Post by Brad Nelson on Nov 25, 2022 8:12:38 GMT -8
The first Mad Max movie dates to 1979. It's the one starring Mel Gibson. But that series didn't hit its peak until the second movie in the trilogy, 1981's Road Warrior. And it then flamed out in the third with too much Tina Turner. Not that the body count had been reduced. But where Road Warrior was a wonderfully campy and improbable post-apocalypse action movie, it had started to become a parody of itself by the third movie.
That's the strange and wonderful thing about this 2015 movie: Mad Max: Road Fury. It catches the spirit of that old Road Warrior movie and then some. It is hilarious in its over-the-topness. And unlike some campy movies that are most likely so because of bad taste and/or a small budget, this 2015 movie self-consciously knows that it is and is all the better for it. And it obviously throws a significant bit of budget at looking good in its rugged and bizarre meanness. It doesn't apologize for throwing things over-the-top.
One reviewer who didn't care for the movie describes it as "Actually, the whole film is so ridiculous beyond description." Yes. That's the entire point. I almost never stopped laughing while watching this. This isn't meant to be taken seriously.
And as another reviewer said, who also didn't like the movie: "An endless ugly chase in the desert." Again, I say Yes, that's the point of the movie. Even so, there is a plot and it mostly makes sense given the post-apocalyptic Spinal-Tappish backdrop. If you don't laugh when you see the guitar player, you need to loosen your butt cheeks a tad and just enjoy the intentionally absurd.
It's okay to once in a while just let go and watch a wild and crazy movie. Not everything has to be Casablanca, although this movie shares something with it being set in the desert. But there the similarities end.
Surprisingly, given what it is, I found the acting to be pretty good. This is a clue that the producers, with some skill, knew what they were doing in creating this post-apocalyptic bizarro film. That is, it isn't good because it is unintentionally bad. It's good because it skillfully mocks and satires the unintentionally bad.
That's the strange and wonderful thing about this 2015 movie: Mad Max: Road Fury. It catches the spirit of that old Road Warrior movie and then some. It is hilarious in its over-the-topness. And unlike some campy movies that are most likely so because of bad taste and/or a small budget, this 2015 movie self-consciously knows that it is and is all the better for it. And it obviously throws a significant bit of budget at looking good in its rugged and bizarre meanness. It doesn't apologize for throwing things over-the-top.
One reviewer who didn't care for the movie describes it as "Actually, the whole film is so ridiculous beyond description." Yes. That's the entire point. I almost never stopped laughing while watching this. This isn't meant to be taken seriously.
And as another reviewer said, who also didn't like the movie: "An endless ugly chase in the desert." Again, I say Yes, that's the point of the movie. Even so, there is a plot and it mostly makes sense given the post-apocalyptic Spinal-Tappish backdrop. If you don't laugh when you see the guitar player, you need to loosen your butt cheeks a tad and just enjoy the intentionally absurd.
It's okay to once in a while just let go and watch a wild and crazy movie. Not everything has to be Casablanca, although this movie shares something with it being set in the desert. But there the similarities end.
Surprisingly, given what it is, I found the acting to be pretty good. This is a clue that the producers, with some skill, knew what they were doing in creating this post-apocalyptic bizarro film. That is, it isn't good because it is unintentionally bad. It's good because it skillfully mocks and satires the unintentionally bad.