Post-Apocalyptic Movie Roundup: Mad Max Trilogy

Film Facts:

• Mad Max (1979)
• Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981)
• Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
• Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Starring Mel Gibson as ‘Mad’ Max Rockatansky in the first three films, and Tom Hardy in Fury Road. Directed by George Miller (although George Ogilvie took over directing much of Thunderdome).

All of the Mad Max films have received ‘cult classic’ status and the sequel The Road Warrior is truly the best, most iconic, and post-apocalyptic of original three. This article will focus mostly on Road Warrior and I covered Fury Road in a separate review.

The Apocalypse Scenario:

Global nuclear holocaust set in the Australian Outback. Cold War tensions and a global energy crisis paved the way for the dystopian and near-anarchistic setting seen in the original Mad Max, and the ensuing nuclear war creates the wasteland seen in Road Warrior and Beyond Thunderdome.

The first Mad Max features the Outback’s descent into chaos and anarchy as wild biker gangs take over the open road, torturing and murdering anyone they encounter. The Road Warrior, its sequel, depicts a world totally destroyed. The wasteland lacks any semblance of order or civilization and is at the mercy of insane marauders.

The Year:

Unknown. While Road Warrior and Thunderdome clearly follow a nuclear war, they are purposefully vague on the details and dates of these events. It’s safe to say that the ‘Mad Max Universe’ takes place in an alternate 1970’s and following.

What They’ve Run Out Of:

-Gas. Inspired by car-wrecks and violent reactions during the 1973 oil crisis, George Miller wrote the script “on the thesis that people would do almost anything to keep vehicles moving and the assumption that nations would not consider the huge costs of providing infrastructure for alternative energy until it was too late.”

The entire plot of The Road Warrior rides on the premise that gasoline is now a rare and precious commodity. (You run out of fuel, you’re dead.) Max cruises through the wasteland in his supercharged V-8 Pursuit Special, clashing with marauders and running on fumes. Later, he happens upon some semblance of civilization, a small oil refinery besieged by the marauders. Max offers to help them escape by driving a battering ram equipped fuel tanker, hauling the precious gasoline and fighting off the pursuers. The ensuing chase is one of the most iconic action sequences in film history (and regularly tops “Top 10 Car Chase” lists).
Food, water, and ammunition are also scarce. Firearms are rare, and most resort to using bows and crossbows. Max bluffs with an empty sawed-off shotgun and eats a can of dog food for supper.

What this Film Adds to the Post-Apocalyptic Genre:

Everything. You can’t talk ‘Post-Apocalyptic’ without covering Mad Max because it defined the film genre. Everything from the Western style ‘man with no name’ hero to the beat up roadsters tearing across the wasteland have become infamous tropes. Road Warrior’s ‘comic-book, post-apocalyptic/punk style’ popularized the genre and jetted Mel Gibson to superstar status.
Mad Max is all about crazy car chases with crazier badguys. These villains are flat out insane. Their punk Mohawks, leather studded costumes, ragtag vehicles, unrelenting pursuit and psychotic battle cries make unforgettable villains.
The car chase sequences are action packed, tightly edited, fast-paced (by 80’s standards) and full of tremendous crashes. These pre-CGI films all feature an amazing amount of stunt work that leaves the viewer wondering what safety laws, if any, there are in Australia.

Isaac’s Rating:

The Mad Max series, especially The Road Warrior, is foundational to the Post-Apocalyptic genre. With that said, these movies are far from perfect. Unpolished and slow paced (it was the 70’and 80’s, after all) can make the Mad Max films rather laborious if you’re unprepared for its style.

Mad Max (1979). 2 Zipped-Lips. A classic ‘cop gets revenge for the death of his family’ story featuring car chases across the Australian Outback. In my opinion: Doesn’t stand the test of time. It is slow paced with lots of driving filler, minimal budget, unpolished, and ultimately skippable. (The Road Warrior recaps the events of this film in its opening sequence).

Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior (1981). 4.5 Zipped-Lips. Clearly the superior film of the series. Gritty, relentless, iconic, but clearly dated by today’s standards. Max is a fantastic protagonist, sustaining realistic and permanent injury (he continues to walk with a limp and a leg brace after being shot in the first film). Road Warrior is a must-see for anyone interested in the Post-Apocalyptic genre.

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985). 3 Zipped-Lips. This PG-13 sequel should have been called “Max Max and the Lost Boys from Peter Pan.” The gritty action was swapped out for a cheesier approach where badguys are subdued with frying pans and vats of pig poo. This humorous, slapstick action works wonderfully in movies like Hook but feels childishly out of place in Mad Max. The Thunderdome match against Master Blaster is a highlight (“Two men enter! One man leaves!”) but everything is downhill after that. Some fans argue that the film’s lighter tone was meant to reflect Max’s return to humanity, but in the end, its just disappointing.

There you have it, fans! The Mad Max series. Don’t forget to comment below!

Second Opinion: Clash of the Titans (2010)

by Luke Eddy

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie…but for all the wrong reasons. Going into the theater I knew that Clash of the Titans had only a 34% freshness rating on Rotten Tomatoes (and it’s dropped even lower since it’s release), so I’d already lost hope of the film living up to it’s prerelease hype. And yet I was still amazed at just how bland, unoriginal, uninspired, insipid, cheesy, confusing, contrived, and downright silly it all was. In his review of Clash of the Titans, Isaac has already pointed out its most glaring flaws: a plot that manages to be both confusing and boring at the same time, characters with unclear motives, and action scenes that just don’t deliver. I want to expound on that last point because if the film had delivered the action it had promised then a lot of other flaws could have been forgiven. However, if you’ve seen the trailer, you’ve already seen every single fight in the film, not every single blurry frame, obviously, but at least a couple shots from every fight show up in the trailer. The premises of the fights have potential: Giant scorpions! An evil dude twisted by the wrath of Zeus and the power of Hades! Medusa! The Kraken! Yet none of these fights are nearly as epic or exciting as they could have been. And when the film does try to amp up the action for one of the later fights, Perseus starts doing weird flips and spins in the middle of a sword fight. The nail in the coffin though was that Perseus doesn’t even fight the Kraken. I’m sorry! I’m sorry I spoiled it, but it’s true. Yes, Perseus flies around it on a Pegasus and zaps it with Medusa’s ugly face, but all that the Kraken does is gurgle and swat a few buildings. When I first saw the trailer I thought to myself, “This is silly and stupid and over-the-top and awesome all at the same time, I need to see this.” (I also thought, “Wow, that’s some shiny armor that Liam Neeson is wearing.” But that’s beside the point.) Yet Clash of the Titans wasn’t silly or stupid in the way that a good action flick is, such as the Lethal Weapon or The Mummy series, where the action is intentionally over-the-top and the whole film is tongue-in-cheek about it’s own ridiculousness. Clash of the Titans is neither of these: it’s just plain silly and just plain stupid, and even worse, it takes itself seriously the whole time.

As I said at the beginning of this review, I thoroughly enjoyed Clash of the Titans…but for all the wrong reasons. Despite everything I just said, no, because of everything I just said, you should get together a group of friends, go see it, 2-D, matinee price, and watch it MST3K style. I went to a 10 o’clock showing on opening night and almost everyone was talking and laughing. Clash of the Titans gets only two zipped lips from me, because really you should only shut up to listen to the hilariously awful dialogue.

Luke Eddy’s Top 25 Films of the Decade (It will be Epic)

Well, here it finally is: my ‘Top 25 Films of the Decade.’ Now, this list is inherently subjective. In the first place, I certainly haven’t seen every single film that’s come out in the last ten years, for the most part I’ve seen films that looked good to me, so my sampling pool for this list is already skewed. So really, this is my top 25 films, my favorites of the decade. Treat this list as my recommendations to you. Now obviously not all of these films are appropriate for everyone, but if a film on this list sounds interesting to you, then check it out. But before I start counting down films, I thought I’d briefly explain what I looked for in the films that I chose to include in this list. Here, summarized in four points, is what I looked for:

Stunning Visuals: I like films that surprise me with how good they look, whether that means the special and visual effects, like V for Vendetta, the cinematography, like in Mongol, or simply how the scenes are shot and edited, such as in Hot Fuzz.

Exceptional Acting: This should be a given, and I don’t mean above average acting, I mean exceptional acting.  I mean acting that really stands out, such as Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight, or that connects you emotionally to the character, like Bruce Willis in Unbreakable, or that leaves you in stitches, just like George Clooney in O Brother, Where Art Thou?, or in the case of an antagonist, such as Christopher Lee in The Lord of the Rings, acting that gives you a villain that you love to hate.

Something Meaningful to Say: Not all films need to have a complicated message, sometimes the simplest messages are the best. But a film with an interesting premise, like Sunshine, or an inspiring story, like The Lord of the Rings, have a lot more going for them. Now, not all of the films on my list are particularly strong in this area, at both ends of the spectrum  in fact (X2 and Hot Fuzz namely), but they make up for it by being remarkable in one or more of the other areas.

Entertaining: A film has to be entertaining. Duh. But really, that’s the point of a movie. If I didn’t enjoy watching it, it’s not on this list. And conversely, if a film was lacking in a couple of the other areas, but was nonetheless extremely enjoyable, it can still find itself in my top 25. I wouldn’t call Death at a Funeral ‘visually stunning’ nor does it have anything particularly meaningful to say, but it was so much fun to watch that I couldn’t help but include it.

So, all that said, I hope you enjoy my ‘Top 25 Films of the Decade.’

Chris’s Top 25 Films of the Previous Decade

Good evening movie loving persons. These are my top 25 movie recommendations of this decade. Unlike some of the other lists, my choices are in no particular order as I have trouble deciding between them. So if a movie seems to be higher or lower on the list than you think it should be, don’t take it too personally. There will be more detailed reviews of these movies posted later. As these are recommendations, it seemed to make little sense to spoil them before you’ve had a chance to watch them.

Lord of the Rings (2001, 2002, 2003)

One of the greatest book series of all time becomes one of the greatest movie trilogies of all time. Everything in this newly created Middle Earth was greatly detailed, from the costumes to the buildings, to the weapons and food. The cast and their performances are also no less than spectacular.  Peter Jackson really knew what he was getting himself into. But I don’t need to justify why these films are the best of our generation, they can do that for themselves.

Isaac’s “Top 25 Must See Movies of the Decade” (2000-2009)

In developing ‘My Top 25 Movies of the Decade’, I knew there was no way I could rank my movies from 1st to 25th.  Any attempt would be futile.  How do I pit my favorite comedy against my favorite Pixar? Kudos to my friends who were able to achieve this, but for me it wasn’t possible. I instead organized them by year of release. Not only does this relieve the pressure of ranking each one, but emphasizes the time and context of its release.  I also included a number of honorable mentions to round out what I could not cover with just 25 titles.  (Also, just because I enjoyed and recommended it does not mean that it is appropriate for all ages.)

I know that this list is completely subjective. It is not the ’25 best ever’, it is simply my favorites and recommendations. Chances are, there are a couple films here that you disliked or were greatly disappointed in. But know this, I chose each and every one for a reason. Perhaps my review will bring something to light, some theme or value you might have missed before. In the end, these are just my recommendations. My goal is to champion movies worth remembering, challenge you to see something new, and recommend some great movies you might have missed.

1. Memento (2000)

Before Batman Begins and The Prestige, Christopher Nolan got warmed up with Memento. A rather under-watched film, Memento is the mystery thriller of a man who can’t make new memories. Most writers would consider this premise to be captivating enough, but Nolan doesn’t stop there. Oh no, he puts all the scenes in reverse order. When each scene begins, you have no context for what is going on just as the main character has no memory of what has come before. Nolan effectively simulates memory loss for his entire audience. The intriguing plot and unique storytelling lands Memento solidly in my list for the top 25 movies of the decade.

Nate’s Top 25 Movies of the Decade (2000-2009)

These are my 25 favorite movies of the decade.  They may not be the ‘best’ films of the decade, as there are many artistically and/or technically exceptional movies that I just didn’t enjoy watching, (like Requiem for a Dream, or City of God) which, while they may indeed be some of the ‘best’ of the decade, they are not among my favorites.  That said, these are all excellent films in their own right.  Obviously, while these movies all come highly recommended, a word of warning, a few of them are very decidedly R-rated.

25. Sweet Home Alabama (2002):

Yes, it’s a chick flick.  But it’s a good chick flick.  It’s pretty original…for a chick flick.  For one thing, it’s not set in New York.  Also, “The Guy” isn’t some sexual Ghengis Khan who magically realizes the error of his philandering ways because he decides he wants the one girl he hasn’t managed to conquer.  Nor is “The Girl” some neurotic, uptight overachiever who meets a fun-loving but slovenly guy who she initially hates, but then they learn from each other and discover that opposites attract.  Is it predictable?  Yeah.  Is it fluff? Yes, but it’s extremely likable fluff that is lots of fun.  Lets face it, if you’re going to watch a chick flick, you might as well watch the best.