Although I reckon a Mad Max reference/homage is more apt ... as the audio commentary also suggests that I listened too. But with less money that that movie had ... and that didn't have that much money to begin with. So while I do not think that this looks cheap, it does really make the most of the location it plays for most of the time.

Other than that it is a bit of Apocalypse here and ... well now I reckon - no pun intended. If you love Drive Ins (and know what they are),you might be able to get a bit more out of the movie than others. Overall a fine piece of weird action movie ... that is not without flaws ... but they work more like charms rather than anything else.

In the near future, a teenage couple is trapped in a drive-in theater which has become a concentration camp for social outcasts. The inmates are treated to drugs, exploitation films, junk food, and new wave music.

Right off the bat, I have to say this is not a film for everyone. I am not even sure if it's a film for me. I have never quite understood the appeal of so-called Ozploitation, and I am not even a big fan of "Mad Max", which is easily the giant of the subgenre.That might be blasphemy, but it's true. So if I say I liked or disliked something, I won't be surprised if the die-hard cult fans disagree. (Perhaps all horror /cult fans have their weak spots. Some fans dislike slashers, but I adore them.)

Director Brian Trenchard-Smith has said, "The Drive-In is, of course, an allegory for the junk values of the eighties, which our hero sees as a prison." I am not sure how clear this is. The concept is clever, but flawed. Why do so many of the characters -- even our two leads -- accept this fate so easily? Our hero rebels, but not by much... it takes him days or weeks to even consider busting out. And his date seems to fall in line within minutes, never even questioning it. Huh?

The racial element is especially strange, as it is picked up but never pursued. The film's release on blu-ray may be appropriate for 2016, what with the racial aspects of Brexit in the UK and Donald Trump in the US. Immigration is a hot topic. But again, the film does not really explore this theme. Where does the truck load of Asian prisoners come from? Why is there racism in the camp? Is this maybe something Australians will understand that is over my head?

Bill Gibron of DVD Verdict wrote that the film's themes are "cliché and lame" and the film tries too hard without going far enough. I think Gibron and I are on the same page. For me, the social commentary was weak and could have been pushed. And it wouldn't hurt if the action was picked up. We don't get much of that until late in the film, meaning much of the story is a man wandering around a parking lot looking for spare tires.

For fans of the film (and there are many),Arrow does what Arrow does best and packs on some great extras. We have a brand new 2K restoration from original film materials (which looks pretty good despite the low quality it likely started as). There is an audio commentary by director Brian Trenchard-Smith ported fro man earlier release. And some new goodies: "The Stuntmen", Trenchard Smith's classic television documentary on Grant Page and other Australian stunt performers. And "Hospitals Don't Burn Down", his 1978 public information film told in pure Ozploitation fashion.

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.