5/5 This is for you!!
  by (Alabama)
This is by far the greatest 15 minutes ever compiled onto one tape. When I listen to Judas Priest, I imagine myself cutting class, driving in an El Camino with my friend "Trip," complaining about our parents and teachers. This video turns fantasy into reality. If you ever were a burnout Priest fan, this is for you. If you ever wanted to be a burnout Priest fan, this is for you. If you just like lauging at burnout Priest fans, this is for you. If you simply like to laugh, this is for you. I cannot imagine a single open-minded person not enjoying this beautiful film.

5/5 Funny as hell!
  by (Vancouver, BC Canada)
My sister just got me this for Christmas, no doubt because I was an 80's headbanger. This short tape is simply some videotape taken in a parking lot before a Judas Priest concert in 1986 in Maryland. This is so funny because it shows what metal fans were like back then. These fans are particularly redneck, drunk, stoned and scuzzy. Anyone who is or used to like heavy metal in the 80's should get this. I'd like to know what happened to some of these people - my guess is most of them are dead!

3/5 +1/2 -- Stretching 15 Minutes of Fame, Literally
  by hyperbolium (Earth, USA)
While this is a fascinating flashback to the mid-80s, its scant 15 minutes provide only the briefest peek, and the then-neophyte filmmakers seem to have lucked into their best footage, rather than actually having created it. Their film (originally shot on video for broadcast on a local cable access channel) captures some terrific archetypes, but never draws out their subjects beyond surface level exclamations. Maybe that's all there was to capture, which would say something in itself, but it's hard to believe there wasn't a story behind each of the heavy metal fans at which the camera was pointed.

The DVD reissue fleshes out the original 15 minutes with many extras, including outtakes from the original shoot, the filmmakers' sequels, Monster Truck Parking Lot and Neil Diamond Parking Lot (neither of whose subjects have the juice of the original), contemporary interviews with several of the original film's metalheads, a tour through a long time metal fan's basement, and a video document of a disastrous screening at a club. The extras, particularly the contemporary interviews and basement tour, provide the heft the original film needs to translate to DVD.

It's easy to see why the original documentary has such ardent fans: it's a one-of-a-kind document that could only have been created on the fly. Traded as a video bootleg or viewed on the Internet, this would be properly framed as an illicit peek at an otherwise unseen subculture. But on DVD its length and depth (or lack of both) are disappointing; still, better 15 minutes of fame than none at all. 3-1/2 stars, if allowed fractional ratings. [©2008 hyperbolium dot com]

5/5 You Will Watch It Over and Over and Over and Over...
  by C. Koch (Saint Paul)
I kept reading references to "Heavy Metal Parking Lot" in various places but never could figure out what it was exactly. It got to the point that I was curious enough to just buy the tape without knowing what I was going to get.
For the curious: Heavy Metal Parking Lot was created when some guys lugged Cable Access cameras to a tail-gating party before a Judas Priest concert in Maryland circa 1986. All the cameramen needed to ask the fans was "Who do you like?" and their reaction of screams, hollers, and beer pounding is a spectacle for the ages. The program is about 20 minutes long and it always comes out when I have guests over for a little drinking. (My favorite is the guy who simply says, "PRIEST! Rock n Roll Forever!")
If you think you will like this video. You are wrong. You will love it.
Buy this video if you are interested in any of the following: Hair Metal, Rock n Roll, the 80s, sociology, juvenile delinquincy, beer, weed, what makes Americans loved around the world.

*I just read that a DVD edition is coming out!!!

4/5 Hilarious Short Doc With Tons Of Bonus Material
  by Chris Luallen (Nashville, Tennessee)
As someone who came of age during the 80's, I can definitely say this is an accurate depiction of metal fans during that time. These kids remind me of the redneck stoners at my high school who used to cut class to get high and listen to bands like Judas Priest and Iron Maiden. Highlights include the infamous "Zebraman" and the various female fans rambling on about how they want to "jump the bones" of Rob Halford (who was still in the closet)and his band mates. This film is hilarious but also impressive in the way it is able to capture a certain place and time (ie) the American metal scene circa 1986.

Before purchasing customers should be aware that the doucumentary itself is only a mere 16 minutes long. What fills out the rest of the DVD is other similar short docs, such as "Neil Diamond Parking Lot" and "Harry Potter Sidewalk", outtakes, updates on the Priest fans as adults, and a lengthy segment where a dedicated metalhead shows off his massive record collection. None of this is quite as funny or entertaining as the original documentary. But most of it is worth a look.