Some movies make you laugh, some make you cry. Some movies make you contemplate life.
Mad
Mad Max will make you feel. But those emotions will range from exhilaration, disbelief and exhaustion. These are all compliments.
Mad Max: Fury Road is 120 minutes of non-stop, blood-pumping action unlike anything that has been released in some time. From the opening scene the action begins and it never lets up until the credits roll. That is far from an exaggeration.
Thirty years after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Fury Road picks up where it left off, in a post-apocalyptic world ravaged by politics, murder and redemption. Tom Hardy takes over for Mel Gibson in the role of Max who is on a mission of revenge for his lost family.
Hardy’s co-star is Charlize Theron, who proves her outstanding range as Imperator Furiosa, a fierce warrior seeking exactly what Max is – a way out of Hell.
There isn’t any reason to spend more time explaining the plot because that is not what this movie spends much time on. The film’s opening scene shows Hardy slam his foot on the pedal, his car and the film never let up off the accelerator.
Hardy’s performance is one of the most interesting elements of the film. Hardy doesn’t play Max as a cool, suave hero as you may expect. Instead he is awkward, erratic and it seems as if he maybe has thirty lines of dialogue in the entire film.
But Hardy is one of the greatest physical actors working today as evident in films such as The Dark Knight Rises, The Drop, and Warrior. Hardy does so much without saying a word, and he brings a character, who could easily have been one-dimensional, so much complexity.
Theron is great as usual, playing a character unlike any she has played before. She kicks just as much ass as Hardy and is a joy to watch. Nicholas Hoult is one of the biggest surprises of the film as the most complicated, interesting character in the movie, Nux. And the supporting cast featuring Zoë Kravitz, Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Hugh Keays-Byrne are all solid.
From the first frame of the film the audience can’t help but smile in enjoyment of the visuals, sound and the blistering pace of the film. It truly is a roller coaster ride of a film. The action is unbelievable, the effects are incredible, and the world created by director George Miller is mesmerizing.
Mad Max: Fury Road is everything you could ask for from a summer movie and more. Not since 300 has there been a movie more heavy metal, as beautiful and insane as this.