Movie review - "The Chain Reaction" (1980) *** (warning: spoilers)

I remember as a kid the poster and trailer for this film scared the shit out of me, with its pictures of men in spooky radiation gear and portents of impending doom. Written and directed by Ian Barry, The Chain Reaction has a very strong central idea, being an action film about the cover up around a leak at a nuclear power plant. Steve Bisley and Anne Marie Winchester make a striking, unique pair of leads, immensely likeable - he's a former racing car champ turned mechanic, she's his ex wife nurse who turns up in leopard skin outfits. They both clearly love spending time with each other, glorying in their naked bodies, having sex, playing music, mucking around. They're like that super couple you knew at high school who never grew up.

There are some effective moments, particularly some terrific car chases (partially directed by George Mad Max Miller who was called in to help when the film fell behind schedule), although too much time is spent on a boring German scientist character instead of our hero couple. Australian conspiracy theory films (eg Ground Zero) always seem to feel a little unrealistic and The Chain Reaction suffers from this problem at times. It also loses focus in the middle - Steve Bisley is meant to be urgently trying to get the message out to the media, but then we cut to his wife and the German walking around the grass as if they've got all the time in the world; then he sits in gaol and chats to Hugh Keay's Byrne for a bit; the baddies chat to them but don't do that many bad things. (And am I mistaken in thinking that

Nonetheless, a highly entertaining film, with an excellent cast that includes almost the entire cast of Mad Max: Bisley, Roger Ward, Tim Burns, Hugh Keays-Byrne, and (in a cameo role, wearing a beard) Mel Gibson.

Umbrella provide another brilliant DVD package, with a terrific featurette on the making of the film (Barry, Bisley and producer David Elfick don’t hold back on the film’s problems), trailers, deleted scenes and The Sparks Obituary, a short film by Barry.