Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

Mad Max: Fury Road (R)

"What a Lovely Day!"

In the bombed out dusty future of our world, the remnants of society are banded together in savage attempts to survive the wasteland.  Those, like Max, who cling to the past and refuse to submit to the new world are seen as mere untapped resources, lone wolves.  And those that revolt against this insane patriarchy are pursued with chrome and bloody exhaust in Post-Apocalyptic godfather George Miller's 30 years in the making follow up to the Mad Max series, Fury Road.

With a character design dregged from the weird fantasies of Brom, vehicle designs that Ratfink would salivate over, a brutal world finally fully realized and minutia-ized, and stunts and action that are in-camera and astonishing to behold, Mad Max returns full throttle and on the red line.  This is the kind of film either you know the genre and enjoy immersion or the over-the-top-ness will turn you off  and you'll avoid.  There are quite a few surprising twists thrown into the mix however, completely shattering the mold that Miller himself invented.  CGI is prominent and a bit unwelcome (mostly it looks like for 3D showings and sometimes cheaply).  Females now have a more prominent role, lead by Imperator Furiosa (the incomparable Charlize Theron who is well cast as the co-lead of the film).  This may in fact turn off some of the muscle car and gear head beer swillers who traditionally enjoy Max films, as Furiosa commands much of the bad-assery on screen, what with the Evil-Dead arm and newly styled savage fem-action hero who somehow retains her femaleness (a woman Max she's not).  Grrl Power is the name of the game in Fury Road, and many fans will astound at the backseat driving Max does for most of the film.  Now played by Tom Hardy (Mel Gibson is retired in all but name due to his shenanigans), Max almost barely deserves to be in the title.  And, unfortunately, Hardy is either not up to filling Gibson's Mad shoes or Miller unwilling to completely allow him to.  The character is missing the insane drive and masculinity that Gibson brought the role, and combined with sharing the screen with Theron and having his character's madness upped to actual insanity really hampers one of the great action roles of all time.  Perhaps a return of the character to full glory first without all the femme-fatals (sic) would have lessened the sting, but Max almost seems like just another of the interesting side-characters that colorize Miller's Apoc films.

And what colorful characters there are!  The ultra-males, the seed saving grandmothers, the War Boys and concubines and Bullet Farmers, all tumor laced and disgusting.  One is a stand out, young Nicholas Hoult (Hank McCoy in X-Men First Class) is a stand out as Nux the sickly War Boy.  He has a manic energy and fanaticism that drives the first half and mellows the second, and is a stand out performance.  All of the Max films have benefited from villains that you enjoy spending time with and seeing defeated, but Fury Road has so many of these characters whose insane lifestyle you just can't help but admire, who ride into battle like Valkyries with a Rock'N'Roll opera being performed live as they drive (like Wagner gene-spliced with GWAR) with flame throwers spitting and exhaust pipes flaming, that unlike much of the genre of post-apocalypse, Fury Road is a dangerous outback that seems fun to visit (even if no one would want to live there).  The first break in the action left the audience winded, and then continued for another hour and a half.  Fantastic stuff.

9 Don't Look Thumbs Up out of 10 (GREAT)

Bone-us Haiku

Shotgun eyes at dusk
Lizard skulls and blood bag dust
Chrome fenders eat well.

(Humongus Approved)

X-Men First Class (2011)

X-Men First Class (PG-13)

"Where's Fresh-man"

Mix MadMen with IronMan and you get this new offering from the movie House of M.  Color me surprised, they didn't screw it up, but I've been saying for years a period piece is just what they need (after all, the originals were written in the 60s).  Xmas Jones can't act her way into any emotion, Bacon chews the scenery without the needed sideburns and all the History kind of dwarfs the tiny cast of characters (4 bad guys vs 4 good guys, c'mon...)  But the cool James Bond-like pizazz of the 60s really lends itself to a good time and Magneto once again steals the show being a Nazi-hunting pragmatist.  There's some sketchy CGI, some dues ex machina from hell, and it could have been edited down a bit, but the plot and charisma shine through (Bryan Singer is getting story credit, and its good to have someone who understands the XTeam back to give the series a good kick in its shorts).  Welcome back X-Men.
8 M'Kraan Crystals out of 10 (GOOD)

Battle: LA (2011)

Battle: Los Angeles (PG-13)

"The Battle to Stay Awake"

Less of a battle, more of a video game demo, right down to the by-the-book squad members and terrible writing with plastic motivations. Retroactively makes Independance Day look like Apocalypse Now.

1 Depressingly Expensive Movie out of 10 (AWFUL)

Drive (2011)

DRIVE (R)

"I've been driving all night, hands wet on the wheel"

 From start to finish, Drive is pure visceral film making. The cinematography is fascinating, the editing sublime, the characters and how they are portrayed and composed in frame are filled with minutia. It reminded me of Vanishing Point, but with less car porn. It reminded me of early Tarantino without the "snappy-on-purpose" dialogue. The hyper-kinetic, golden rayed ultra-violence will turn some people off, but for me it was the splash of red on a beautifully large and complex canvas that has to be there for the film to be as effective as it is.

9 Muscley Cars out of 10 (GREAT)

How To Train Your Dragon (2010)

How To Train Your Dragon (PG)

"A boy and his Cat-dragon"

Dreamworks Animated features finally drop the amusing cartoonish antics and go for the heart (as so often their competitor Pixar is lauded for) in a loose adaptation of the children's series How to Train Your Dragon.

Hindered by typically inept marketing, HTTYD still finally boosted Dreamworks into being taken seriously and making wads of cash with an almost unknown property, an extremely rare occurrence in this cynical box office environment of "sequels and remakes."  The story of misunderstood Viking son Hiccup and his cat-like dragon "Toothless" resonated with audiences with its cuteness and variety.  There are goofy jokes and snide remarks, and low hanging narritive fruit such as "parents just don't understand" that today's youths might latch onto but this reviewer is tired of listening to.

But the art is beautiful, the emotions true, the animation top notch.  The art style has some hidden hiccups and the story some strange eccentricities (why do the Vikings adults all voiced by Scottish actors, yet their kids are all Americans?), but the vast majority of the film exceeds expectations of a DW animated flick.  Expanding the fun yet sparse source material into a giant world (much like they did with Shrek) works well; imparting pathos and a real sense of danger and humanity was genius.

HTTYDragon is a fantasy movie like they used to make pre-90s, with invention and risk taking (mixed with the ultracute just to take the curse off it).  It shows how a license, properly cultivated by caring artists and story tellers, can diverge and prosper artistaclly and not just pander to the kiddies,

8.5 Scots with Horns out of 10 (GREAT)