Get ready for an action-packed two hours of adventure through barren landscapes dirt, dust, underground tunnels, and fend-for-yourself hard-living hostility.
"Mad Max Fury Road" is the fourth installation of the Mad Max franchise and delivers what it promises: crazed, weird and wacky characters wandering a wasteland in search of a better life. This is the first of the movie franchise to not star Mel Gibson. Instead, English actor Tom Hardy is Max and Charlize Theron joins in the quest as Furiosa.
Filmed in Australia, it offers a scape of openness; sand dunes, rugged mountains and almost no greenery, keeping to the essence of terrain in the first films. With a $150 million budget, "Fury Road" made every penny count and didn't skimp on explosive opportunities. Complete with sand storms, lightning strikes, fires and massive explosions, it even has a glorious twister that, of course, doesn't stop the madness of Max.
Max stumbles upon Furiosa who drives a war-rig for Nux, the land's badest and most barbaric ruler. Fed up with the life Nux forces upon them, she teams up with his bevy of wives - who are the prettiest things in the movie by far - resembling a group of Victoria’s Secret angels prepared to kick some ass in their two-piece grecian goddess-wear. Max becomes chauffeur to the hardcore hotties as they race to freedom with an army of savages in pursuit.
The rescue mission to deliver the ladies to salvation was unplanned. Max ran into them as they just began their escape, turning the corner when they were pouring water on each other and cutting off their chastity belts. It was a not-so-subtle reminder that Hollywood knows how to sell a testosterone-infused movie of mostly muddy, deformed, and crude men.
The shock value is consistent throughout, starting with Max eating a cute little lizard, alive and squirming, within the first 30 seconds. Continued by Joker-inspired, bondage wearing, guitar playing puppet-men that dangle from wires on the front of the ruler's rig like a Cirque du Soleil act choreographed by Rob Zombie.
"Fury Road" offers little dialog, but enough to explain what is happening. The soundtrack is incorporated well into the action with hard, pounding beats using the sounds of slamming steel, revving motors, rapid gunfire, and screeching guitars. It certainly fits the rage and fury of the road.
There is much creativity in the cars for both Nux's army and the war-rig driven by Furiosa. As would be expected in a post-apocalyptic society, the vehicles are a hodgepodge of twisted metals; monster trucks, tanks, classic cars, semis and farm equipment - all bundled together in one badass battle car. Some have armor resembling a motorized porcupine and others look like warships out of water.
"The pacing, the sound design, the editing, the music, and even the emotional stakes are all so far above average that they make just about any other car-chase movie look like a quaint Sunday drive by comparison," wrote Brian Tallerico, critic for rogerebert.com.
There is little down time and no spots of boredom. "Fury Road" offers heroic adventure, a little bit of love and a lot of action. It's over-the-top in every way as Max helps to free his new friends using every weapon at his disposal. When it comes to a close, the film sets up another installment returning him to his preferred role as a lone wolf.
However, the film is not without message. Between battles, Max's humanness is apparent in flashbacks tastefully woven in from his pre-apocalyptic life and in the encounters with the ghost of his daughter.
Despite the insanity in nearly every scene, George Miller directs to send a message of duty and the sexes. Portraying men as power-driven warriors, the wives stand for anticipation in a better future maintaining hope in the wake of a male dominated, bloodstained world.
"Mad Max Fury Road" is a great fit for the big screen, definitely getting your money's worth at the box office. It's a guaranteed good time - as long as you aren't scared of some blood, guts and barbaric glory!
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