DEAD END DRIVE-IN (1986)

DEAD END DRIVE-IN (1986)

Tagline: There's a party every day, a movie every night, and all the junk food you can eat. What more can a kid want... except to get out!

(Action, Drama, Dystopia) [R]

Note: As much as the more updated movie posters and IMBD are trying to convince you, this isn’t a horror movie unless you consider ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK a horror movie. 

Listen: they're not the enemy. They're prisoners, just like us!

In this one, a couple Jimmy and Carmen end up going to see a movie at the Star Drive-In in the “future” year 1995. This is in the middle of a group of crises that are going on affecting everyone, world economic crisis spreads, inflation, shortages, unemployment, crime waves, etc, so the government invokes emergency powers. While there Jimmy has his tires stolen by the police and him and Carmen are told the management of the drive-in can’t do anything about it till morning. Only when morning arrives, Jimmy and Carmen realize no one ever leaves the drive-in. They are all serving life sentences with a specified amount of provisions given to them each day to survive. 

First off, when you are coming up with your idea for a dystopian future movie, even if it’s an “Ozploitation" film (an Australian genre and/or exploitation movie) you don’t set the future date so close to when the movie is actually made. This movie was made in 1986 and they are saying this dystopian future takes place in 1995? Yeah, just 9 years after the movie was made. That is lame, just don’t do it. Be smart and make your movie's future date at least 200 years out. 

The second problem with this movie is that nothing happens. This is basically 90+ minutes of watching people talk in a run-down drive-in. There is one fight scene and then the climax which is super predictable. There are a couple of groups in this movie most notably the “carboys” which are essentially like Australia’s version of Nazis. It’s pretty jacked out. 

The main character Jimmy (played by Ned Manning, who is still doing movie projects as of 2021) actually has character to an extent, but the same cannot be said for his girlfriend in the movie Carmen played by Australian actress Natalie McCurry. Some people might recognize McCurry’s name because she was actually Mrs. Australia in 1989. However, fans of hers would likely be disappointed with the character she plays here. None of the acting however is all that good and even though I can understand what everyone is saying just fine, the script feels like it was written by someone that needs some racial counseling. Perhaps that was the point, but damn. 

I mean this movie just freakin sucks. I wish there was a redeeming quality outside of the main character being the smartest person in dystopian Australia when it counts. I don’t care what anyone says, this movie is a waste of your time. There are far better more well-thought-out crazy flicks out there that are far more interesting. 

For me, this is a 0 out of 7. I did have an idea of what the plot was before going into it, but with most sites categorizing it as “horror” I had originally planned to write the review in October as part of the theme for that month. What I didn’t know was how poorly it would be shot and acted. I don’t recommend this thing at all. You could walk down any bad part of Los Angeles, CA  if you want to get the look and feel of this movie, but I can’t recommend that either. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF SPRINGVALE PRODUCTIONS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY. 

Please check out the link below by clicking on the picture. Because no one should die buttonless.