
Yawn!
(Digs out DVD of Tank Girl (Mad Max the Musical.))
The one thing you can definitely say about George Miller’s revival of his post-apocalyptic Aussie outback petrolhead Mad Max is that it stays true to the original films. There’s no Mel Gibson this time around, of course, instead the mantle of the monosyllabic, mentally-compromised desert drifter is worn by Tom Hardy. Mad Max: …
"I imagine that she will get revenge with Pitch Perfect the following weekend"
There's an opportunity not to be missed here - after that get your revenge by taking her to see Pitch Black next, insisting it's the "sequel" (hey, it's a perfectly serviceable sci-fi / horror flick)...
That is the off the track comment, but Pitch Black was far from terrible, career best from 'vin Diesel'. Wonder what his real name is?
He was OK in that, have avoided his movies since, because that was so racist (no, I do not mean against people with similar pigmentation to Mr. 'Diesel', quite the opposite), and movies about driving too fast and being a tough arsehole put me off.
Still, he was believable as the ex-convict rescuer. Credit for that.
Some great cheap effects in that film.
Ah but mindless drivel with a serious message. Each dollar collected from the punters will be a dollar the studios and distributors have to lobby for TPP / TIPP type abominations, internet censorship / site blocking, perpetual copyright and mass surveillance in order to protect their *art*. Subscribe to the Mad Max dystopian future today and the corporates will do their very best to bring it about tomorrow.
Watched it Thursday with a big grin upon my face throughout its two hour running time. The action was predictably kinetic and ludicrous (milking mammas, the blind guy thrashing out riffs on his conflagrating guitar), but I was pleasantly surprised how beautiful it was. And not just because of the wives. I also found myself actually caring about the protagonists, especially the ones Max et al meet in the third act.
Film of the year for me.
"Finally, I couldn’t help thinking that for a society that’s low on gasoline, water and bullets, everyone seemed as keen as mustard to waste as much as possible of each one. Firing live weapons at fuel tankers they hoped to capture, throwing water over themselves when they barely have enough to drink and punctuating their rage with random machine gun fire into the sky."
Sounds like normal human nature to me.
All in all, this movie sounds like fun!
It is not gasoline, it is petrol, I learnt English, thanks to the 'net, that seems to have been pointless.
The British seem to embrace all novel cretinisms from the USA as soon as they are coined.
I am not intending to insult 'murrican language, except Noo Yawk of now, which I really do despise, for reasons of reading and style, it is just so terrible that it is enforced as English in other places.
It is such an ugly form of expression.
spot on.
For example what is it with this 'co-worker' thing. Isn't the old word 'colleague' PC enough? It denotes neither gender.... I will keep on using colleague and steadfastly ignore the other term.
I hope to see some British non-pc humour on the 22nd as I managed to get a ticket for Eddie Izzard when he appears in Billings, Montana but I do have a fear that because he's been over here for so long he will have gone over to the dark side and become American.
I would disagree with Nicholas Hoult's character being inept and although I do prefer Mel's 'I-genuinely-don't-give-a-f**ck' brand of madness to Tom's damaged and vulnerable interpretation I think he also did great.
The film managed to be intelligent and at the same time very primal and violent and the use of practical effects lent weight and 'realism' to the carnage. A great Mad Max film!
".... although I do prefer Mel's 'I-gota-show-my-f**ck'n-a**-in-every-showing ' brand of madness..."
FIFY...
Even thou', I would kinda miss Mad Mel - haven't seen it as of yet, but, he seems like a shoe-in for the fourth... (BUT who HASN'T he pissed-off yet?!?, and is he still alive/cognoscente?)
Straight off the bat we were pulled in. Phenomenal action and the perfect antidote to the superhero crap I've been shovelling through my gawk holes the past 2 years.
I honestly believed I was watching something original (yea I know, I'm a fan of the original) and something that was 'crafted' rather than 'made.' Totally anarchic and a true sense of fear for the main characters.
Get yourselves down to see this and on the biggest screen you can find.
Seems to be getting a good reception too - http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/mad_max_fury_road/
Tsk! Australians, eh?
Speaking as someone who loved the quickfire audio-visual mini-jokes larded into Road Warrior & Thunderdome I can absolutely believe the post apocalyptic tongue was intentionally firmly in radiation-scarred cheek.
Iconic movies, all of them. Everyone yaps on about the "aerial shot everyone steals from Bladerunner" but how many times have you seen a recapitulation of "the disarming of Max at the gates of Bartertown"? The Hobbit was only the most recent "homage".
A sadly underrated series. This latest one is high on the Stevie Watch list (I never go in the first few days as I prefer to watch without an infuriating field of tiny oblong foglights shining back at me).
It is interesting that the "bad" reviews here seem to be by people who have not actually seen the film. Having loved the original movies (apart from Tina Turnoff's), I was going to boycott this one. How wrong! It is brilliant. Far more fun than Avengers 2. On Monday I'm going to Halfords in search of tat to bling out my van. Does anybody know where I get a flamethrower guitar?
"Just non stop fun. Makes me almost want to lie down in the middle of a road and take a long nap......"
So you live in the Northern Territory then?
Presumably that's after you've done your bit to keep up the Territory's average alcohol consumption.
Haven't seen the movie yet, but the vehicles in the promo look like they're based on the one they used to roundup wild buffalo that's currently rusting outside of the Bark Hut (which is a pub of course) on the Arnhem Highway.
I saw it Friday and I agree with the author of the article that it was 30 minutes too long. Also, the story was boring, there was too much cgi and absolutely no humour. There have been less jokes in each successive Max film, and we have finally reached zero. Where are the classic one liners such as "I am the Nightrider. I'm a fuel injected suicide machine. I am the rocker, I am the roller, I am the out-of-controller!", "Greetings from The Humungus! The Lord Humungus! The Warrior of the Wasteland! The Ayatollah of Rock and Rolla!" or "Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls... Dyin' time's here."? Only Nathan Jones saved this film from being a complete waste of time. In the next installment, I think the script writers should kill off Max in the first couple of minutes and devote the rest of the story to Rictus. Or better yet, put it out to pasture. Some things should not be rebooted.
Not too long, too short! Story not boring, no story to be boring! There is very little CGI in it, almost all of it is real life action with real people doing totally batshite insane stunts.
There was a notable lack of jokes, but if you want to see a comedy go see a James Bond. The person who makes this film simply unmissable is Charlize Theron, she steals the movie and brings it home with a stake through its heart. With one arm. Literally with one arm... Nathan Jones? He was a total extra.
Some things should not be rebooted indeed, but Mad Max isn't one of them thank God.
Agreed. I went with a friend and we were both utterly flummoxed at the end, genuinely wondering if we had just watched the same film that's been receiving all these rave reviews. I'm genuinely disturbed by all these people who've been to see it more than once, as I was more than ready to leave after an hour. There's no plot and no character development, so it's impossible to care about going on. It's therefore a two-hour car chase which rapidly gets tiresome. It's the worst possible combination: a stupid film which takes itself terribly seriously. It's impossible to engage your brain whilst watching it, but also impossible to enjoy it as a bit of silly fun as you can with many B movies. Oh, and the script is a total embarrassment, utterly cringeworthy. The whole thing is boring, miserable and exhausting, and the fact that so many people seem to think this is a pinnacle of filmmaking seriously disturbs me.
Seeing this one on Tuesday. For the sake of revision, I watched the original over the weekend. I understand the film was shot on a limited budget, but it hasn't aged well at all, and that's being kind. But at least Mel Gibson's acting has definitely improved over the years, if only because it simply couldn't have got any worse. And utter disappointment to find out the Brian May who scored the film isn't the Brian May. Oh well.
A number of my childhood memories of the film have now been shattered and I daren't see the rest of the early trilogy. Still looking forward to the new one though.
Watched it last night, in a 500 seat theatre with nine other people......cinema is dying.
Anyway, to the film. Two hours of continuous sensory overload, but its not a "Mad Max" film. First thing to realise is that this is a vehicle for Charlize Theron to reprise her man-hating pro-feminist agenda which first appeared in "Monster". Indeed the whole film is a prolonged exercise in feminist propoganda, with only the women having any degree of characterisation. The women are all shown sympathetically: either as an extreme butch (but shapely) disabled lesbian tomboy who is acting in the guise of freedom, or diaphonously-clad sex slaves, or tubby milk-cows, or as part of a group of elderly biker wise women who owe much to Macbeth's witches. The men are all ciphers with minimal dialogue. Max himself has perhaps five lines during the whole film and is relegated to a supporting role in which he plays little deterministic part - he is simply a poor bloke being dragged along for the ride. Nothing like the Max of the earlier films. I suspect part of the reason for this is that Tom Hardy's Australian accent, isn't Australian...
Theron plays the lead role as a crop-headed aggressive one-armed lesbian. She's female, disabled and LGBT. Besides which her black-forehead warpaint is reminiscent of the tribesmen in both "Apocalypse Now" and "Fitzcarraldo". How many minority groups does that appeal to? And thats the point of this film: to bring live action film to cinema audiences who wouldn't normally go. The "warboys" - the androgenously made-up asexual young men who compromise the foot soldiers of the baddies - are so clearly intended to appeal to the gay S&M market while at the same time giving women something to look down on that its almost laughable. Just for the men theres a naked shot of a mature black-haired woman absailing down a rope, but its not titillating, and nor are the diaphonous gowns of the sex-slaves: in any other film they would have shown a glimmer of whats underneath, but not in this one. In short the "sexiness" of the dresses doesn't work - another result of the overt feminism at work here.
The whole film plays as a pro-feminist recruiting beacon with a message of "look how crap men are, we can live without them". An example is a scene in which Max can't hit a target with a rifle, using up all but the last bullet, so has to concede the weapon to Furiosa so she can show off her superior shooting skills. No, Mad Max this isn't
One last quibble - Therons character is named "Imperator Furiosa". Shouldn't that properly be "Imperatrix Furiosa"? Or is the masculinisation of the title another hint toward her sexuality?
I wouldn't agree that its a feminist movie, there isn't anywhere at all in the movie, either explicit or implied that suggests Furiosa is a lesbian, on the contrary she quite clearly fancies the pants off Max and asks him to stay/come with her a number of times during the movie, her hair is short yes but that doesn't have to have anything to do with her sexuality.
She is a strong character, but what's wrong with that? There aren't that many iconic strong females in action movies, Ripley in Aliens and Uma Thurmans The Bride in Kill Bill are the only ones that immediately spring to my mind, surely having more as an alternate perspective to the hundreds of male-led action movies is a good thing?
I also disagree that the other females are shown that sympathetically, the 5 wives are portrayed as frail and weak willed, the milk ladies are farmed like animals, and the elderly nomads are all wiped out in no time by the war boys, they don't put up much of a fight. The sniper rifle belongs to Furiosa so I think it fits that she would be better at using it than Max.
I guess if you look closely enough you can find references to suit any political agenda.
I've seen it twice already, in 2D and 4DX, and will probably go back and watch it again on an IMAX screen before it finishes in the cinema.
The plot is light, but is more coherent and makes a lot more sense than many other plot-heavy films I've seen recently, particularity the disappointing Avengers 2. The cinematography is outstanding, although it is based in a post-apocalyptic world it doesn't use the usual black/grey/brown filter those type of films usually use, its beautiful, bright and vibrant, and a 2 hour visual and sonic feast. I didn't think it was too long, even the second time round I was engrossed in the action from start to finish. The pacing is superb, the carnage builds to crescendo after crescendo and uses practical effects and real stunts and explosions, so the action has an impact and weight to it that you just don't get with CGI.
I can see why it took so long to produce, I thought it was better than any other action movie released in the last 10 or so years.
I'd say 2D is definitely better, the 3D doesn't really add anything and in some of the faster action sequences you get the usual 3D jittering where the 3D tracking cant keep up with the motion. The 3D glasses also dull some of the vibrancy of the colours and it loses some detail.
The 4DX screening was really fun with moving seats, smoke, water, air, lighting effects and smells.
It's a great movie. But... it started too quickly and I spent the first 20 mins doing the "eh? what? errr... eh?" After that, it all kicked off and I didn't really care as overall it's a huge mad beautiful looking utterly bonkers mayhemic firecracker of a movie.
You could replace Tom Hardy with any generic male action lead and you wouldn't notice. They should have called it "Mad generic post apocalyptic bloke."
It's Charlize Therons movie. I love Charlize Theron.