Dalbert Pringle Boy, was I ever let down by this lousy, low-budget piece of Australian junk.From start to finish, this film continually struck me as being equivalent to a limp-wristed project carelessly slapped together by some incompetent, ass-backwards film students from Idiots-ville.Filled to over-flowing with lifeless, unattractive characters, rambling dialogue, terrible acting and long, "WTF?" stretches where absolutely nothing happens, The Cars That Ate Paris's title was, without question, about 10x more intriguing than was the result of its dumb and virtually humorless story.This is one of those truly grate-on-your-nerves films where right from the word "go!" one immediately senses that its scriptwriters were trying way too hard to elevate this one to the status of a bizarre & quirky "Cult" film. But, they failed miserably.I've got nothing, whatsoever, good to say about this dreary & asinine picture. Even its much-anticipated final climax (where the cars come to eat Paris) was totally anti-climatic. In fact, this finale was downright stupid.Thank goodness for the joy of fast-forwarding!

Stephen Bierce (FPilot) In this movie, Paris is basically a typical Third World nation in microcosm: You have a charismatic dictator (the Mayor) surrounded by yes-men and flunkies, an economy that has no real industry as such and forced to take "foreign aid" any way it can, a populace who is so dependent on the dictator's policies that it will support them whatever the moral cost--and not challenge him when times go bad, and the army (the kids with the hot rod cars) who do the dirty work but don't share the benefits and have no future. There is a perversion of civil society, law and order, and moral justice that is acceptable to the "Parisians" but wouldn't be acceptable in a "free" society.The protagonist comes to Paris as a refugee, accepts the situation, and witnesses the chaos when the moral cost of the Mayor's racket hits a tipping point and people start voting with their gas pedals. The monsters in this movie are the ones we breed in our own societies when those in power do what they want (even if they believe it is for the greater good) and enact unethical policies.

satanssixgun This movie was recommeded to me by a friend, who, by the way, is no longer a reliable source for movie recommendations. I was expecting to see cars, Awesome cars with huge motors tearing up the lamest place on the planet "Paris" with extreme prejudice. I ended up sitting through a snore fest, and I can't even tell you what it was about because my attention span stops after 5 minutes when there isn't a violent murder. I was expecting something like Death Race 2000 meeets the Roadwarrior and got Mister Rogers in rehabilitation, Do not watch this movie, there was a VW bug with rubber spikes on it, thats all I remember, and it did nothing. They didn't even drop a thermo-nuclear bomb on the eiffel tower, what a horrible film.

lost-in-limbo Arthur survives a car crash, but his brother was not so lucky. When he finally comes around he finds out he's in small country town called Parris and the local mayor tries to get Arthur to become a citizen. Strangely there some offbeat things going on in Paris and when the traumatised Arthur tries to leave he realises that he's trapped in this hell of a town. But what becomes a shock to Arthur is when he discovers the main source of income is that of salvaging parts of passing motorist's car after causing them to have a car accident.Peter Weir's first feature is a kooky, low-budgeted flick that I saw quite awhile back, but I did not remember too much about it, other than the devilishly looking sliver Volkswagen covered with spikes. I actually managed to record it off TV only couple nights ago and I just finally got around to seeing it again. This cult film I still find to be one tasty dark comedy that has a biting satirical edge about it. It ain't a perfect production and the film is highly incoherent, but damn the novelty behind it is far from generic, which made it such an engrossing and energetic exercise. Weir went onto make some prime films in the 70s with "Picnic at Hanging Rock" being his most vintage of his work in the period. "The Cars that Ate Paris" was a learning step in that right direction and a chance to find his feet. While the enigmatic story leaves many things up in the air with it's odd assortment of characters and ironic turns, but it's Weir's creative style and sly humour that shines through. Some of the satirical comments worked into the picture is that of Australia's obsession with automobiles to that of rebellion with the younger generation disrespecting their elders' terms. Weir is able to poke fun at these points with such nice balance of black humour and the smirking tone of it all really does stick to you without losing its way. There's some unbelievably humorous quotes in the dialogue too. But I actually found some disturbing scenes in the way how this car fetish lifestyle (a guilty sin waiting to break out) has become part of everyday life for the town that the harshness devoted on unexpected motorists is simply part of the parcel. It's a dog eat dog world in Paris. The actual feel of the film towards it deterioration of the town and menacingly, designed cars you could say goes on to find its way into the Mad Max films. Even a little homage of a spaghetti western standoff creeps in. There's not much in a way of suspense and it lumbers about in patches, but when the mayhem escalates it's plain devastating in its terrorising short bursts. The violence on the other hand isn't shy either with being well conceived and there's one memorable aftermath. The rural location and inhabitants of the town are simply alienating in their welcoming vibe and also with an eerie score that gives out a groovy twang that works up the mood rather effectively. There's just something essentially, whimsical about Bruce Smeaton's variety of tunes. The relax performances are adequate even though the characters are pretty much vacant shells, since most of the effort went into the look and thick atmosphere. John Meillon is great as the self-righteous Mayor and Terry Camilleri was solid as the timid Arthur who I actually sympathised for. The manipulative relationship between the Mayor who basically adopts Arthur as a son is an interesting set-up. Another recognizable performance that stood out was Bruce Spence as the very loopy Charlie. Simply a fun movie that's hardly dull, because it rambles along with many awkward situations and black humour.It's not for everyone, but people who are interested in Weir's work or that of odd premises should give it a go.