Movie Review: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Can ayone believe that it’s been 30 years since the last “Mad Max” movie came out? It’s kind of incredible if you think about it. Now as you also may remember, I recently did a series of reviews on the original “Mad Max” trilogy. And that is the reason why it’s taken me so long to watch (and review) this one. I wanted to see the originals first. But now that those are done and this movie is out on all video platforms, I could sit down and review it.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Mad Max: Fury Road”.

The world has gone to shit… oh wait, it had already done that in “Road Warrior”. Anyway, everything is a wasteland and once again we follow Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy). In this movie he has to help a group of women led by someone called Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) get to safety from the new bad guy simply known as Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne). And Max has to do this while being mentally haunted by his past. What I was surprised by with “Fury Road” is the dramatic heft, it is actually really good. This movie presented it’s simple plot with a surprising amount of narrative skill and dramatic heft which really imporved a lot. This movie is a straight up road trip in a wasteland filled with crazy people, yet they managed to put in a lot of great storytelling without it feeling forced or terrible and that is something I absolutely loved.

The characters in this movie are just as colorful and unique as in the previous three movies. Tom Hardy is excellent as Max, really playing this broken and even a bit cynical man. And to still your minds on the question of who I liked more as Max out of Hardy and Gibson… I liked Mel Gibson more. Don’t get me wrong, Hardy was great but I still prefer Gibson a bit more. Anyway, moving on. Charlize Theron as Furiosa… holy shit. Her performance is incredible. There is so much emotion behind her that she really disappears into her performance. Nicholas Hoult is also in the movie, playing a crazy guy named Nux. And he was also pretty great. Then we have Hugh Keays-Byrne (Sidenote: Also played main villain Toecutter in the original “Mad Max”) who plays the villain Immortan Joe. And he was pretty great as well. Nothing much to say other than that he was kind of badass. Unfortunately there was no Bruce Spence in the movie, but I guess we’ll have to live with that. Anyway, every performance was great and every character was entertaining.

The score for the movie was done by Tom Holkenborg (A.K.A. Junkie XL) who also did the score for the movie “Run All Night”. And I’m not gonna lie, the score for the movie was pretty fucking fantastic. It’s big, it’s loud, it’s bombastic and at times it is even beautiful. It is for the most part consistent of a normal orchestra with the occasional electronic sound. But then there are times where the score decides to say “Fuck it” and throw in some electric guitar and be badass. What I am trying to say is that the score is about as crazy, unpredictable and badass as the movie it is used in and I fucking love it.

Once again, George Miller is here to direct a “Mad Max” movie and wow, he has really out-done himself. This movie is perfectly directed and the shots look fantastic. This might be the best looking movie I’ve seen so far that came out this year. Also, thank the lord for the action scenes! I’m almost sick of action movies from recent years. Too much CGI, too much shaky-cam, too much green screen. But then comes “Mad Max: Fury Road” and decides to fix everything again. Everything is practical, there is minimal CGI, no green screen and there is no shaky-cam. The action in this movie is fast, visceral, brutal and the best in recent years. I would put it like this: It’s “The Road Warrior” times 500. It is crazy, bonkers and as amazing as action can be! GAAAAAAH!

This movie released to pretty much universal acclaim. On Rotten Tomatoes it has a 97% positive rating and a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 89/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 8,3/10 and is ranked #112 on the “Top 250” list.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” is a breath of fresh, sandy air. It has a surprisingly dramatic & great story, great characters/acting, fantastic music, excellent direction and some of the best action ever. Time for my final score. Hey look, an envelope. WHAT A LOVELY DAY!!! My final score for “Mad Max: Fury Road” is 9,87/10. It definitely gets the “SEAL OF APPROVAL!”.

Review of “Mad Max: Fury Road” is completed.

Movie Review: Mad Max (1979)

I know, I know, I am a bit alte in the game when it comes to the “Mad Max” franchise. But hey, better late than never, right? Anyway, time for another series of reviews based on a movie franchise. And this time it is for (if it wasn’t obvious already) “Mad Max”. So I will try to review all original movies before “Mad Max: Fury Road” comes out on DVD/Blu-Ray. And yes I know, I am not done with my series of “Jaws” reviews, but I swear that I will get that done soon enough. But for now, let’s talk about the first of a series of Australian movies.

Ladies and gentlemen… “Mad Max”.

The world has almost gone to shit (that’s a new one). There is still a little bit of order left in the world with police officers still existing to keep everything in control. In this movie we follow officer Max Rockatansky (Mel Gibson) who have to take up arms again to try to take out a motorcycle gang to avenge his wife and son. That is basically the plot in a nutshell, strange thing is that it doesn’t happen until fairly late in the movie (mild spoilers I guess). Not that the plot is slow, not at all. The plot moves at a really good pace, it’s jsut so weird that the main plot of the movie comes in at such a late point. Anyhow, the plot is really good.

The characters are prety good I guess, it just seems like no one is completely sane (SIdenote: I guess that is why they call it “MAD Max”). How is the acting then? It’s fine at best, no one gives really a noteworthy performance in that sense. I guess the best one comes from Gibson who actually is really good in the movie. However, everyone else is at best fine. The bad guys however (for the most part) are rather meh. I think the actors confused crazy for weird and awkward. Because the main bad guy (Sidenote: The one called “Toecutter” played by Hugh Keays-Byrne) doesn’t really give that great of a performance here. Like I said, I think he confused crazy and psychotic with weird and awkward. And that kind of drags it down a bit for me. Gibson’s really good though, so that’s something!

The score was composed by Brian May, no, not the guitarist from Queen, but an Australian man who did music for a bunch of Australian movies. Anyway, it was good, definitely a product of it’s era. You notice that this music was composed back in the 70’s, it has the sort of 70’s action-thriller style. I don’t know how to explain it better, that is the only way I can explain it. And it was pretty good, fit the movie well enough.

When you watch this movie, would you expect it to come from the same guy that directed “Happy Feet”? Because I sure as shit didn’t. Because this is a violent and weird movie that is as far from a movie about cute dancing penguins as possible. Anyway, this movie was directed by George Miller who did a great job with directing this movie that apparently was on a very thin budget. The shots look great and he did an overall great job. And the action in the movie is really cool too. They did a lot of crazy stunts with the vehicles and I love seeing these types of real stunts because we never get them these days. Fuckin’ CGI…

This movie has been pretty well-received. On Rotten Tomatoes it has an 89% positive rating with a “Fresh” certification. On Metacritic it has a score of 67/100. And on imdb.com it has a score of 7,0/10.

“Mad Max” is a mixed bag of stuff. The story is good, the acting is for the most part fine with Mel Gibson being really good and the main bad guy not being that great, the music is fine, the action/stunts are great and the direction/camera work being great. Time for my final score. *Australian Phrase*. My final score for “Mad Max” is an 8,77/10. I think it’s worth buying.

Review of “Mad Max” is done.

He’s a very, very Maaaaad Max…