Tag Archives: Mad Max

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) Movie Review

George Miller’s Furiosa is a prequel to his acclaimed fourth Mad Max film, Fury Road. It tells the story of how Furiosa (portrayed by Charlize Theron in Fury Road and Anya Taylor-Joy here) found herself in the employ of the despotic leader of the Citadel, Immortan Joe (Lachy Hulme, who is only slightly less menacing than Fury Road’s Hugh Keays-Byrne).

Beyond being one of those prequels that merely traces the line back to the start, Furiosa also spends much of its runtime fleshing out the world of the Mad Max Wasteland and the three tenuously symbiotic settlements that keep life there from snuffing out. The combination of these two threads – the personal story of Furiosa and the grander narrative of human survival – make for a film that weaves vengeance and history-making into an epic yarn.

As one character describes of Furiosa, there is “a purposeful savagery” to both the film and its world. Miller takes pains to make the Wasteland appear Continue reading Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) Movie Review

The Bad Batch (2017) Movie Review

Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut as a feature director came in the form of the genre-bending vampire romance film A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. The film, shot in supple black and white over a soundtrack of trance-inducing electronica and angsty punk, was a beautiful piece about maintaining relationships in an environment rife with isolation.

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On paper, Amirpour’s second film The Bad Batch exists in a similar world. Arlen (Suki Waterhouse) is released from “Bad Batch” prison into the desert wilderness of the Texas-Mexico border.

A dystopian world in which cannibalism is a viable form of survivable (viable to the point of being morally questionable as opposed to morally intolerable), isolation is all Arlen has. Especially after she is captured by a family of cannibals and Continue reading The Bad Batch (2017) Movie Review

2016 Academy Awards Predictions – Best Sound Editing

The two sound categories at the Oscars may appear synonymous. And, yes, the two categories often go to the same film. I think this year will end up going that route, as well. But, of course, anything is possible.

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All five of the films in Best Sound Editing feature superior sound work. As a result, I feel that the award will go to Continue reading 2016 Academy Awards Predictions – Best Sound Editing

Snubs From the 2016 Golden Globes Nominations

The Golden Globes suffer from something that the Academy Awards recently remedied quiet easily. The format of the Golden Globes is to have two separate categories for Best Picture, one for drama and one for comedy or musical. The Academy Awards, by comparison, have Continue reading Snubs From the 2016 Golden Globes Nominations

The Best of 2015 in Movies (So Far)

We’re about half-way through 2015 and, as such, have been presented with plenty of films. Early-year diamonds in the rough and breakout summer blockbusters have surfaced. Here are my favorite movies of 2015 as of June 21 (in order of their respective release dates).

Continue reading The Best of 2015 in Movies (So Far)

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Movie Review

“High Octane” is seen being forcibly tattooed onto the back of Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) in an early scene of Mad Max: Fury Road as part of his new label as a slave “blood bag.” The same tattoo may as well be stamped across the entire film. This fourth Mad Max installment is essentially a nonstop car chase across the post-apocalyptic desert wasteland. There is only a handful of chances to breathe, during the four or five fade-to-black ellipses, before we are thrust back into the merciless, saturated orange of the barren landscape.

 

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Amid the onslaught of cars ripping other cars to shreds and drug-fueled white-painted grunts pitching themselves at other cars with explosive sticks, Continue reading Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) Movie Review

2015 Summer Movie Wager: A Game of Box Office Predictions

The Totally Rad Show, through rules given by TimeTravelReview’s, has this little game:

Continue reading 2015 Summer Movie Wager: A Game of Box Office Predictions