TRAILER
http://ca.youtube.com/watch?v=KkR9Ny_FLYQ
“Who care about the film? That’s not why we came here.”
Back in the day, Australia film exports were KING! No one else could deal out the cheese, gore and wild vehicular mayhem like those wacky Aussies. There’s tons of high points (Escape 2000 and the Mad Max films (Well, the first two at least!) and tons of brutal lows in. Dead-End Drive-In doesn’t fail completely a entertaining nor does it ever get good enough for it to earn a recommendation. It’s an in-between film that’s worth a distracted watch and nothing more.
In the apocalyptic future….Is there any other kind in Australia?....Civilization lies (kinda) in shambles. The streets are populated by ninja star throwing ‘Warriors’ rejects, brightly colored punks and a few normal folks jogging. (?) A young man and his girlfriend (Described as ‘Voluptuous’ on the back cover) get trapped in a drive-in that ends uip being a covert prison for violent youth. Obviously, they’re going to want to escape, but not before a bunch of fights, explosion and crashing cars can be seen. Or will I fall asleep before any of that promised stuff actually happens?
Dead-End Drive-In is packed full of exploitation elements that never actually get exploited. They're presented, hinted at and never delivered on. Blame it on everything. The pace is painfully slow, the actors uncharismatic (Other than those villainous Aussie henchmen) and the excitement sluggish and scattershot. The main drive of the plot: “We’re trapped in a PRISON against our WILL!” doesn’t seem to bother anyone. The main guy wants Chevy Wheels so he can escape and the main girl just wants to fit in. Doesn’t any none find it a little odd that there are showers at the drive-in? At the hour mark of this non-threatening storyline some political commentary gets thrown in (“Racism = Bad”) but it’s already too little too late. Bryan Trenchard-Smith knows how to point and move a camera. The cinematography is crisp and colorful, but he just doesn’t have anything interesting to put in front of it.
Supposedly, the original short story (“Crabs”) was straight up a social analysis: The doors of the Drive-In were unlocked and everyone decided to stay on their own free will because it was better than the outside world. It’s hinted in the last half hour in the film version, but never gets developed enough make an impact. Blame a lazy script that's been shoehorned into delivring the exploitation and commentary in a half assed way. No matter what math say’s (Stupid Logic) it doesn’t add up to a whole. It’s just a dead-end.
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Anyone think I’m the first to make that witty aside?
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