Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

In one of the biggest cinemas in Birmingham (UK) on Saturday afternoon we were in an audience of less than 30 people on both occasions we watched this. I was a bit surprised and not a little bit disappointed with the turn-out.

 

+1

 

As a rule I really, really dislike most modern day remakes. I saw Theron on a late night show the other day, where the trailer was run, or at least some scenes from the movie. Really, really disliked the small fight scene they showed. It appeared to have been shot/edited in that fast herky-jerky format that is used far too often in today's horror films. How much of the movie was shot that way? I have no intention of wasting my money on it if that is an integral part of the filming. And yes, I thought it was incredibly lame for it to be beaten so handily the first week out by a sequel of a movie I had never heard of either. Considering its budget I don't know how the producers really felt that was a decent take.

 

Almost completely separate audiences for those films. Mad Max brought in a 70% male audience, Pitch Perfect 2 brought in a 75% female audience. Just more proof that movies made by women (Writer Kay Cannon and producer/director Elizabeth Banks) for women is a market the studios really can't afford to ignore any longer. I know Universal is cracking open the champagne, the sequel earned more this weekend than the first film did in the entire run...and it cost $121 million less to produce than Mad Max.

 

Yes, I read the showing surveys as well. And no, the survey results really didn't surprise me. Think they made a big mistake making Max an R rated movie. There is no need or reason to make it that violent. I also really hate seeing Theron waste her time on stuff like this. Just seems to cheapen her work history. Too many top women stars wanting to have their own idiotic fantasy/sci-fi movie leads.

 

In the UK it's only a "15" Certificate and that's from one of the most conservative censorial organisations in the world, the BBFC.

 

This is what I would like to see. After Tom Hardy stars in Mad Max :Wasteland I would like to see Gibson return to the role as Max 25/30 years into the future for the final film.

 

It's funny that there are other people in this thread saying that Fury Road isn't violent enough.

As for the herky-jerky stuff, that's part of Miller's style. There was plenty of it in The Road Warrior, but I rarely see anybody complaining about that when they sing that movie's praises in comparison to FR.

John K.

 

I was getting the sense that people weren’t saying the movie wasn’t violent enough to their taste, but simply that the level and type of violence depicted in the film may not warrant an R rating.

The rating system and criteria is insane and contradictory to be sure, but even if the violence in the film does warrant an “R” rating, they certainly could have put even more in it while retaining the “R.” It’s not as if a few minutes of additional blood would have pushed the thing into “NC-17” territory. As far as I know, anyway.

Perhaps the director really just cut it the way he wanted, and didn’t care (as much) about the rating.

 

Exactly. The director (artist) should make whatever they want. The rating people can then rate it what they feel is appropriate. You can then read about it and decide if you or your kids want to see it (or should see it).

Sadly it is a business that must cater to accountants and polls and profit maximization, so that isn't often how it works.

 

I keep thinking about the R rating and how the movie isn't really as graphic as that implies. I have to watch the movie again, but I want to say that much of what would obviously merit an R simply isn't on screen but implied. But the impact is all there, probably even more effective than if they actually did put in a ton of bloody and graphic scenes. I mean, it is graphic, but not just for the sake of being graphic.

As for quick cuts, they are there but not in the typical hacky way. The cuts may be quick but they work. They are not fatiguing or random or ADHD-inducing. Again, I have to watch the movie again because I was not watching it with an analytical eye the first time.

Fury Road carries on with the very familiar post-apocalyptic theme and aesthetic that Miller created with the first Mad Max but does it better than that seminal movie or any of the movies it inspired in the past few decades. It's not exactly new in too many ways, nor is the movie well-rounded or does it contain a satisfying story arc. A lot of what we expect in a typical movie in terms of narrative and character development are absent and are at most hinted at. You are left with more questions than answers by the end, but not in any way that is unsatisfying. After being bombarded by this cinematic experience, you want more. It's like a very good chapter-and a-half of a larger story, and I cannot think of another movie that has a a chase sequence that compares in terms of drawing out a sustained visceral experience for as long as it does. It's unreal.

 

Excellent review! I went to see it a second time because there was something about the movie that begged a second look. This time I watched it in 2D, and although I'm a big 3D fan, the film dazzled me much more in 2D because the photography and choreography is just so spectacular. Watching in it 2D (and I don't care what people say about celluloid, a great digital screening is just amazing. This theater I saw it at, everything just POPPED) this time, the epic scale of the film: the sets, landscapes, and stunts just were mindblowing. I really now feel I only "half-saw" the movie in the just-okay 3D showing the first time. I hardly recommend you see it in 2D. The cinematography is gorgeous. 80sjunkie is right about the film as the ultimate chase sequence. It's the "Raiders of the Lost Ark" truck chase for two hours! In this new viewing, I just took away a huge respect for the action direction of this film. Pretty much an action classic. 80sJunkie is also right that they put aside traditional character development and narrative and put faith that you can fill in the blanks with the bare minimum and I think he's right. The characters are who they are -- hard, tough survivors in a hard world. That's about all you have to know. Nice review.

 

I want to see it again in 2D, but they always use the bigger screens for 3D. Not sure what the best solution is.

I've been unpacking the movie in my head since Friday. I just watch movies for the experience and try to pick it apart afterwards. I can honestly say this movie made me feel like I had never seen a real action / chase scene before, and I'm certainly no stranger to this genre. This is probably the first time I have felt that way in about 30 years. It's over-the-top and shot and put together so well. I can't think of anything as ambitious or as artfully done. Just defies expectations.

 

Now just all be grateful, very grateful that alongside the absent "story" some folks endlessly pine for, it isn't a Hollywood film. Just imagine, Max would have had to run off into the sunset holding hands with Furiosa after their torrid love-making scene, and all the while talking about getting married!

This is a rare film today that acknowledges the concept of pure cinema, as opposed to narrative, something that, it must be said, most modern movie audiences are seemingly unfamiliar with. As Kubrick once said "If you want a story, go read a book!"

It is a visceral experience. As Mark Kermode states "You can smell the gasoline...... feel the gear crunches and desert heat and dust from the screen".

 

Stunning movie if you take it for what it is, an ultra violent comedy (hard to take it seriously), with incredible choreographies, stunning visual ideas, without excessive cgi.

Before the movie there were trailers of San Andreas, the new Jurassic Park, two upcoming Marvel movies and the new Terminator, and i'm totally FED UP with those visual sh**, so it was a breath of fresh air to watch Fury Road.

 

I find it strange people calling Mad Max 2, Road Warrior. I prefer Mad Max 1 myself, partly because a lot of it was filmed in the Western Suburbs of Melbourne, where I've lived all my life and I know those places like the back of my hand. Other parts were filmed in a place most of you will know by name - Little River.

I haven't been to see the new one yet, I'll go in a week or two.

 

What grates with me more than MM2 being called "The Road Warrior", is the fact that here in the UK we can't buy the original uncut MM2 on DVD in 2015! All we have is the lousy US R-rated censored version with the crappy "Road Warrior" post-market title sequence. The last time I saw MM2 uncut was back in 1988 on UK BBC 2. It's insane.

 

Does the version you can get have the dubbed American accents?

 

Only Mad Max was ever "dubbed into American". Mad Max 2 aka, The Road Warrior wasn't dubbed.

 

I would've said it's the Road Warrior truck chase for two hours...

 

Making me question how I will see this movie again this coming weekend.

I'm interested to see what it looks like in 3D after seeing it in 2D this past weekend.

Decisions, decisions...LOL

 

The US version is censored?

 

What parts were cut out of the censored version?

 

The US version is censored, yes. Firstly where Wez withdraws the arrow from his arm. The original MM2, which I saw many times back in 1981 on VHS and subsequently on BBC TV in the late '80's, had a few close-up shots of the arrow being pulled out. It is a bit more graphic and lingers on the arm more. There is at least one other scene that is notably absent from the R-rated US version: when the Ferral Kid throws the boomerang and it hits Wez's partner in the head, there are close-ups BUT when Wez goes to "return" the boomerang you actually see him wobble it inside his partner's head in order to pull it out to throw it. This is completely missing in Road Warrior film. There are other small cuts too numerous to mention and without running an uncut copy at the same time as Road Warrior it would be impossible to detail them all.

If only I could buy in 2015 a totally UNCUT Mad Max 2, the chance would be a fine thing.

Incidentally Mad Max 2 was only called The Road Warrior in the US because most of the US had never seen / heard of the original Mad Max and some bright spark thought that American audiences would be reluctant to watch a film that was so obviously a sequel without prior knowledge or viewer participation in the original film, even though it is self-evident from the opening salvo of MM2 that you don't really need to see Mad Max to understand the character and MM2 works as a stand-alone film in its own right.

 

Yes, the necessary back story was reviewed up front in ROAD WARRIOR, but you can't explain that to someone reading a movie poster in a lobby. I saw ROAD WARRIOR almost alone at an afternoon matinee and forced my friends to all go see it the next day.