phanthinga Look at the plot of Dead End Drive-In you pretty much know what you got into is a 80s dystopian movie but to my surprise the movie actually far more deep and somehow go beyond than just a cheesy b-movie.The characters is your typical cliché rebel teenagers so the dialogue not that easy to hear(no offense to Aussie people btw) or interesting but what catch my eyes the most is the world around them and how it work is fascinating to me.It may come out a little bit boring to watch cause the majority of the runtime there nothing really happens so I only recommend this movie to hardcore b-movie fan

jllewell What can I say?This is a film that I saw one night on telly at about 2 AM... I was about 16 years old, and I LOVED it!!!! I never remembered it's name, and it took me until now, and an old copy of Halliwell's to track it down... WOO HOO! I love every single thing about this film... it's wonderful in the way that only B movies can be when they hit the right note. It doesn't take itself too seriously, but it is ENTERTAINMENT in large letters, with enough socio-political comment for you to get every single little dig at the establishment, without being arty-farty or self important. Of course... it's a Peter Carey story... that says it all. Chock full of fun. Class act!

José Luis Rivera Mendoza (jluis1984) Brian Trenchard-Smith is probably not a house-hold name even for B-movie fans, however, this Australian director has created among the wackiest and most original movies ever. While his work may not be of high quality (his two "Leprechaun" films are a good example of this), they are always creative as his wild imagination seems to be set loose every time he sits at the director's chair. "Dead-End Drive In", probably his best film, is a perfect example of this: writer Peter Carey constructs a very intelligent tale set in an apocalyptic wasteland, and Trenchard-Smith takes fully advantage of the plot to construct one of the best Australian b-movies. A cult-classic.After the world's economy collapsed, Australia was turned into a wasteland where the unemployed youth uses the street as a battlefield and the law is forgotten. To fight this, the Government uses a Drive-In to lock them and keep them controlled using fast food and movies. A young man named Crabs (Ned Manning) is trapped in this way, but instead of becoming a conformist member of the nihilistic youth, he decides to fight back and escape no matter the cost.Hidden under this sci-fi/horror tale of an apocalyptic society is a very well-written plot with social commentary included. "Dead-End Drive In" is a great story against the conformism. Crabs is trapped in an apparent paradise where he can get all the fast food he wants and do nothing but live each day, but instead he chooses to fight back and try to escape from the Drive-In and to return to his family. He knows this "paradise" is false, and that the only thing worth fighting for is real freedom.Stretching the budget to the max, Trenchard-Smith manages to create very well done scenes with the very few resources he has. He makes a great use of his locations and the film is packed with high-octane action and a healthy dose of humor. Still, the film remains focused on its message and Carey makes a portrait of present-day society, as racist, conformist and violent as the youth depicted in the film. It is not a horror movie in the sense of being scary, but it is haunting in the sense that even when it is a fictitious scenery, it is not hard to believe that humanity will behave the way the conformist teenager do in the film.Ned Manning is very good as Crabs, as he has the looks of a common young man trapped unfairly in a living tomb. His character is very likable and his performance makes the most of it. Natalie McCurry, playing Crab's beautiful girlfriend Carmen is also an important character, as she begins to lose hope in Crabs' idea and starts to behave just as the rest of the cattle. The rest of the cast is very good, but really nothing memorable.The films's biggest flaw is the sad fact that the film looks terribly dated. The film has that distinct 80s feeling and look and it can't come up as "futurist" anymore. Anyways, that is not really a serious flaw as it adds up to the charm the film has. The movie still manages to be quite entertaining and some effects (like the use of explosives) still look great after 20 years."Dead-End Drive In" is a very interesting sci-fi movie from Australia that it's definitely worth a rent. With its 80s feeling, high-speed action and social commentary it still delivers the goods. This film is more than a cheap "Mad Max" rip-off, it is a terrific (and hopefully not prophetical) vision of the future. 7/10

Lovechild_77 I'm a huge fan of sci-fi and horror movies and have built up quite a tolerance for movies in this genre that are below average. Just as long as they are funny, interesting and exciting to watch they are also worth your time to watch them. Many low-budget movie productions also have nice ideas but not always a budget that can realize them.Well, in Dead End's case it's pretty clear that the producer didn't know what to do with his idea, although he must have had a fair budget since it doesn't look especially cheap. The performances are also quite OK for a movie like this. These parts are good. The bad things are how ridiculous, almost embarrassing crappy à la TV-movie way, the story goes on. I don't know where to start actually. From the first statement by the supervisor that the youngsters are stuck in that place to the laughable car chase and racist inflammatory speech near the end and finally the 'exciting' car jump over the fences... Oh boy! That ramp was perfectly placed there wasn't it?. Why didn't he just drove through the fences at the right moment when he got his tyres and gasoline. Although the fences were electrified it shouldn't had made any difference. In normal cases these trashy peoples would have undoubtedly started a riot and crashed the place. Things like this just make me angry and annoyed, when the director thinks that the audience are dead-panned idiots who can't think for themselves.I know this movie is meant to be somewhat satirical and that these kind of movies shouldn't be taken too seriously, but honestly, it's not even so bad it's funny and that makes this movie a real bummer. That sequence with the 'foreigners' who were driven to this 'camp' is just a cheap excuse to make the movie a little bit longer and has nothing to do with the story. It's just so awkward and unnecessary. Even the picture on the DVD is strange because it makes you falsely believe that that is how the main actor in the movie looks like. This is not the case...Why this movie have got almost the same rating as the cult classic The Wraith, produced the same year, is beyond my belief. That movie was at least funny and had a great soundtrack. Sure, it was lame at parts, but it was exciting and funny. I also can't believe how some people who posted here have the nerve to even compare this piece of crap with Mad Max. They must have been first-time sci-fi viewers.I'm glad I got to view this movie without paying for it before I bought it on DVD. That would have been an even larger disappointment. For God's sake, even the horrendously bad Garbage Pail Kids: The Movie is more fun to watch than this stinker! My advise is, keep away from this piece of garbage and go see The Wraith instead or some other cult classics. Movies like this are meant to stay forgotten...