The latest installment of the Max Max franchise, coming as it does on the heels of Sylvester Stallone’s Terminator: System Reboot and just before the much-anticipated dinosaur movie (I doubt I even need to mention the name) is only the second take that we’ve seen on this post-apocalyptic genre, the first being Max Max: Days of Thunder. The first main difference with the other post-apocalyptic films we know is that the film is set in Australia, where you would not expect an apocalypse to occur. Secondly, a hundred other differences, beginning with the amazing non-use of CGI, normally a no-no for action movies.
A time-travel mash-up of two simultaneous narratives in which we follow Mad Max (the character) and his legitimate son Mini Mad Max, both played by the real now and then Kevin Costner and voiced by Tom Hardy, Furious Roads presents us with delicious aquatic scenery but little else in terms of loud explosions or exciting chase scenes. Take one big step back, George Miller, and save your existential dialogue for Socrates: The Toga 2 starring Benedict Cumberbatch (2016).
Why the movie is called Furious Roads is beyond me, because the entire world has become one big ocean as a result of poor water management in the western United States under A. Schwarzenegger’s Water For Deserts Attack Plan R. I wasn’t expecting much from George Miller’s sophomore effort, and he sure delivered. Seriously, just give us one single combatant jumping from a speeding truck onto an armored Buick during a five-sided machine-gun standoff, or some sextastic ethnic ladies with katanas on sharks.
The real problem is that Furious Roads just does not take advantage of the amazing acrobatic abilities of Tom Hardy and Gwyneth Paltrow when they are trying to catch the train from pre-apocalyptic Melbourne to post-Apocalyptic Brisbane. The Sliding Doors (Peter Howitt, 1998) reference may be nice for those who are in the know and stuck in the late 90s but the constant inside jokes makes the humor inaccessible to all but myself and critics such as Roger Ebert, who is dead.
Speaking of people who are dead, or rather writing about them (SMLOL), is it me or does Gwyn’s hair keep changing throughout the movie? And this is only one example of the continuity issues that plague Mad Max: Fury Road.
Furious or otherwise, I don’t give one darn puppy.
[ZERO PUPPIES]
