Friday, May 15, 2015

Mad Max: Fury Road

Opening night for movies sure brings out all of the freaks in this lovely little town that I live in as there were droves of bubbly teenage girls grinning from ear to ear just waiting to pour into the theater to see the latest Hollywood offering of awful show tune entertainment, otherwise known as Pitch Perfect 2. And alongside them were their dates, these guys who all looked just a little bit too old to be out in public with them and all of whom had these sullen looks on their faces that said “I cannot wait until these 90 minutes are over so that I can go collect on that degrading and disgusting sex act that was promised to me earlier!”

And then there were the Mad Max: Fury Road freaks who were also strolling into the theater last night. The most memorable of which was a muscle man who for whatever odd reason was wearing this oversized dog chain around his neck! It’s the kind of silver chain you’d expect to see around the neck of The Beast from the Sandlot however this was a human that was wearing it and not some St. Bernard that happened to live in the backyard of James Earl Jones. He was with this lady who was clearly from Jersey as she was rocking the leopard print top, a short and super tight mini skirt, six inch heels, and the 80’s frizzy hairdo. 10 years ago I bet this lady was unbelievably hot but sadly last night was not 10 years ago; so I got stuck seeing Snooki’s stepmom on a first date in north Austin with a reject from the MMA circuit. I won’t lie though, I was kind of turned on by her and her get up but more on this couple later.

Anyone who fancies themselves an action fan had to be pumped when they saw that George Miller was going to be given the opportunity to reboot, reimagine, or whatever you want to call it, the Mad Max franchise using today’s technology. The three previous films he made all turned out to be classics and he was able to accomplish this with little to no help from computers, so Fury Road couldn’t help but match the levels of freshness that those movie brought to our lives; or so we all hoped.

Well I am happy to say that this was surely the case in what is now the fourth and quite possibly, best installment of this classic franchise. Gone are the days of Mel Gibson and the tight leather outfits; it’s now time to welcome in the grunting, super cool, and less racist Tom Hardy to this world of anarchy and destruction. Fury Road is the perfect mix of Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome as you are introduced to Max after his days of being a cop. He’s now a crazed man who has to deal with both the land of the living and the realm of the dead as he is constantly seeing images of the people he couldn’t save in this dark and dying world. On a daily basis he tries to survive in a world of radioactive mutants who all live under the control of the evil Immortan Joe, a grotesque being who ruthlessly rules the land he’s been put in charge of. He starves his people, selfishly holds on to the endless supply of water, and also has his own harem of beautiful breeders he keeps locked up in a room to fulfill his every desire, all of whom are there against their will.
Well one day after being caught by this weird and rugged clan of Joe’s, Max finds himself in the middle of a wild chase to bring back Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron). Furiosa is a female badass who is a part of Joe’s army and does all of his supply runs for him, but on this day she has decides to steal his most precious possessions, his harem, in an attempt to free them from their bondage and take them to her homeland. During the chase however, Max eventually breaks free from his captures and reluctantly decides to help Furiosa and the beautiful women she’s trying to save.

Miller takes you through almost two hours of over the top non-stop action; and along the way introduces you to every interesting aspect of his new world. You see crow people, mutant freaks who drive muscle cars, and my personal favorite, his version of the sand people from Star Wars. These guys were able to pull off some pretty awesome stunts with their motorcycles while launching grenades at their targets.
But hands down my favorite part of the movie had to be when Joe’s crew was about to follow Furiosa into the electrical sand storm. You are already pumped up from watching Miller’s slightly sped up filming style because it just adds to the frenetic tempo of the movie, but the second you see Joe’s own personal band rocking out with a giant double neck guitar that has a flame thrower at the end of it, you’re ready to stand up in the theater and start punching the guy sitting next to you!

The amount of effort and expertise it took to pull this movie off is truly incredible. As you’re sitting there, there are quite a few moments where you honestly can’t believe what you’re seeing on screen; and then you come to the realization that it only cost you $11 to witness it all! All I have to say is bravo to Mr. Miller for bringing this movie into my life and I rate this movie as TIGHT; and I will also go as far saying that you are not an action fan if you do not see this movie.

Oh and by the way, muscle man and his girlfriend hated the movie. I guess he was disappointed by the fact that they didn’t play California Love during any of the chase scenes. Now that I think about it, that’s the only thing this movie was missing.

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