Highly Overrated But Still Good

Close shines in drama with strong language, adult themes.

While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

There are some movies that just stick in your head. I saw Drive-In when it came out in the 70s and a couple of times on TV in the 80s, and I just recall it being very likable. I tend to think of it along with Smile, which I recall being a similar movie from around the same time, although one that got far more attention.The movie is a loving tribute to what was then a dying industry, the drive-in. Taking place in a small town in Texas, the movie follows the fortunes of a variety of characters whose fates will take decisive turns - or not - by the end of the movie, including a couple of thieves, a bland teen boy and his annoyingly precocious younger brother, the girl who inexplicably likes the bland teen boy, her ex and his gang of troublemakers, the only black guy in town and a few others. It's essentially the structure of American Graffiti, only the soundtrack for this one is sprightly country western music.Once they all reach the drive-in the action flits from character to character, pausing in between to show the movie itself, a send-up of disaster movies seen in amusing snippets.Drive-In is not quite as good as I recall, but then, I was 17 when I saw it the first time and 54 when I saw it most recently and I don't always agree with my younger self. But even though the acting is hit and miss, some of the story threads are weak, and the movie-within-a-movie didn't make me laugh nearly as much this time as it did in the '70s, I still found this movie charming and likable, an ode to a bygone era that probably never really existed. It's one of those little B movies you're glad you've seen.

After a little more than three decades of only watching the last 30 or more minutes of this movie on the "ABC Friday Night Movie", I finally saw the whole thing on Google Video just now. Taking place on a day in a Texas town, Drive-In has an ensemble feel as we view many events like the opening of the drive-in theatre, a couple of men planning to rob it, a teenage girl breaking up with a gang leader, and a teenage boy and his little brother talking about the former's shyness around girls among other subplots. When we get to the scenes of the feature playing at the outdoor screen, it's filled with parodies of various popular disaster flicks like the Airport series, The Towering Inferno, The Poseiden Adventure, and Jaws (I loved when both TTI and Jaws got referenced). This was both a funny and touching take on the various characters' foibles especially that of the teen lead of Orville Hennigson who I just found out was played by actual teen of that time Glenn Morshower-the future Secret Service Agent Aaron Pierce on "24"! Another scene of that film-within-film I thought was hilarious was the way many people in the water was just calm when that shark's tail was moving around just nonchalantly! And how about that model plane crashing into a model building (post-9/11 irony notwithstanding)? So on that note, I highly recommend Drive-In.

I could've sworn I had already written a comment on this flick, but guess I didn't. A shame, too. Because this is one of the few non-mainstream movies that I really think deserves a "10" on IMDb's scale.All right. Call me a romantic blatherer, but no movie other than the first "American Graffiti" is still able--this long after its release, and noting how far cinema has come in the meantime--to transport the watcher to a specific time period in a specific place with so little effort. Rod Amateau deserves a place in cinematic history for that, if nothing else. And the amazing thing about it is that the specific time period--and place--to which it transports the watcher is none other than the very one in which it was filmed! Not something lovingly recreated, but fresh while it was happening! No nostalgic tweaking, just slice-of-life with a smile.Perhaps I gush, but I remember very well the first time I saw "Drive-In." It was at a dollar-admission cinema and was a new release at the time. The movie house changed its movies every Friday, and for some reason I went to see this on opening night. I was back on Saturday, Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday--five shows in seven days, and if they hadn't changed the movie again on Friday, I would have been back for more the next week. And I brought people with me to every show after that first one, all of whom claimed to adore it as well. That was 30 years ago, and I can remember no other movie before or after for which I felt that kind of exhilaration with the exception of "O Lucky Man!".What makes the movie so much fun? What makes it amazingly re-watchable? I haven't the slightest idea. It's just a bunch of kids doing what kids do, while the (few) adults around them remain largely clueless. That, and mentally filling in the blanks as to what happens during the unseen parts of "Disaster '76," the movie-within-a-movie on-screen at the drive-in, is always fun. And of course, just the plain old' down-home good humor and never-taking-itself-too-seriously writing doesn't hurt a bit. They pink, Orville...pink as bubblegum! Goodness knows several of the songs are used WAY too often (the Statler Brothers must have gotten GOBS of royalty payments from "Whatever Happened to Randolph Scott" being used more times than I can count) and Enoch is just a little too over-the-top (as is his pseudo-demise) while still being a real character, and NOBODY is believable as being quite what they pretend (just like real life, except these are actors playing parts), so don't look for great performances or something that would make Stanislavski or Strasberg sit up and take notice. But if you're looking for 90 minutes worth of pure entertainment that NO ONE need take seriously but everyone can smile at, I highly recommend searching out a VHS copy of this flick or praying for its release on DVD.Folks, it's a fantasy. Could it have happened? The odds AGAINST it are as high as the percent given in the Ronnie Milsap song on the soundtrack. But it's too pretty a fantasy to ignore. Give yourself over to it, and remember how life used to be, whether it ever really was or not.

"Drive-In" is a B movie about a night out at the local drive-in. It's a comedy that isn't terribly funny with acting that is less than stellar. But there are two reasons to watch it anyway. One is the movie within the movie which is showing on the screen called "Disaster 76." It's a send up of all the disaster films of that era and is very funny. Maybe the filmmakers should have filmed that film instead. The other reason is if you are a fan of the drive-in which is all but dead in many areas now. It harkens back memories and is a true journey into nostalgia. If you are not a fan then you may want to skip it.