Hi everyone, Bryan Here….
It’s a damn shame that every action movie can’t be as good as ‘Mad Max: Fury Road‘. So many action films will try, but will ultimately fail for a variety of reasons. Pure action filmmaking and movies just don’t get better than this movie. ‘Fury Road‘ is a troubled story to say the least. Original creator George Miller who made the original three ‘Mad Max‘ films had the idea for this fourth installment back in 1998. That’s 17-years ago. This project wasn’t necessarily put on a hold shelf, but a few things had happened to delay the film from being made. From 9-11 to foreign policy, to Mel Gibson’s infamous arrest, there were a variety of things that prevented this movie from seeing the light of day.
Years went by and George Miller went on to make ‘Happy Feet‘, which is a far world away from the likes of these ‘Mad Max‘ films. However, the script showed up again and some rewrites happened, and Miller got all excited again, hence this new film. At first, Miller wanted Gibson back in the iconic role, but both he and Miller decided to revamp the series and go with a different cast and angle. That pretty much brings us to ‘Fury Road‘, starring Tom Hardy as Mad Max. Make no mistake about it, this film is epic in every way and I don’t say that lightly.
It’s a rare occasion where I get overly excited for a movie and have the highest form of expectations, when after viewing said film, it meets and exceeds all these expectations. That’s the case with ‘Fury Road‘. Not only did George Miller build on this post-apocalyptic universe, he also made one of the best action films I’ve literally ever seen, with mostly using practical effects and not CG. There is really zero down time in this film. From start to finish, something big is happening on screen, which doesn’t allow you necessarily to get one breath in, let alone blink your eyes.
What I like about this film, is while it’s a remake, it doesn’t need to spend any time with a backstory for Mad Max. Miller knew that almost all of us would know the general gist of the story going into it, hence we are thrown in straight to the action from scene one. Max (Tom Hardy) escapes the grasp of an evil monster of a leader named King Immortan Joe, who enslaves the poor people below him and keeps all the precious and rare water for himself. Max crosses paths with Furiosa (a badass Charlize Theron), who is taking five women who were impregnated by King Joe to a better place to live.
King Joe doesn’t like this one bit, so he takes his insane minions, and all of their weaponized vehicles, along with a few other war lord gangs, and chases after Max and these women. These car chase sequences and fight scenes are legendary. Each and every one of the 150 stunt men and women earn their pay check the more with the chaotic stunts that are shown here. Plus, Max more or less takes a back seat here, where Furiosa and the other women show that they can handle themselves in any situation, however, Mad Max for sure earns that name here.
This is the purest form of action, which each character and story told through very little dialogue, but somehow through the intense battle sequences and their facial expressions, you bond with them. Nicholas Hoult plays one of the minions named Nux, and he’s unreal in this role. I can’t believe the little kid from ‘About a Boy‘ turned into this amazing character. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road‘ really has it all in the form of action, explosions, gun battles, chainsaws, and vehicle chases.
There is so much happening on screen, that you’ll have to go back for a second time to catch it all. I just wish that other filmmakers who were making an action movie would take notes here and follow suit, because this is exactly how to make a movie. ‘Mad Max: Fury Road’ is the ultimate summer movie, and I don’t see that changing any time soon.
5 out of 5 Stars
– Bryan Kluger