The Cars that Ate Paris

[CG]

I was in this movie when I was 17. It was a lot of fun to make and lots of interesting characters on set. I thought the movie was garbage when I saw it. I think it's worse now. Still I laugh when I look back. It was made in a little town called Sofala, NSW, just outside of Bathurst.

[Briony]

It's a bloody great film and if you don't get it I can only look upon you with compassion.  Of course the production standards are "poorly executed" by today's standards.  It's a low budget B movie from Australia, it's not going to look like "Charlie's Angels" now is it.  

I love it because it's anarchic, sarcastic, clever, creepy and just flat out strange.  It is a truly original vision and it shows one of the great directors starting to find his voice at a very early stage in his career.  Yes, it's highly flawed and probably ridiculous at times with unlikeable characters.  It's also a bit of a cack (Australian for crazy funny) and doesn't take itself too seriously.  This was the young filmmaker mucking around and having a fine time.  I wish more people would make films like this instead of trying to make the next big Hollywood piece of cynical rubbish.

I do get why some people don't like it - it's perhaps an acquired taste or maybe you have to be in the right mood.
But the completely over the top negative reactions posted here are  bizarre.  

Honestly, if you think "The Cars That Ate Paris" is one of the worst films of all time you really haven't been around much.  Could it be that you didn't like the fact that it made you feel a bit uncomfortable/confused/stupid and this made you react angrily?  

You'd better just stick to John Carpenter or something.

[Dan]

The only good things about this movie are some of the old holdens that we don't see much on the road anymore here in Australia, and that stunning blonde woman at the start.

[Sarah]

I personally didn't really know what to make of this movie. I admit I've seen some movies worse than this. It could have been really funny, I guess, but instead it was just boring and kind of creepy... in a bad way. Like, a trip through the demntia patient's section in the nursing home creepy.

And yeah, I was severly dissapointed that no car ate a person. I was at least hoping maybe the cars were possessed or something, but no such luck. I guess I might have appreciated it more had the title not suggested that cars might eat some people.

[Gary Roberts]

I LOVE this film. It's so off-the-wall and inventive in so many ways. It's almost like being caught up in some weird dream. John Meillon is great as the mayor, a real villain if ever there was one, but subtly so. The opening mock-commercial is a great touch, and there's loads of detail in the film to pick up on and enjoy. Terry Camilleri is very sympathetic as weedy little Arthur, and it's good that he's played as a rather tragic figure - going nowhere, and with nothing but a couple of cheap suitcases to his name. CARS shows just how inventive Peter Weir was at the start of his career, and I like the way it gleefully avoids categorisation: it has elements of a horror flick, a black comedy, a drama, but it's ultimately something very original. If it was remade now, it'd be much slicker, gorier and more brutal, I suppose... but it wouldn't be a patch on the original. This is no bad movie, unless you're completely devoid of humour and irony.

[Malcolm Kaksois]

I have said it once and I will say it again and again.THIS IS THE BEST FILM EVER MADE.
Do not listen to the people who have failed to understand.

[Jigen]

i saw that movie in german-tv (5 years ago?!?) .. and i was horrofied 
the best scene in my eyes was at the final as one of the cars just spiked somebody up *with an completely unaspected front-attack* and carries im away ^^
super-theatralic scene 

[Doggett]

Rubbish, but still not as bad as Frogs.
It has a good title and that's it.

[Simon]

I like this film a lot. The plot and characters are quirky and interesting, the story has a depth that seems to have completely evaded the reviewer and the film has a wonderful otherworldly quality about it that is evident in Peter Weir's other films such as Picnic at Hanging Rock and Witness.

I really don't think this film belongs on this site and anybody watching it expecting to get the same kind of silly, visceral satisfaction they get from bad films are probably going to be disappointed with this original and surreal little gem. This is not a bad film, it's a very good film and it's a shame there aren't more like it.

[Zeek Ditty]

Considering myself an semi-expert in cheesy movies, I knew I would have to eventually see a movie rated at a skull.  This one was on cable so I TiVoed it.  What a waste of space!  My brain hurt trying to figure out a plot... until I realized there really wasn't one.  I even made sure to torture a friend of mine with this garbage.  Thankfully he's the forgiving type.  I have now seen a skull, can officially consider myself an aficionado of cheese, and now have to go wash my brain out with soap.