Mad Max: Fury Road

Is that Hook as in friggen' awesome or Hook as in cheesy garbage? 'Cause if Thunderdome reminds me of Dustin Hoffman as a pirate I will have committed a terrible crime by not seeing it.

The latter. There is a Hook-like character in the form of Tina Turner's character, but I was thinking more of how the film becomes about Max saving a tribe of kids similar to the Lost Boys, which definitely undermines the gritty nature built up by the franchise's other films.

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Ah, I can see that. Still, woulda been cool to see Ruffio trying to shoot down Smee in a gyrocopter.

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"Well, at least your intentions behind the UTTERLY DEVASTATING FAULTS IN YOUR LOGIC are good." - Captain Steel

That probably depends on what you want in a movie.

None of them will really give you the adrenaline rush that Fury Road does. I'd even venture to say that the original Mad Max from 1979 is a bit boring. The Road Warrior is a genuinely good movie, but all that focus on characters and story leaves less room for action. Beyond Thunderdome is a cheesefest, but it's entertaining.

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Agreed.

Interestingly, they are all very different movies (but all involve the same central character).

Mad Max (1979) has the feel of a low budget, 70's cult film - it's still a good action & revenge film - but as pointed out, it's pre-apocalyptic. So it's somewhat standard fare (story-wise) about a cop who loses it and goes all vigilante on a murderous motorcycle gang that kills his family. Cinematically, it is unique.

Road Warrior (1981) is much more Hollywood (I don't mean that in a bad way). Bigger budget, elaborate action scenes, much more epic in its feel. It's like somebody liked the Mad Max character enough to give him a major film treatment. Here, the setting is post-apocalyptic. Something's happened so that gas is worth killing over, society has collapsed and the land is overrun with marauders. Max is still the same character, but now he has bigger worries than one violent motorcycle gang as he must chose between helping a small band of innocent survivors under threat or look only to his own survival (being the protaganist, it's obvious which direction he takes).

Beyond Thunderdome (1985) - personally, this is my least favorite as it diverges even further from the first two. Societies are reforming, but as primitive, barbaric places. Unlike the first two films which have very simple, very cohesive plots - this one finds Max trying to cope with a couple different situations in a strange, post-apocalyptic world.

I might be the only person who likes Beyond Thunder Dome...but it's only the first half in Barter Town that I really like. There's something about the concept of the way verbal contracts and justice is handled.

"Right or wrong, we had a deal. And the law says: bust a deal and face the wheel!"

I don't know why, maybe its my upbringing, but that quote is just as important to me as any of the Ten Commandments, it gives me goose bumps.

In writing those reviews I realized a big problem with Thunderdome is it takes Max out of his car!

Max is the "Road Warrior" in the first two films because his use of the Interceptor and the concepts of pursuit and battle on the roadways of the outback is thematic in both movies. It's like the car is a major co-star.

So Thunderdome is like if they made a "Knight Rider" movie with just David Hasselhoff but no KITT (the car with William Daniel's voice).

That's why Thunderdome didn't really seem like a Mad Max movie to me - because Max is the Road Warrior, but I don't recall any war on the road in Thunderdome. There was nothing specifically "Max" about Thunderdome - you could stick any action-oriented character in that spot.

Trust me, I liked the first 40 minutes or so of Beyond Thunderdome too, but it takes a massive nose-dive in quality once Max meets the kids and never fully recovers.

The max movies kept moving forward ,in general,at a rapid pace,loads of loud bikes,cars and noisy crowds.It was great stuff that had my total attention.Whoever had the idea of introducing the kids ruined the story,WTF.

At the very least FuryRoad brought back the balls of the series.

I enjoyed the Road Warrior best,loved the mental characters.

These kids I keep hearing about sound like the spawn of Satan.

Ok so, I sat down and watched all 4 movies... and Fury Road is basically the same as Jurassic World and Force Awakens.


It takes parts of the original movies, and mashes them together.
I'll give it props for the special effects and photography, but that's about all it has really.
Even the War Pup characters (Nicholas Hoult as Nux being the main one) are a repeat of Scrooloose from Beyond Thunderdome.

Even Tom Hardy, an actor who can make a bad film watchable, was wasted on this movie.

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Unlike Jurassic World or Force Awakens, the elements it repurposed are fine tuned and not just thrown in there for the sake of recognition (and FA had the mandate of introducing its own to a new generation of viewers so there’s that...)

Story wise, and this probably depends of when, exactly, one came into the series, it’s got the most compelling of the series probably because Max isn’t the protagonist (and since Thunderdome was the one out of the first three movies to have a complete arc for Max as a character, I’m assuming George Miller realized he’d said as much as one would of him) and you’re no longer centered on a blank slate to carry the extravagance of the rest of the film.

As to Tom Hardy being wasted, I don’t know. This seems to be totally his thing. Little dialogue and emphasis on facial expressions, a physically demanding role in which action defines the macho archetype but also reveals a sensitive side and with the idea that Max has been on his own so long that he’s forgetting to speak you get all the grunting one could wish/bear.

Agree with Saunch. First time watching this I felt it was a loud almost mess like experience. Too much for me, visual and orally, sense overload. Second viewing I feel in love with it. The visuals, pace and grunt of it all really moved me emotionally, a frenetic yet energizing pace. The music really adds to that, wouldn't have been the same without it. Think its very impressive. Hardy gives a perfect physical type performance. He doesn't need to be rattling off one liners every other minute. Impressive movie.

I watched it again cause on the first viewing back when it came out, I was very tired. I was wondering,


SPOILER

Why did Nux decide to kill himself at the end? Basically the villain is on top of the hood of the truck and he is going to try to smash part of the engine on top of Nux. Why did Nux just stop the truck to hopefully cause the guy to loose his balance and fall off the truck and then just drive away after, instead of rolling the whole truck and killing himself in the process?

yup..you are right...now my whole perception of the movie is changed. It sucks now

On a practical level, it causes a derailment that stops whatever was left of Immortan Joe’s war party from re-entering the citadel. On a thematic level, it shows that Nux has found something real to fight for and worth his sacrifice. It’s not a mindless suicide.

Oh I know it's not a mindless suicide, I just thought he was really jumping the gun. But if it prevents the others from following that makes sense though it seems.