← Back to Reviews
in
Mad Max Fury road
Lately I have been following google trends websites to see which movies are most searched. I am pretty sure they don't share the whole data and probably its not exactly correct. But i do think that a 100% searched topic will not be shown as 2 % searched topic and 1% searched topic will not be shown as a 100% searched topic. Search trends for actors are a little different because that's celebrity.It is not correlated to box office. Trends of Justin bieber are incredibly high but if he stars in a movie its not make 200 million.So all that out of the way, the search trends were interesting to look at. For revenant and wolf of wall street, the spikes were incredibly high around the release date and that obviously contributes to box office as that shows excitement.On the other hand for a movie like Mad max fury road even with all that epic scale trailers that are unbelievable and out of this world the spikes are not that much high. Its just half the size of those other movies. What exactly does it mean ? MM:FR is one of the very few non-superhero movie of the last decade that actually looks and feels like it could give DiCaprio tent pole movies a run for their money. But for some reason the movie didn't catch much steam at worldwide box office.There might be some strong cult following overseas for the movie and tom hardy but all in all the studio did consider the movie as barely a hit.
The reason I am stressing this is because these are the movies that will make actors superstars and legends. No one remembers the lead of some comedy drama that won best picture at Oscars. Even something like broke back mountain is very niche in its appeal and international appeal for the movie is very minimal.In my opinion the longest an actor can be remembered from a generation is if he can appeal to a 19 yr old Russian male. Because that movie will have enormous effect on the guy. At that age he is shedding boyhood and becoming a man. So all the silly movies no longer appeal to him and this movie appeals to him in his formative years. It proves that this movie transcended language and culture. The feel towards a movie is very important. Forrest Gump is incredibly dated and for a 19 yr guy with raising hormones , he doesn't wanna see a guy like Forrest gump he need someone like Jordan belfort or something like inception to invoke the emotions of relationship with father and people ambitiously working on a mission with high stakes.A movie like blue jasmine will be watched by a niche audience and even they will forget about it. Its the movies that hits a cord with audience that stick around for decades and centuries. Oceans 11 and 12 are movies that have entertaining audience as their sole motivation. The jokes don't land for international audience. A movie should be remembered as an epic and a masterpiece and not as a feel good movie or fun movie. Because the latter kind are dime a dozen. Same thing with paint by numbers action movies lie mission impossible with great stunts. They make for good you tube videos or mountain due ads, but to be considered greatest or to inspire or be copied by other filmmakers you need something original.
This movie is a single non stop chase with 99% outdoor shots. It never lets up. So,from that perspective its a masterpiece. When you set up pressure based explosives in the middle of a street in Detroit that is something we have seen in tons of movies, but when the same explosives are placed in the middle of a desert with blue filtered shots at night now that's something you have never seen. So thats the shtick of the movie. Shots are well compositioned and there is not much to the story other than technical excellence and editing.
So in my opinion this movie sort of made the notion that only DiCaprio can pull audience into the movie even though the movie is not pandering to the audience and is just an artistic endeavor more stronger. Because this movie had every quality of a DiCaprio movie. It will stand hand in hand with revenant in terms of memorability in history of cinema. But still the fact that it made less than terminator genesis and the mummy from 2017 sort of makes me think that "is there no other actor who can do what DiCaprio has been doing for almost every movie " ? I mean not just once ? It think one more closest example was blade runner 2049...even though it had the baggage of the first but it also must have have had the advantage of being a sequel. Because that movie was getting rave reviews just like a DiCaprio movie and it also had epic scale and out of this world cinematography in trailers and reviews were good but all the hype by studio sort of crumbled when reality hits. Because the only wrong piece in the puzzle is Ryan Gosling. Its r rated just like wolf of wall street and revenant but for some reason it just bombed in US by 120 million short of revenant.
So is there a formula of replicating DiCaprio's success without Titanic and Scorsese under their belt ? even Matthew McConaughey became internet famous almost comparable to DiCaprio level during mcconaissance but that was just internet famous not box office. Its comparable to harambe the gorilla viral video. People read articles and feel good about it and move on. When his next movie is coming they don't even think about going to see it.His career has been in toilet after interstellar and even that was Christopher Nolan star powered movie. It has nothing to do with Mcconaughey. From then on he made sea of trees, free state of jones, gold , dark tower and 3 other movies that are anxiously waiting to jump into toilet which are white boy rick and beach bum and serenity. I think there is a way though. Tom hanks is not hot, so he couldn't be that famous internationally especially in macho markets where men want manly movie stars..DiCaprio isn't macho either but he got that movie star look like Paul Newman or Steve McQueen. DiCaprio level star power has been displayed twice and thats with Tom Hanks for close to 2 decades between 1990s and 2010s almost all his movie has same amount of box office pull to them and but most closest to it was Russell Crowe for two movies the gladiator and beautiful mind...those two movies commercial success is DiCaprio level because it his name selling those movies.
So I think the way to go is make a movie that has some thematic appeal to mass audience and make it a major Oscar player...hire some great director and release it in awards season with Oscar buzz and that is good especially for an epic with huge budget. So the end result should be something like this..the movie should sweep at Oscars with best picture and best actor and it should make close to 500 million $ and the guy should be hot or handsome. So basically you get an international exposure to the lead of the movie and from then on the guy should either stick to a single director or only work with top directors. Because his incredible brand thats created then should be maintained. But Russell Crowe couldn't maintain it. Because the problem here is that its hard for an actor from Australia to get into the inner circles of hollywood. The way in for someone like christian bale , who isn't an american but a brit is working with someone like Terrence Malick or David o Russell or being handpicked by Spielberg at an young age or Michael Mann . Because these are the directors that have some clout. So for DiCaprio getting into inner circles of oscars is through someone like Scorsese. Auteurs more than anything want freedom both financially and artistically. Scorsese seems to be of the same type. In Hollywood you can't force studio executives to fund your movie.It just has to happen. So DiCaprio gave Scorsese financial security and in return asked him to make great movie. So an actor has to develop this kind of bond with a commercially viable auteur and not someone like Paul Thomas Anderson whose movies have zero commercial appeal and will only show up on some obscure best picture list which no one will even remember. But this has to happen after they won best actor in a best picture winner for a mass appealing blockbuster. It all has to start at oscars. Because a DiCaprio movie always shows up to play. Its rarely a dud. So for example there is a movie that is being made right now with christian bale and matt damon about Le Mans race of 1966 and rivalry between ford and Ferrari. The movie is basically a mission movie and the mission is to build the fastest car to beat the reigning champion Ferrari. So a team built a car from scratch that would rival and defeat the reigning champion. So if this were a DiCaprio movie then it would be up for sound categories, production design,editing, screenplay and may be an acting or directing or even best picture Oscar. No matter what it would most certainly win sound awards because the fricking movie has that as a key factor. It will be a cerebral thriller because its really life or death for these test engineers because they have to push the cars to their extreme. I want that from a Bale/Damon movie and not some period drama. The moment the movie tries to make it about period drama the movie looses the quality of wonder and uniqueness. Mission movies need to be built around the mission. It can never be about some drama. Because we have all seen those movies of inspiration a million times now. We need a movie that essentially building towards that race. Everything anyone has ever done should all bring them to this moment. Otherwise its not a DiCaprio movie. Because by looking at the type of movies he is making lately this is exactly what he wants to make.
Even mad max is like that. This movie is bare bone action. No fat at all. In the process of all that action story is told. I agree that its incredibly risky. For all we know this could have turned into a blade runner 2049 type bomb but luckily they broke even. I think it is in situations like these that we need a director like Scorsese or Tarantino or Nolan. Because they will deliver on the promise of the story. Otherwise the movie is going to disappoint. I think James Mangold has made enough great movies to be considered dependable.
Lately I have been following google trends websites to see which movies are most searched. I am pretty sure they don't share the whole data and probably its not exactly correct. But i do think that a 100% searched topic will not be shown as 2 % searched topic and 1% searched topic will not be shown as a 100% searched topic. Search trends for actors are a little different because that's celebrity.It is not correlated to box office. Trends of Justin bieber are incredibly high but if he stars in a movie its not make 200 million.So all that out of the way, the search trends were interesting to look at. For revenant and wolf of wall street, the spikes were incredibly high around the release date and that obviously contributes to box office as that shows excitement.On the other hand for a movie like Mad max fury road even with all that epic scale trailers that are unbelievable and out of this world the spikes are not that much high. Its just half the size of those other movies. What exactly does it mean ? MM:FR is one of the very few non-superhero movie of the last decade that actually looks and feels like it could give DiCaprio tent pole movies a run for their money. But for some reason the movie didn't catch much steam at worldwide box office.There might be some strong cult following overseas for the movie and tom hardy but all in all the studio did consider the movie as barely a hit.
The reason I am stressing this is because these are the movies that will make actors superstars and legends. No one remembers the lead of some comedy drama that won best picture at Oscars. Even something like broke back mountain is very niche in its appeal and international appeal for the movie is very minimal.In my opinion the longest an actor can be remembered from a generation is if he can appeal to a 19 yr old Russian male. Because that movie will have enormous effect on the guy. At that age he is shedding boyhood and becoming a man. So all the silly movies no longer appeal to him and this movie appeals to him in his formative years. It proves that this movie transcended language and culture. The feel towards a movie is very important. Forrest Gump is incredibly dated and for a 19 yr guy with raising hormones , he doesn't wanna see a guy like Forrest gump he need someone like Jordan belfort or something like inception to invoke the emotions of relationship with father and people ambitiously working on a mission with high stakes.A movie like blue jasmine will be watched by a niche audience and even they will forget about it. Its the movies that hits a cord with audience that stick around for decades and centuries. Oceans 11 and 12 are movies that have entertaining audience as their sole motivation. The jokes don't land for international audience. A movie should be remembered as an epic and a masterpiece and not as a feel good movie or fun movie. Because the latter kind are dime a dozen. Same thing with paint by numbers action movies lie mission impossible with great stunts. They make for good you tube videos or mountain due ads, but to be considered greatest or to inspire or be copied by other filmmakers you need something original.
This movie is a single non stop chase with 99% outdoor shots. It never lets up. So,from that perspective its a masterpiece. When you set up pressure based explosives in the middle of a street in Detroit that is something we have seen in tons of movies, but when the same explosives are placed in the middle of a desert with blue filtered shots at night now that's something you have never seen. So thats the shtick of the movie. Shots are well compositioned and there is not much to the story other than technical excellence and editing.
So in my opinion this movie sort of made the notion that only DiCaprio can pull audience into the movie even though the movie is not pandering to the audience and is just an artistic endeavor more stronger. Because this movie had every quality of a DiCaprio movie. It will stand hand in hand with revenant in terms of memorability in history of cinema. But still the fact that it made less than terminator genesis and the mummy from 2017 sort of makes me think that "is there no other actor who can do what DiCaprio has been doing for almost every movie " ? I mean not just once ? It think one more closest example was blade runner 2049...even though it had the baggage of the first but it also must have have had the advantage of being a sequel. Because that movie was getting rave reviews just like a DiCaprio movie and it also had epic scale and out of this world cinematography in trailers and reviews were good but all the hype by studio sort of crumbled when reality hits. Because the only wrong piece in the puzzle is Ryan Gosling. Its r rated just like wolf of wall street and revenant but for some reason it just bombed in US by 120 million short of revenant.
So is there a formula of replicating DiCaprio's success without Titanic and Scorsese under their belt ? even Matthew McConaughey became internet famous almost comparable to DiCaprio level during mcconaissance but that was just internet famous not box office. Its comparable to harambe the gorilla viral video. People read articles and feel good about it and move on. When his next movie is coming they don't even think about going to see it.His career has been in toilet after interstellar and even that was Christopher Nolan star powered movie. It has nothing to do with Mcconaughey. From then on he made sea of trees, free state of jones, gold , dark tower and 3 other movies that are anxiously waiting to jump into toilet which are white boy rick and beach bum and serenity. I think there is a way though. Tom hanks is not hot, so he couldn't be that famous internationally especially in macho markets where men want manly movie stars..DiCaprio isn't macho either but he got that movie star look like Paul Newman or Steve McQueen. DiCaprio level star power has been displayed twice and thats with Tom Hanks for close to 2 decades between 1990s and 2010s almost all his movie has same amount of box office pull to them and but most closest to it was Russell Crowe for two movies the gladiator and beautiful mind...those two movies commercial success is DiCaprio level because it his name selling those movies.
So I think the way to go is make a movie that has some thematic appeal to mass audience and make it a major Oscar player...hire some great director and release it in awards season with Oscar buzz and that is good especially for an epic with huge budget. So the end result should be something like this..the movie should sweep at Oscars with best picture and best actor and it should make close to 500 million $ and the guy should be hot or handsome. So basically you get an international exposure to the lead of the movie and from then on the guy should either stick to a single director or only work with top directors. Because his incredible brand thats created then should be maintained. But Russell Crowe couldn't maintain it. Because the problem here is that its hard for an actor from Australia to get into the inner circles of hollywood. The way in for someone like christian bale , who isn't an american but a brit is working with someone like Terrence Malick or David o Russell or being handpicked by Spielberg at an young age or Michael Mann . Because these are the directors that have some clout. So for DiCaprio getting into inner circles of oscars is through someone like Scorsese. Auteurs more than anything want freedom both financially and artistically. Scorsese seems to be of the same type. In Hollywood you can't force studio executives to fund your movie.It just has to happen. So DiCaprio gave Scorsese financial security and in return asked him to make great movie. So an actor has to develop this kind of bond with a commercially viable auteur and not someone like Paul Thomas Anderson whose movies have zero commercial appeal and will only show up on some obscure best picture list which no one will even remember. But this has to happen after they won best actor in a best picture winner for a mass appealing blockbuster. It all has to start at oscars. Because a DiCaprio movie always shows up to play. Its rarely a dud. So for example there is a movie that is being made right now with christian bale and matt damon about Le Mans race of 1966 and rivalry between ford and Ferrari. The movie is basically a mission movie and the mission is to build the fastest car to beat the reigning champion Ferrari. So a team built a car from scratch that would rival and defeat the reigning champion. So if this were a DiCaprio movie then it would be up for sound categories, production design,editing, screenplay and may be an acting or directing or even best picture Oscar. No matter what it would most certainly win sound awards because the fricking movie has that as a key factor. It will be a cerebral thriller because its really life or death for these test engineers because they have to push the cars to their extreme. I want that from a Bale/Damon movie and not some period drama. The moment the movie tries to make it about period drama the movie looses the quality of wonder and uniqueness. Mission movies need to be built around the mission. It can never be about some drama. Because we have all seen those movies of inspiration a million times now. We need a movie that essentially building towards that race. Everything anyone has ever done should all bring them to this moment. Otherwise its not a DiCaprio movie. Because by looking at the type of movies he is making lately this is exactly what he wants to make.
Even mad max is like that. This movie is bare bone action. No fat at all. In the process of all that action story is told. I agree that its incredibly risky. For all we know this could have turned into a blade runner 2049 type bomb but luckily they broke even. I think it is in situations like these that we need a director like Scorsese or Tarantino or Nolan. Because they will deliver on the promise of the story. Otherwise the movie is going to disappoint. I think James Mangold has made enough great movies to be considered dependable.