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** 1/2 “The Cars That Ate Paris.” RCA/Columbia. $69.95. PG.

This 1974 black comedy was Peter Weir’s solo directorial debut, and it’s an interesting one. Mixing macabre social parable and high-spirited action-movie parodies, looking back to Kubrick’s satire and perhaps anticipating George Miller’s “Mad Max” series, Weir creates an offbeat, crazy little tale about an isolated Australian town that preys on travelers by causing car crashes. The loony climax to this sendup of modern auto-culture comes when the emotionally crippled hero screams out “I can drive!” Erratic, but original.