grodscorp@grods.comMIFF ‘08 film review: Dead-End Drive-In
 | Posted by Scott on Monday 11 August 2008, 1:00 pm Categories: MIFF '08 Tags: Tags: DeadEndDriveIn, MIFF |
Film rating: 3/5 (The Editor); 4/5 (John Surname)
Walkouts: 0/5
Pretentious clapping at credits: 3/5
BPM sighting: No
Faced with a growing number of unemployed teenagers, the Australian government has started locking them up in a drive-in cinema where they are fed a diet of junk food, beer and all night movies. Cars have been converted into dwellings and a punk suburbia has emerged.
Lauded by Quentin Tarantino as the go-to guy for Aussie action films (and most pointedly homaged in Death Proof), filmmaker Brian Trenchard-Smith (Turkey Shoot, MIFF 08) conjures up a destructive automotive wasteland in this 80s Ozploitation classic. Sparks fly in frenetic high-speed chases, outrageous stunts and explosive shoot-outs.
Based on a short story by Peter Carey.
The Editor says: I was torn when scoring this film. In terms of filmmaking it’s a solid no stars, yet it greatly entertained me for ninety minutes in a five star kinda way. So three stars it is.
The film started with a Greater Union ident that would’ve looked dated in 1981. I leaned over and whispered to Surname, “Now in glorious STEREO!” I bet that ident looked great on Laserdisc.
But with tongue so firmly in cheek that it distorted the face, Dead-End Drive-In was a rollicking good time despite its so-bad-it’s-good acting and utterly ludicrous storyline. I laughed a lot during this film: half the time it was at the craptasticness, and half the time it was with the craptasticness.
I laughed neither at nor with Wilbur Wilde, though. Let’s just be clear about that.
John Surname says: How does one review a film like this? A far cry from lame European coming-of-age dramas that lack drama, Dead End Drive-In is an unpretentious romp set in a dystopian future. Crabs (nicknamed so because “…I thought I had crabs once”) takes his (hot) girlfriend on a date to the local drive-in cinema, only to have the police steal his wheels. With the gates locked, and his wheels gone, they have no way of leaving.
Thus begins the film. Crabs soon finds the drive-in is really concentration camp for the young, who are kept anesthetised by movies, rock music, beer and drugs (the latter being supplied by the police).
It’s difficult to give a rating to it, because it is a different kind of film. It’s not trying to give us the meaning of life, it’s entertainment - if we do get anything out of it, that’s a bonus.
Bad acting, terrible dialogue, Wilbur Wilde - it’s one hell of a fun film.
