Dead End Drive-In (1986 / directed by: Brian Trenchard-Smith)
Since the world is going mad for The Hunger Games, I found myself in the mood to watch its' 1986 Australian equivalent. That is to say- a shitty combo rip-off of The Warriors and Footloose about a bunch of nowhere "punks" whom the film's government decides are too wild and crazy to let roam the street free. Or maybe it's the other way 'round, that they're not tough enough. So they cart them off to drive-in theater lots which now function as tenement ghettos, trap them in so they can't escape, and use coercion techniques to make them want to stay. That's where one of my major problems with the movie lies- its' idea of coercion. Well, that and its' idea of street punks. And its' idea of a government conspiracy. Imagine that it cares about something. Now imagine some tacky executive of a movie studio willing to throw money at it, if the filmmaker 80's-fy it to the hilt. So, yeah: beat-heavy pop tunes, neon lights everywhere, huge frizzy hairdos, leather clothes, 80's club-hopping posers dressed like bikers who think they're Irish backalley streetfighters or something, and fast food paraphenalia. It's a dump heap movie trying to look like a sleek 80's Hollywood flash thing and trying to act like a sincere, meaningful social commentary. About... apathy? Until the racial disharmony subplot rears it's braindead head.
This movie can't do anything right other than look good. I suppose on a technical level, it looks about what you'd expect knowing that it's extremely tacky and extremely 80's. And extremely pretentious. I'm not even sure that's the right word. This isn't a smug movie- it's actually worse. It thinks it can have a group of characters dress like punks and act crude off in the distance and that makes a statement about the disintegrating attitudes and behaviors of teenagers / 20-somethings. It's a big psych-out is what it is. The movie features a kinda skinny little guy, small brother to this hulking beefy just stud of an older brother who has to fight off car-part thieves who swoop down on crash sites to loot WHILE ambulances and tow trucks are there, being trapped in the circumstance I've already outlined. He is swarmed upon by guys I can only describe as pretty much as small as he is and I gather they're trying to figure him out. And he quickly shows them that while they play like cricket games and run around trying to intimidate everyone else by acting like West Side Story's general idea of a gang (making silly faces, hooting and hollering, and impersonating mentally handicapped people) he's ready to slice them up with broken bottles and bash their heads in with bricks.
So, he's trapped in a theater of posers and can kick all their asses. Even though on the outside, we're meant to believe he couldn't handle himself (he was this other guy's little brother and his defining character arc is that he's little, bored, and full of energy). He should be the guy who actually does something in the movie and it takes him forever to do anything. He spends the "trapped" portion of the movie observing and trying to understand. This works for some movies which have substance and depth in them. This movie has none. I don't know about anyone else who saw it but: it's really an action movie (no matter what it's pretending to be), everything is "future sucks, law is impotent, street crime rules," and you have to wait until the last 12 minutes to see the pressure cooker boil over. And even then, I was disappointed by the lack of fucking carnage a film like this makes you want to see take place. It was playing the chase, crash, and killings for suspense. But who cares if anyone lived or died? There are 2 things this movie had any hope of accomplishing. Look good. Check. Have the idiot characters die and many quality random explosions and crashes take place for our amusement. Fail.
