Review: ‘Mad Max’ is a non-stop thrill ride through post-apocalyptic Australia

Posted on May 22, 2015

By MARK VIOLA

After more than a decade of off-and-on-again development on the part of director George Miller and a full 30 years after the last installment, Mad Max is back in a brand new adventure with Tom Hardy (“The Dark Knight”) taking over the legendary role.

“Mad Max: Fury Road” is that it is just as action-packed and insane as the trailers would lead you to believe. After about 10 minutes of setting up Max and the strange cult-like society he finds himself within, the remaining hour and 50 minutes consist of a single, nearly non-stop car chase sequence across the desert wasteland of a devastated, post-nuclear Australian Outback, filled with some of the craziest characters I’ve ever seen in film.

Combining the beauty of the landscape and the brutality of its people, the film is both thrilling from an action standpoint and fascinating from a story standpoint. Additionally, the movie feels both at home in the 1980s punk-apocalypse aesthetic of the original films and the modern filmmaking techniques a big budget can provide, bridged by Miller’s insistence of using practical–non-computer generated–effects and race sequences, making everything feel more real, more intense and more visually stunning.

This is a brutal film–albeit one without the bloody violence you might expect–and is not for everyone, but for those looking for a super-sized dose of action and insanity, “Mad Max: Fury Road” is a trip worth taking.

The film is rated R for intense sequences of violence throughout, and for disturbing images.

(This is a shortened version of the full review available in our printed or e-edition papers.)

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