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.
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.