Good review, Peligro. I’ve been wanting to see an honest negative review, and like you said, you were speaking from the heart.
I went and saw Fury Road a second time with a friend of mine who is the biggest Mad Max fan I know (and also a big WaxTrax! collector - I know he reads the forum from time to time). I was really looking forward to seeing his reaction to the film. He liked it, but wasn’t wowed by it the way everyone else (including myself) apparently was. But we didn’t have time to really discuss exactly why in much detail. Hopefully later.
I’m still wowed by it. It was just as good the second time if not better, and there was so much detail to see that I missed the first time around. I dunno…it had everything I wanted in a Mad Max film and then some. I welcome more Mad Max films from George Miller in this vein, and hope we get 'em.
On the topic of the Bruce Spence character in Thunderdome being the same one as the Gyro Captain (why didn’t he recognize Max in the Thunderdome if that’s true?), what do you guys think about the possibility of Immortan Joe being the same character as Toecutter from the first Mad Max? If he somehow survived that fiery motorcycle collision, burns all over his body, having to use a respirator Darth Vader style, and then rose from the ashes to take on a new larger-than-life persona, eventually ruling the Citadel…who knows, maybe it’s possible? It would be one amazing connection if true. Maybe there’s a reason Max never got to see the face of his enemy…
A few weeks before, I had been to see Avengers: Age Of Ultron at the movies. And I hated. It was big, dumb, load and empty.
And I loathed Mad Max 4 for ALL the same reasons. Big, dumb, loud and empty.
Why do you torture yourself? If we know you are going to hate blockbuster movies how come you don’t? why would you even bother let alone waste your money on something that is sure to disappoint you?[/reply]
Because then he couldn’t be the contrarian who needs to constantly be the center of attention?
Some movies are STORIES/ SAGAS.
Some movies are PAINTINGS.
FURY ROAD doesn’t really tell a “story” as much as it gives us a most glorious painting of what the wasteland is presently like (present, as in “during the most present film”).
If you need to know who everyone is, what the meaning of everything is, yadda yadda yadda . . . well, there are plenty of nerd sites for that (I might be able to help you as well) as well.
I like that my friends and I can talk and argue at length about many details of the film which, again, was basically a 2 hour car chase.
When the one for Vin Diesel’s “Last Witchfighter” comes on, not everyone in the theater wants to hear you yell out, “WHAT A PILE OF CRAP!!!” . . . or so I heard.
I don’t hate blockbusters. Don’t hate them at all. You’re forgetting that I am a HUGE fan of Mad Max. And Mad Max is one of the biggest grossing Australian movies of all time. Over in the States, Mad Max is more of a cult thing. Down HERE, it’s a BLOCKBUSTER. Like Crocodile Dundee or…I dunno, what’s another Aussie blockbuster.
I loved Avatar. Loved it. Biggest blockbuster ever. And yes it too was, at heart a VERY simple straight forward story (albeit one that’s been told 1000 times).
And I didn’t go into Mad Max: Fury Road WANTING to hate it?!? WANTING to walk around loudly proclaiming “Hey everyone! I just saw Mad Max Fury Road and I HATED it!!! How’d ya like them apples?!?!”
That’s ridiculous.
Not trying to be centre of attention at all.
Don’t get me wrong. I certainly didn’t hate every minute of it. In fact, now that I look back on it I didn’t really HATE it at all*. I just left the cinema feeling rather empty instead of elated.
Just felt like this wasn’t the Mad MAx Fury Road that I had WANTED it to be…
If that makes sense.
I’d give it a 5.5 out of 10.
*there was one scene in particular that blew my head off - the scene where the old guy and his posse are driving towards Max and co. at night and firing randomly at them. Looked amazing. And many of the costumes were fantastic. Some totally creeped me out.
What a fun fucking film. Id see it again. Btw theron had the most horrible line reads of them all. But goddamn if that white haired wasnt hot as fuck and the brunette with her left nipple pierced, yum
When the one for Vin Diesel’s “Last Witchfighter” comes on, not everyone in the theater wants to hear you yell out, “WHAT A PILE OF CRAP!!!” . . . or so I heard.
Reminds me of the time I saw The Matrix Reloaded in the theater. There was some Pepsi ad that played before the previews/trailers and I said “Pepsi sucks” very subtly, yet loud enough people to get a laugh. Doesn’t compare to being as stoned as I was when I saw School of Rock. Someone had to come over and tell my friend and I to “knock off the yelling… and shit…”
Doesn’t compare to being as stoned as I was when I saw School of Rock. Someone had to come over and tell my friend and I to “knock off the yelling… and shit…”
I was in college when the Beavis and Butthead movie debuted. Of course we went on opening night, and of course we were super high. But it wasn’t just us. EVERYONE in the whole damn theatre seemed to be high, many of them squirrelly teenagers. And everyone was hogging out on nachos and slurping soda and . . . the entire theatre was laughing and talking like Beavis and Butthead. “Heh heh FIRE FIRE!!! Gimme some nachos, asswipe!!! Huh huh huh that was cool!”
On the topic of the Bruce Spence character in Thunderdome being the same one as the Gyro Captain (why didn’t he recognize Max in the Thunderdome if that’s true?), what do you guys think about the possibility of Immortan Joe being the same character as Toecutter from the first Mad Max? If he somehow survived that fiery motorcycle collision, burns all over his body, having to use a respirator Darth Vader style, and then rose from the ashes to take on a new larger-than-life persona, eventually ruling the Citadel…who knows, maybe it’s possible? It would be one amazing connection if true. Maybe there’s a reason Max never got to see the face of his enemy…
–SKot
I don’t think Immortan Joe and Toecutter are the same person because they don’t act much alike, in my opinion.
My fan-fic idea about Bruce Spence’s character(s) is that they’re twins who were both raised knowing a lot about aeronautics. That would explain why they are two identical looking people with flying machines in post-apocalyptic Australia.
Fun fact: Lord Humungous was originally going to be Max’s cop friend who got burned up in the first movie, but Miller changed his mind about that early in production
On the topic of being high at movies: I saw “South Park: Bigger, Longer & Uncut” on mushrooms. Not only was the movie 300% funnier (which is saying something, because sober, the movie is still hilarious), but on a big screen with psilocybin coursing through my brain, I felt like I could reach out and touch the construction paper they used to make the animation. Trippy.
I don’t think Immortan Joe and Toecutter are the same person because they don’t act much alike, in my opinion.
My fan-fic idea about Bruce Spence’s character(s) is that they’re twins who were both raised knowing a lot about aeronautics. That would explain why they are two identical looking people with flying machines in post-apocalyptic Australia.
I like that idea. I really wanted them to be the same character, but some things just don’t work with that notion (like Bruce Spence/Jedediah not recognizing Max in the Thunderdome, for instance). Plus, George Miller has gone on record saying they are not the same character. But twins…that could work!
Fun fact: Lord Humungous was originally going to be Max’s cop friend who got burned up in the first movie, but Miller changed his mind about that early in production
I think it would make more sense if it was Max’s cop friend/boss - the big bald muscled guy who was always shirtless. We don’t know what happened to him and his loud but cheerful nature after the apocalypse, and it would have been quite the irony if he became Humongous in the end, fighting against Max.
I was gonna mention my experience of seeing South Park: Bigger, Longer and Uncut in the theater to try to compare the surrealism of Gunnar’s B&B experience, but it was only surreal as to how crazy and loud it got in there. One of the best experiences at the movies I’ve ever had!
Another stoned as fuck moment was when I saw Freddy Vs Jason. Let’s face it, it was pretty disappointing for something that was about 15 years in the making, but we got pretty obnoxious in there towards the end probably for that reason. When it came time for Kelly Rowland (the short haired member of Destiny’s Child) to get killed, I yelled “BEYONCE IS PAYING FOR THIS NOW CUT HER FUCKING HEAD OFF!!!” and it was on from there! The fight between Freddy and Jason actually felt more like a wrestling match, and definitely not the same when I watch it at home.
We don’t really know that Jedediah doesn’t recognize Max, as he watches from a distance on the Thunderdome cage, and Max has long hair. Or maybe Jedediah does recognize him (the camera shot, to me, suggests that he recognizes Max), but realizes that he took Max’s camels in the beginning. Maybe he heard a rumor in Bartertown that the ‘man with no name’ made a deal to get his camels back.
Max recognizes him at the end of the movie, but that doesn’t necessarily eliminate the twin theory. I don’t think anyone really cares since Jedediah is barely - if ever - mentioned by name in both movies, and most fans are going to assume they are one in the same. If it’s a matter of a script-to-production change, Miller probably just let it go and didn’t care anyway. Not sure what the timeline is between RW and MM3, so it’s possibly the Gyro Captain had a kid (and who’s not to say, in the MM universe, that the Gyro Captain’s name isn’t Jedediah?).
Theorizing like it’s 1985.
1002
[reply]I don’t think Immortan Joe and Toecutter are the same person because they don’t act much alike, in my opinion.
My fan-fic idea about Bruce Spence’s character(s) is that they’re twins who were both raised knowing a lot about aeronautics. That would explain why they are two identical looking people with flying machines in post-apocalyptic Australia.
I like that idea. I really wanted them to be the same character, but some things just don’t work with that notion (like Bruce Spence/Jedediah not recognizing Max in the Thunderdome, for instance). Plus, George Miller has gone on record saying they are not the same character. But twins…that could work!
Of course he could have had a kid. That little blonde Betty in Road Warrior was all ready for some breedin’ with the Cap’n.
Doesn’t recognize him? Come on! Max busts in on him with “You got a plane!” The Cap’n/Max dynamic throughout RW and Thunderdome is a bit of Tom and Jerry / Coyote and Roadrunner action with Cap’n continuing to think he’s got his score and then getting bitchslapped by Max. But the two don’t want to kill each other or anything. It’s kind of a love-hate dealio and Max likes the dude being alive on this planet because the Cap’n will be forever Max’s BITCH.
Did he not recognize him? Bahhhh!!! Phooey! He just doesn’t give a shit. What’s he supposed to do? Start high-fivin’ him and slappin’ him on the ass?
Same dude. Same damn dude. That’s all there is to it.
