a sidesplitting surplus of goofy good ol' boy expressions and the thick Lone Star state accents are simply great), but they are still amusing and likable just the same. Extra props are in order for Robert C. Jessup's polished cinematography and the first-rate soundtrack of tuneful country songs. A real delight.

bobcatlew I saw this movie at a drive-in back in the summer of 1976 in rural Wyoming, not Texas, but it still seemed pretty close. It was the second feature to another movie that I cannot even remember. I was with my big brother and his girl friend, and so this movie just seemed to fit us. I remember we were belly-laughing through the whole thing. Saw it later on someone's VHS. Didn't laugh as hard, but it sure brought back memories. And this movie does catch that part of small town life dead on--a summer night when everyone gathers at the drive-in.Of course, the best thing about this movie was the movie within the movie--"Disaster '76." With it's "macho" hero delivering lame disaster movie lines while encountering situations out of the "Airport" movies, "Towering Inferno," "Earthquake," and "Jaws," it was a send up of just about every disaster movie made at that time. And this still a couple of years before "Airplane." I still laugh just thinking about it.