Mad Max: Fury Road - 2015
If I had to construct a thesis for this bad boy, it would read as follows: they just don’t make movies like this anymore. You know the kind I’m talking about, don’t you? Think Die Hard; or, sub in any of your other go-for-broke action flicks, with seemingly untouchable stars, off-the-cuff one-liners, enormous set pieces, gut-punching visceral action for days, and a plot line thinner than a runway model. Indeed, I think it’s that last one that causes me to say “They just don’t make ‘em like they used to.” Oh there are plenty of action movies without plot lines nowadays. Just stab yourself in the eye repeatedly with a copy of any Steven Seagal film, excepting Under Siege, of course. Or some lower shelf Vin Diesel. Whichever you prefer.
Conversely, they make super-intelligent thrillers, with astute psychological analysis of the killer or adversary all the time today. In fact, these seem to be the order of the day. Bad guys are never just bad anymore. Someone pushed them down at recess when they were 7. (Please be aware I’m adopting a certain action-movie loving, Tim Taylor “Oh ho ho” persona right now deliberately). Well, in this movie, bad is just bad. Violence is just violence. And, yes, the plot is rail thin. Put another way, you could represent this film quite easily in terms of simple geometry. Grab a piece of paper and a pencil. Start somewhere, anywhere, and draw a line segment of a desired length. Then, stop, turn your pencil around and draw a line segment back to the start. You just represented the two halves of Mad Max: Fury Road. My congratulations.
Plenty of movies today contain enormous budgets and skinny plot lines. FEW movies today contain those things and are this darn riveting. This freaking good. Plenty of movies today contain loads of CGI, special effects, and other computer-generated tricks and gadgets. Almost none have all that and look this REAL. I usually hammer films that falter on their setup. Believe me, there is certainly some exposition which could help us along in the beginning of this film too. There are all kinds of different divisions and classes of humanity hardly introduced with more than a few cursory phrases. Even so, I can’t help but give the dialogue and story a pass. For one, this is kind of the Mad Max way, dating back to the original. Also, I imagine it’s a bit like trying to have a conversation over tea behind the engine of a 747 – all bluster and noise, plenty of lip movement, and little comprehension of what the hell anyone is really saying.
For the film, a perhaps wizened, now 70 year old George Miller climbed back into the director’s chair. The movie bears the name of its predecessor from ’79, which starred Mel Gibson in his real career-making role. But, let’s make no bones about it – this one is much more akin to the sequel, Road Warrior, than the name to which it pays tribute. To say the same thing yet ONE more time in a different way, dialogue here hardly furthers the story along its way. No, it’s more like momentary filler between one breathtaking chase sequence and the next which will follow. Start the timer when the words begin, like a rest period between your latest HIIT workout, and see if you can actually catch your breath before the machines get rolling again. This is the best action flick of the 2010's, and one of the very best films of the decade period.
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