Mad Max: Fury Road
Dir: George Miller
2015
*****
George Miller has gone to (development) hell and back to get Mad Max back to the big screen, I for one am eternally grateful. First touted in 1998, Miller's forth Mad Max production has been plagued by problems starting in 2001 when the events of 9/11 saw the American dollar collapse against the Australian dollar and the budget balloon to unrealistic proportions. Leading man and original Max, Mel Gibson, had some quite high-profile negative problems that lead him away from the franchise and just when filming was about to start, War broke out and made it impossible to continue. Miller's other directing project, Happy Feet, came as a surprise to his fans but it seems it was a case of funding his true passion and with the money made, Fury Road, at last, became a reality. After 30 years and a cult following, Mad Max 4 had to be something special, something new but with that element that made the films popular in the first place in-tact. George Miller delivers. Everything that makes the first three films brilliant is present in this continuation of the story, it's not a reboot as such as the only thing that has changed is Max, who is now played by Tom Hardy. Fury Road is Mad Max, Road Warrior and Thunderdrome mixed together and on powerful steroids. The compassion of the first, the chase of the second and the sociological and tribal ideas of the third are the main elements of the 4th film but there is so much more it brings to the franchise. Miller brings back franchise favorite and villain from the original film, Hugh Keays-Byrne, which feels like a thank you for your patience for the fans. There are many things here and there for the hard-core fans, my favorite being a scene whereby Max gets shot through the hand with an arrow which was a nod to a now famous row over cuts the Motion Picture Association of America made to Mad Max: Road Warrior, where a scene involving a character pulling an arrow out of their arm nearly got the film banned. The development of tribalism, almost as a religion is also well handled and a vast improvement on Thunderdrome. I wondered whether a big budget would take the magic away from what was always a creative force done on a shoestring but that isn't at all the case, the effects are amazing, the costumes, make up and Cars are brilliant and CGI is used minimally and only when necessary, the stunts taking centre stage. It is a visual masterpiece, wonderfully inventive and takes the Max Max dystopian future to new realms but then it is no surprise really when you learn that Miller hired the brilliant Brendan McCarthy as co-writer. McCarthy's work is stunning and quite similar to Miller's style, I wonder if both have influenced each other in the past and I for one can think of no better partnership to get the franchise back on track. Tom Hardy, Charlize Theron, Hugh Keays-Byrne and Nicholas Hoult are great in the lead roles and a collection of Rock star offspring, negligee models, stunt men and Ozploitation veterans make up a fantastic supporting cast. It's old school, it's high-octane, it's the return of Ozploitation and a magnificent rebirth of a much loved franchise. It's brilliant.
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome
Dir: George Miller
1985
***
For all intents and purposes, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome was a difficult and unhappy experience for director George Miller and I think it shows somewhat in the final film. Having lost his friend, producer and co-creator of the Mad Max films, Byron Kennedy, who was killed in a helicopter accident before the third film started, his enthusiasm for the project waned and it very nearly didn't happen. Expectations were high and Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior was a tough act to follow. Instead of producing just another road movie, Miller decided to concentrate on what societies might exist in his futuristic universe and he was inspired by the films of Akira Kurosawa (his words, I don't see it myself) and Sci-fi novels of the time, Russell Hoban's Riddley Walker in particular. I believe he also went for the money, Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome loosing much of its rugged individuality in favour of a big Hollywood style production with a big name star (Tina Turner) and a questionable accompanying theme song (We don't need another hero). There is much to like about Thunderdome (and I do really like it) and it remains just as much of an influence on modern film as the first two films but it's not quite the Mad Max we'd grown to love and unfortunately it marked the end of a great series of films that could have probably continued for a few more films. Even more puzzling though was that Miller not only hung up his Mad Max hat but went onto directing Babe: Pig in the City and Happy Feet. Luckily Miller returned to the world of Max in 2015 after 30 years and it was well worth the wait.
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior
Dir: George Miller
1982
*****
George Miller's second Mad Max outing is more of what the audience loved about the first and then some. It was only towards the end of the first film that Max became 'Mad' and since the brilliant conclusion of the 1979 classic years have passed and a third world war has savaged the earth further. Law no longer exists and Mad finds himself a loner, searching only for oil (to fuel his Supercharged V8 pursuit special), food and water. The cars, the villains and even Max himself are all suped-up to the nines in this sequel that surpasses the original and cements the Mad Max films in the 'Cult classics' hall of fame. Dialoge is spars, instead it is all about the action in what has to be one of the greatest car chases of all time. The budget is bigger but not at the expense of creativity, far from it, the inclusion of Dean Semler as cinematographer and Norma Moriceau as costume designer help develop Miller's dystopian futuristic universe onto something both horrific but beautiful. Ozploitation, Carsploitation, Apocalypse, Action....Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior tops lists in many a genre and rightly so. It's full on frenzied excitement and the epitome of a cult classic.
Mad Max
Dir: George Miller
1979
*****
George Miller's original 1979 Mad Max is an Ozploitation classic. Set in a (not too distant) post-apocalyptic dystopian future, Mad Max is more a revenge film in the vein of the Spaghetti western rather than the typical vigilante movies of the era that were more concerned about neoconservatism vs. libertarianism than anything else. George Miller combines tribalism and anarchy, adds punk rock and muscle cars and sets it in the harsh Australian outback for what is a beautiful orchestra of chaos. The budget constraints are obvious but that only lead to more creativity in my opinion, the characters, car creations and stunts all being work of mad genius. The last scene, whereby Mel Gibson's Max hand-cuffs the villainous Toecutter (played by Ozploitation legend Hugh Keays-Byrne) to an oil leaking car rigged with a time release fuse and offers him a hacksaw and the option of either cutting through the cuffs (which will take 10 minutes) or his ankle (which will take 5) is now one of the most notorious conclusions of all time. It's ruff around the edges, ballsy as hell and quite magnificent.
Twilight Zone: The Movie
Dir: John Landis, Joe Dante, Steven Spielberg, George Miller
1983
***
Twilight Zone: The Movie is film that is probably remembered for all the wrong reasons, or at least not for the reasons the makers would have hoped for. Twilight Zone: The Movie is compiled by 4 different stories, the same format used in the original TV series. First off, I always found the original TV series to be far more creepy, certainly more terrifying when watching them as a small child. It's future shock film/alternative story telling at it's best. The film really is a 80s homage and there is nothing quite like an 80s homage (there's nothing quite like an 80s version of anything really, it's probably the most iconic decade when it comes to film). Joe Dante's film is not great. It's more along the lines of Explorers rather than than Inner Space. George Miller's film is pretty good but watching John Lithgow scream and sweat in equal measure for 20 minutes straight becomes quite tiresome. Steven Spielberg's film is pure schmaltz, if it weren't for the presents of the ever lovable Scatman Crothers I would have thought they'd of axed it, Spielberg could have done much better at the time. The first film and by far the best is the one everyone remembers. John Landis's entry starred Vic Morrow as a bigot who is transported back to Nazi Germany, the Vietnam war and to a Klu Klux Klan hanging. It's the sort of story that made Twilight Zone so popular in the first place. However, it is unforgivable that John Landis was not held responsible for the accidental death of Morrow and the two child actors who died in the filming. He has always been remorseful on the subject, being quoted as saying "I live with the "Twilight Zone" every day of my life." in a 1991 interview but he still should have been charged. Half of me thinks that the film should never had been aired but at the same time it would have been a shame as Vic Morrow's last performance is great and his is a great film. It's a delicate situation really, it's an okay film but those 3 horrific deaths will always linger alongside it and I can't help but think it's probably a film that everyone involved with would like to forget in many respects.
