Movie Review: Spy (R – 120 minutes)

I am of the opinion that Melissa McCarthy is a brilliant comedian, with a strong sketch comedy background.  I think she’s best when teamed with director Paul Feig, who understands her processes and timing, and really knows when to let her go and when to rein her in.  Bridesmaids and the Heat were both hilarious, with McCarthy able to display some different types of funny. 

Needless to say, I was really looking forward to this movie as soon as I heard about it, and I am happy to say that it lived up to my expectations!  Action-comedy is a really wonderful mash-up genre, and probably one of my favorite styles of movie.  Spy pulls it off, and manages to be a good straightforward action comedy, and not the spoof I was afraid it would be.

Spy starts off with the audience following CIA super-spy Bradley Fine and his handler, Susan Cooper.  Cooper works out of the vermin-infested basement of CIA headquarters and communicates with Fine on his missions.  The vermin infestation is played as a throw-away running gag.  While funny, I'm not sure it was necessary.  In any case, Fine accidentally kills Tihomir Boyanov, who was the only person who knew the location of the nuclear bomb he stole.  Fine’s character is quickly established as fairly conceited as we see that he takes advantage of Cooper’s help, and while he acknowledges her helpfulness, he doesn’t really acknowledge much else about her. 

Fine goes back on mission to capture Boyanov’s daughter, Rayna, since she may know the location of the bomb.  Unfortunately, he gets killed, and Rayna reveals she knows the names and faces of all the other top CIA agents, so they better not come after her!  Cooper volunteers to go into the field, since no one knows her face, and do reconnaissance on Rayna and her contact, DeLucca, to help track down the bomb.  She gets a couple of new identities, each one more humiliating than the last, but eventually poses as Rayna’s bodyguard to get close enough to her to watch over the deal.  She also has to deal with rogue agent Rick Ford, who quit the CIA to seek vengeance for Fine’s murder, and seems to be on a testosterone-filled tear through Europe, while managing to not be helpful at all.  She also gets assistance from fellow basement-dweller Nancy as she travels from Paris to Rome to Budapest.  Along the way, Cooper proves to be an exceptional agent, far more capable than anyone had given her credit for. 

The action is really well directed, considering that Feig is mostly known as comedy director.  I particularly enjoyed the hand to hand combat scenes, which were really well done! There has been some question as to why the R rating was necessary, but the reality is that most of the comedians in the movie are curse-happy, and in order to let them improv as they wanted, letting the cursing go makes sense. 

• This is definitely a Melissa McCarthy movie, and I have to tell you – I really hope this gets franchised and we get a couple of sequels.  She is so great as this character who has been over-looked for so long, but when given the opportunity to step up, she really does and proves she’s been capable the whole time.  It was really important to me that she did prove to be a fantastic agent and not a joke.  Also – the fight scenes were so great!  Especially her knife/frying pan fight with Nargis Fahkri. 

• Miranda Hart – a well-known British comedian, plays Nancy B. Artingstall, Cooper’s fellow analyst in the basement.  She’s as funny as she is tall, and she’s really really tall.  I loved her always-honest support of Susan regardless of how difficult the situation was.  I also enjoyed her interaction with Fifty Cent…yes, Fifty Cent is in this.

• Allison Janney plays the CIA boss who decides to give Susan a shot in the field.  She is fantastic in a very typical role (cop/spy boss who is no-nonsense), that she plays in the typical way, but she manages to bring just enough to it to make it really entertaining and feel fresh – despite being an action movie cliché role.

• Rose Byrne, who was also brilliantly horrible in Bridesmaids, continues to master brilliantly horrible as Rayna Boyanov.  She’s so spoiled and pampered and trying so hard to run what’s left of her father’s international crime organization.  I loved the interaction between Rayna and Susan once Susan got in close enough to act as her bodyguard and stopped taking her crap.  It was absolutely hilarious.

• I’ve never been a Jude Law fan, I’m not sure why, but he also felt a little useless here.  Part of that is the character, Fine is the ultimate spy, and he treats Susan like just another tool in his arsenal.  When he finally learns of her true devotion to him, he’s not really sure what to do with that.  Thankfully, by that time, she realizes he’s not really worth that level of devotion, and is able to step it down.  I do have to wonder why they used Law, since the character is American.  Why not cast an American actor?

• Jason Statham absolutely steals this movie as agent Rick Ford.  Some people will be surprised by his comedy talent if they are only familiar with him from his more recent projects.  However, if you remember his Guy Ritchie movies, he really started in the action/comedy genre.  And, aside from his Olympic-level diving ability, he does have some pretty great comic-timing.  I never would have thought that he and McCarthy would be perfect partners in a piece like this but it worked so well.  Every single rant he went on had me laughing out loud, “This arm has been completely ripped off, and reattached with this arm!”

• Morena Baccarin shows up very briefly as another of the CIA agents whose identities were compromised.  She plays the pretty-popular agent Karen Walker, who Susan and Nancy have a hilarious encounter with while out at the local CIA bar.

• Carlos Ponce and Will Yun Lee play the other two compromised CIA agents – and hey!  Second movie in a row featuring 5 minutes of Will Yun Lee (after San Andreas last week), and that’s not nearly enough for me.  Be sure to notice how his biceps are barely contained by his suit in this.

• Bobby Cannavale plays Sergio DeLuca – Rayna’s contact/broker who is setting up the deal for her to move the nuke.  He’s basically playing Bobby Cannavale in Rome, which is pretty entertaining, but he’s mainly there to be the straight man while others around him get to be funny.

• Mad TV vet Michael McDonald (who was also in the Heat) plays the version of Q for this movie, Patrick.  He sets Susan up with her gear for her mission.

• The hilarious British comedian Peter Serafinowicz plays Aldo – an Italian agent that Nancy contacts to assist Susan while in Rome.  He plays a very stereotypical lewd Italian-guy, but Serafinowicz manages to make that slightly charming – but just slightly charming.

I really loved this movie, it made me laugh, but it’s also a really good action movie. It’s straightforward, it’s genuine, and it’s hilarious!  I have to say that I was so thrilled to have another action movie with a genuine female lead.  I was thrilled that even when someone comes to Susan’s rescue in the final scene, it’s another woman.  At no point is Susan any less than any of the men in the movie and for most of it, she’s the superior agent to all of them.   Who knew that between this and Mad Max Fury Road it would be such a strong female movie season?  Also – finally a movie with a PDS!  As you know, I complain constantly about the PTS (pointless tit shot) in movies, where male directors think a great way to add ‘sexy’ to their movies is to throw a shot of a pair of tits in for no reason (they’re all wrong on that, btw).  This movie finally has a pointless dick shot!  And played completely for laughs!

9 out of 10 – Gained points for Statham and his rants, lost points for the running gag of the terrible aliases the agency kept setting up for Susan.  Gained points for the Bond-like cold open, and song sequence. Gained points for the gadget sequence, always entertaining.  Gained points for Rayna’s hair, and the running jokes there.  Also – gained points for the PDS!

Bonus Video 1 – Haywire, still the best female-led action movie out there.

Bonus Video 2 – McCarthy explaining the best way to deal with critics on Ellen.

Bonus Video 3 – Cast Interviews.

Movie Review: San Andreas (PG13 – 114 minutes)

The “disaster movie” is its own genre that has been around almost as long as movies (Fire! was made in 1901), starting with natural disasters in the 30s and 40s, and shifting to an atomic or nuclear tone during the 50s after the Second World War (War of the Worlds - 1953, Godzilla - 1956, The Day The Earth Caught Fire – 1961).  The disaster movie really gained popularity in the 70s with Airport (1970), The Poseidon Adventure (1972), Earthquake (1974), and the Towering Inferno (1974). 

Essentially each of these has some huge disaster that begins with a buildup – then the disaster itself – then the aftermath, and they are often told from the point of view of a specific character that has been developed early in the movie so the audience cares about them and their loved ones and whether or not they make it through the disaster.  It became enough of a thing that it was spoofed in 1980 with the brilliant Airplane!

With the upsurge in amazing computer-generated special effects in the 90s, Roland Emmerich and Dean Devlin became the new modern masters of disaster movies with Independence Day, The Day After Tomorrow, and 2012.  Previous to this past weekend, I would have told you that 2012 was the movie I had seen that best showcased every single cliché of the disaster movie genre. 

I can now take that back and tell you that officially San Andreas is the movie that best showcases every single disaster movie cliché: hero with angst and family in danger, small preliminary danger before the big danger, an asshole character who makes things worse for the leads, a scientist who is working to stop/correct/predict the disaster and is trying to warn everyone but also being ignored, family members in jeopardy, strangers coming together to help each other, an honest reporter/press person trying to get the word out, someone sacrificing themselves to save someone else, idiots looting, almost losing one of the leads, family reuniting, and finally – a big epic final shot as the hero/family looks over the aftermath of the disaster and is grateful/hopeful/rebuilding.  It’s not necessarily a bad thing to use all these clichés, but man, it really does have all of them. 

We are introduced to our hero Ray, as he works with LA Fire and Rescue to save a girl who seems to have driven her car into a ravine and is now stuck there.  There were no trailers in front of my showing - resulting in me missing the first 2 minutes, so I honestly don’t know if we saw how she managed to get stuck there.  I’m going to go with she was texting and driving and then drove into a ravine.  Ray and his crew arrive on their helicopter with a camera crew who is doing a piece on them.  You get all the character development you need on how heroic Ray is when he wiggles the helicopter into the ravine, and goes in to save both the girl and Arsenal who has gone in after the girl and gotten pinned under the car while trying to secure it.  Back at base, Ray is about to start a weekend vacation (of course he is) which he will use to drive his daughter up to college.  He we get some further development as we learn that the daughter, Blake and her mother Emma, are about to move in with Emma’s new beau – Daniel, who is crazy rich (of course he is).  We also learn that Ray and Emma are estranged (of course they are) because they lost their other daughter in an accidental drowning incident years ago. 

Meanwhile, two seismologists are working with their team on earthquake prediction technology and head out to the Hoover Dam to see if they have something that is working.  While there, Dr. Park is down in the tunnels studying the wave readings and Lawrence is up top comparing them and sure enough, they realize their readings are predicting that an earthquake is about to hit – which then hits, and Dr. Park sacrifices himself to save a random girl (of course he does).  Lawrence heads back to L.A. with his data – and suddenly has an interview with the same press crew that was on the helicopter with Ray and team. 

Ray gets called in from his weekend off due to the destruction from the Dam collapsing in a spectacular CGI catastrophe, and Daniel volunteers to take Blake up to San Francisco from L.A.  Emma heads out to lunch with Kylie Minogue…I mean with Daniel’s sister, Susan.  But seriously, it’s Kylie Minogue!  In any case, Blake gets to Daniel’s headquarters in San Francisco, where they do some brief bonding, and we learn that his company builds skyscrapers.  While waiting on him in the lobby, she meets Ben, who is there for an interview for an engineering position, and his younger brother Ollie, who is there because their parents are out seeing the city?  It appears that Ben had this interview, and so they all came along to make it a holiday (they’re British).   After some flirting, Blake gives her phone number to Ollie to give to Ben, then Daniel comes to get her and they head to his limo to drive her to school.

Lawrence predicts the earthquake, and it hits L.A. – hard.  The restaurant that Emma is in starts to collapse, as Ray is flying his helicopter back to L.A. (of course he is).  Emma’s phone works enough (of course it does) that she calls Ray and he tells her he will pick her up on the roof of the building.  He gets her just as the building collapses (of course he does).  The quake hits San Francisco as Blake was in the limo with Daniel.  Daniel shows his true colors (of course he does) and leaves her there, but she gets one call out to her parents, who are in the helicopter and head up to her.  Daniel wanders out of the building past Ben and Ollie, who realize he left Blake in the car and go after her (of course they do).  Things go from bad to worse as Lawrence realizes that San Francisco is going to get hit again, and harder.  Ray and Emma crash in Bakersfield, where they have to deal with looters and a kindly old couple (of course they do).  They get in a small plane and keep going.  Meanwhile Ben and Ollie rescue Blake, who knows a lot of rescue tips because of her dad’s job (of course she does), she gets word to her parents that she is fine and heading to the highest point in the city.  Ray and Emma decide to parachute into the baseball stadium because there’s no place to land the plane (okay, that one was new).  They then realize they can’t get to the tower they were supposed to meet Blake at, and grab a boat.  Then, there’s a tsunami (of course there is).  

Finally they happen across the building that Blake, Ben and Ollie are in (literally, they seem to find them by happenstance), and Ray goes in to get them.  There’s some desperate last minute heroics, but everyone is okay as they make it to high ground, and hopefully look over the wreckage and decide to rebuild.

Brady Peyton has worked with the Rock in Journey 2 the Mysterious Island, so they clearly work well together.  The movie is cheesy, but the effects are great, and it really looks amazing.  Well, all the earthquake damage looks amazing, but there are some moments where Ray and Emma are just in the boat in the city, and you can clearly see that they’re in front of a green screen - even the shot below looks a bit weird and green-screen-y.  

Interesting that some of the really big epic moments look fantastic, but the moment of them standing still looks a bit off.  Every cast member commits to the nonsense 100%, and that really helps the movie.

• Dwayne Johnson – look, whatever, I’m going to still call him the Rock.  In fact, how much more excited about this movie would you have been if it had been called “Rock vs. Earthquake”?  In any case – he’s great, he’s always great.  He actually shows a bit more range in this than he has in past movies in the quiet moments where Ray is thinking of the daughter he lost.  Also – he looks amazing.

• Carla Gugino plays Emma, and is certainly game to run through as much earthquake disaster as possible.  She’s always good, and she’s actually a good counterpart for the Rock here.  Just like in Faster – if you haven’t seen Faster, see it.

• Alexandra Daddario – who I know from the Percy Jackson movies – plays Blake, and even though she’s actually only 13 years younger than the Rock, she plays his daughter in this.  She’s certainly capable, and I really enjoyed how once Ben and Ollie got her out of the limo, she basically saves them because of all her disaster prep know-how.

• Ioan Gruffudd plays Daniel, and you know it’s coming - but the moment that he leaves Blake in the car makes you so angry!  It does pay off, when he finally gets his.  Spoiler alert - he gets his.

• Archie Panjabi plays Serena, the one reporter who is able to get the story out!  I’m not sure why she was in the helicopter in the beginning and then with the seismologists, but it proved to really help out.

• Paul Giamatti goes into full panic mode as Lawrence, who is working really hard on predicting earthquakes, and getting the message out that another one is going to hit hard and soon.  He’s all exposition, but he does that really well, so I’m okay with it.

• Hugo Johnston-Burt plays Ben, who helps Blake, then just hangs out with her as they wander through the city looking for higher ground.

• Art Parkinson plays Ollie, and I’m not sure I understand the mentality of their parents leaving him with Ben as Ben is going to his interview, but maybe that worked out for the best, since we never see the parents – and never find out if they made it.

• Will Yun Lee does his best Michael deLorenzo in this movie as Dr. Kim Park.  He lives for maybe 5 minutes, just enough to get excited that they can predict the earthquake, then panicked as they are correct and it happens, then determined as he saves a random little girl on his way out. Go watch the Wolverine again if you want to see him for a lot longer.

• Kylie Minogue plays Susan – so random.  I mean, not unprecedented…she has acted before (yes, go back and watch the Jean Claude Van Damme Streetfighter to see more of that), but still – really random that she’s in this.

Like I said – every cliché from every disaster movie, ever.  If you’re into disaster movies – this one is really well done, and you’ll enjoy it.  If you’re into watching the Rock save everyone, you’ll enjoy it.  If you’re a Carla Gugino fan, she’s good in this, you’ll probably enjoy this.  Check your brain at the door, because if you think too hard about any piece of this movie, it may start to fall apart on you.  Buy the big popcorn and go for the spectacle.

6 out of 10 – Gained points for the amazing CGI, really – it looked great.  Also gained points for making me super happy I live in the Midwest.  Lost points for all the clichés, but then gained points for all the clichés, because it became fun the more of them that showed up.

Bonus Video 1: Some Kylie for you.

Bonus Video 2: Faster, which is an old-school action flick.  They let the Rock out of jail, and he goes after everyone who put him there.

Bonus Video 3:  The super creepy Sia version of California Dreamin' from the movie:

Bonus Video 4:  Cast Interviews.

Movie Review: Pitch Perfect 2 (PG13 – 115 minutes)

When Glee premiered on TV, it reminded the world that school-group acapella singing was a thing.   Acapella groups have been a mainstay of college campuses for years, and the competitions are always intense.  That show brought that into a high school setting and added high school drama to it; lots of drama.  So much drama, in fact, that I stopped watching halfway through season 2.  In 2012, a little movie called Pitch Perfect brought the college acapella competitions to the big screen in a hilarious comedy with some very entertaining numbers and several hugely non-entertaining vomit scenes. 

It was co-written by Elizabeth Banks who cameoed as one of the acapella competition commentators along with John Michael Higgins (one of Christopher Guest’s improv geniuses).  The movie was a sleeper hit and my biggest pleasant surprise of 2012.  It was really lighthearted and fun, and was a great departure from the summer blockbuster movie madness.  It easily made back its modest budget, which enabled a sequel and Banks decided to try her hand at directing it.

In Pitch Perfect 2, we catch up with the Barden Bellas, who have spent the last three years dominating the college acapella circuit.  They’ve been so dominant, that they have started to ‘lose their sound’ and become more wrapped up in the ‘production’ of the performances rather than the actual singing - they're using pyrotechnics and acrobatics.  As they are performing in front of the president, they have a ‘wardrobe malfunction’ and Amy accidentally flashes the crowd her ‘down under’ area – she’s Australian, get it? 

This results in general outrage in the acapella community and the acapella governing body bans the Bellas from competitions - oh no!  What will they do!?!  Well, they promptly find a loophole, and learn they can go to the ‘world championships’ which are held in Copenhagen.  Meanwhile, a legacy Bella (her mother was in the Bellas while she was at Barden) joins the group; Beca (our hero from the first movie) is struggling with her internship at a recording studio while juggling her relationship with Jesse (a member of the Barden Treblemakers);  Amy and Bumper continue their flirtation; the Bellas encounter Das Sound Machine (a German acapella powerhouse group); and the Bellas go on a retreat to re-find their sound – you know, general comedy hijinks.  My favorite of those hijinks is the underground acapella competition hosted by an eccentric millionaire - oh, you did hear me right.  It is equally as amazing as you think it is.  I loved the cameos in that sequence - particularly the Packers, but also Bumper's group of all-stars.  

For Elizabeth Banks’s directorial debut, the movie is done really well.  The intercuts between competitions and commentators are some of the best bits, and the work towards the world competition is really entertaining.  Banks manages to cram even more fun into this sequel, and keep all the characters from the first movie involved.  As with the first one, the most fun in this movie is watching the group work together despite the quirks of the members.

• Anna Kendrick is once again game to take the lead as Beca – now nearing the end of her college career and anxious to start her ‘real’ life.  She thinks she’s ready to leave the Bellas behind, but slowly starts to learn that she will miss them terribly.  Kendrick is insanely talented, and seems to only be getting better as she gets older.  She has more of an ease as Beca in this movie than she did in the first one – where Beca’s angst felt a little forced.  She’s really wonderful, especially all of her improv-ed retorts to the German taunting.

• Rebel Wilson absolutely stole the first movie, mainly because no one was ready for Rebel Wilson at that point.  Now that we are familiar with her, I was expecting her in this movie, so Fat Amy was less of a scene stealer than she was before.  I still enjoy her off-handed one-liners, and she comes off as genuinely wacky.  I did enjoy that she blew off Bumper, only to realize that she was in love with him, then the scene of her paddleboarding to him while singing just gets funnier as it goes on.

• Hailee Steinfeld is the new addition to this movie as Emily, the legacy Bella.  She’s wonderfully awkward and really entertaining.  I had seen her in True Grit prior to this, and so I knew she was talented at drama, but she was also very successful in this comedy.  Emily so badly wants to succeed as a Bella but is also about writing her own songs – which shocks the acapella world, because they are all about covers. 

• Brittany Snow again plays Chloe, and she has less to do in this movie than she did in the first – basically she is leading the Bellas, and is just there to try to keep everyone together.  She gets upset with Beca for hiding the internship from her, just to provide a little in-house drama.

• Skylar Astin plays Jesse, and also has less to do in this movie than in the first one.  Remember in the first one, he had to attempt to get Beca to like movies (all movies).  In this one, he’s reduced to supportive boyfriend and lead of the Treblemakers.  In a way, that’s good, because it makes way for…

• …Ben Platt as Benji.  He was the weird magician/Star Wars kid in the first movie, but here, he’s developed into a leading member of the Treblemakers, and gets to spend some time really awkwardly flirting with Emily – really awkwardly.  He actually had to take time out from playing in the Book of Mormon on Broadway to film this movie.

• Adam DeVine reprises his role of Bumper – which is good, because he was so funny in the first movie, but clearly left the Treblemakers during that movie.  Here – he’s back as a security guard.  Like I said, the scene between he and Wilson as Amy sings her love to Bumper is ridiculous and hilarious.  Then they just proceed to roll all over the ground together.

• The absolutely wonderful Katey Sagal plays Emily’s mom Katherine, who used to be a Bella.  She’s so good in so much, and it was nice to see her in this.  I saw the end result of her involvement coming a long way off, but it didn’t matter, it was still really moving and wonderful!

• Anna Camp has a brief cameo as recently graduated Bella Aubrey.  She is now running the motivational camp that the Bellas visit to retrieve their sound, finding that her life’s calling was to boss people around.

• Hana Mae Lee again plays Lilly – the super quiet Bella who just says really bizarre things under her breath.  I was happy that was less used in this movie than it was in the first.  It got really weird there, and here, it goes back to being funny.  More funny-weird than funny-haha, but still – it’s better than the first.

• Songwriter Ester Dean again plays Cynthia Rose who is used to cover almost all the minority demographics - at her own admission. 

• Chrissie Fit plays a member of the Bellas who seems to have been there a while, but was not in the first one – an immigrant from a different country (Guatemala, maybe?  That’s not a guess, that’s how it’s presented in the movie).  She’s also big into gymnastics.  Okay – that’s weird.

• The two new cast members who steal a bit of the movie are Danish Actress Brigitte Hjort Sorensen and German DJ/comedian/YouTube star Flula Borg as the lead members of Das Sound Machine.  They are really funny, and I did enjoy the stand offs between them the Bellas trading insults back and forth. 

• One of the best parts of this is the Green Bay Packers appearing as an acapella group in a mysterious underground acapella competition that the Bellas get invited to.  Nevermind the questions that arise when you think about underground acapella competitions, just go with it.  The Packers were huge fans of the original, and would sing all the time in the locker room – and were thrilled to get to be in the sequel. 

• The second best part of this movie is the appearance of Keegan Michael Key (the Key half of Key and Peele) as the boss of Beca’s recording studio internship.  He’s just fantastic – and mostly unscripted, and I just wanted to see outtakes of him berating his employee/nephew Dax, “Say one more hipster thing, Dax….”
• The very best part of this movie is the same as the very best part of the original, and that is Elizabeth Banks and John Michael Higgins as the Acapella competition commentators.  Just about everything they say is unscripted and hilarious; and I really wanted outtakes of the two of them riffing on the performances.

I have to say – I really loved this one more than the original.  I felt like this one was a little more silly, had more fun performances, and really went for it.  Also – so much less vomiting than the original.  The movie earned $70 million in its opening weekend, which was already more than the entire first film’s domestic theatrical run of $65 million.  I suppose they could go on a do a third, with Emily at the head of a new group of Bellas, but this one was fantastic, and I’d be happy with ending the series here – I’m not sure how they would top it!

8 out of 10 – super fun.  Lost points for no outtakes over the end credits.  Hey comedy movies – all we want is outtakes over the credits!!  Gained points for the fun cameos by real Acapella groups during the competition at the end (which was actually filmed in Baton Rouge – not Copenhagen) including Pentatonix – who I love!  Lost points for Beca not telling her fellow Bellas about her internship, for no real reason other than to cause drama.  Gained points for Beca admitting that she still didn’t know between Bellas Ashley and Jessica which was which – and then extra bonus points for those two responding at the same time, “I’m Jessica!”  So is there no Ashley?  Was there never an Ashley?

Bonus Video 1: Pentatonix being awesome.  If you are not already on the Pentatonix bandwagon --- get on it.  Usually their covers sound better than the originals!  Go ahead and take some time to fall into a Pentatonix YouTube hole.

Bonus Video 2: Reggie Watts being awesome with the cast.

Bonus Video 3: Cast interviews:

Movie Review: Mad Max Fury Road (R – 120 minutes)

In 1979 – Australian writer-director George Miller released Mad Max, a dystopian action film centered around a hero named Max, who was a ‘Main Force Patrol’ pursuit man.  It was hugely profitable, mainly because it was made for almost no money.  Basically Max is trying to enforce what little is left of the law in a dystopian Australian future.  Things go wrong, his family is killed – and he goes mad. 

The movie was really well received, but had very little release here in the US.  The second Mad Max movie is actually the one that Americans are more familiar with – The Road Warrior, from 1985.  In this outing, a community of settlers is attempting to fend off roving marauders who are looking for fuel.  Max meets the Gyro captain, attempts to help, battles Lord Humungus, and rediscovers his humanity while doing so.   This one was actually better received than the first movie.  It had very little dialogue and was really more about the visuals.

In the third outing, Mad Max goes Beyond the Thunderdome and battles Tina Turner.  Seriously – that Tina Turner.  That is no stranger than the fact that Wilt Chamberlain was in Conan the Destroyer…seriously, that Wilt Chamberlain.  In any case, 15 years have passed since the Road Warrior, and Max is traveling across the desert when he is attacked.  Pursuing his attackers, Max arrives at Bartertown, and ends up in the Thunderdome.  He then gets into a dispute with Aunty Entity and Master Blaster – eventually helping to save a group of random children and teens in the desert. 

Since all of these were written and directed by George Miller (he also did Witches of Eastwick, Lorenzo’s Oil, Babe: Pig in the City, and both Happy Feet movies), it makes sense that he would write and direct this newest entry into the franchise, that really, isn't much of a Mad Max movie (and I love that about it).

Since Max is a lone warrior who seems to begin and end each movie by wandering the desert, more focused on self-survival thank anything else – it makes sense that this movie starts with Max alone in the desert – with his car, bemoaning his own craziness and haunted by images of what could be his daughter or some other small girl.  

He encounters a roving band of War Boys, and they capture him.  The War Boys are a crazed army of the tyrannical cult leader Immortan Joe.  Max is determined to be a universal blood donor, and so is quickly strung up to be used as a ‘blood bag’ for a recovering War Boy named Nux.  Joe is keeping a ton of people under his thumb by rationing out water in small amounts, and promising more.  He is sending out one of his Imperators – Imperator Furiosa – on a fuel run down the Fury Road in her giant war-rig gas truck to the nearby Gas Town. 

Unbeknownst to Joe, Furiosa has taken Joe’s five prized ‘breeders’/wives.  At this point I will mention the wives’ names, because they are all insane, and not really mentioned in the movie that much:  Angharad, Capable, Cheedo, Toast, and the Dag.  Incidentally all the characters have insane names in all these Mad Max movies. 

As soon as Furiosa drives off course to try to get the women to safety, Joe realizes what has happened, and sends his army of War Boys after her.  Nux decides to join, strapping Max (as his blood bag) to the top of his car.  The armies from Gas Town, and the nearby Bullet Farm also join the fray.  Eventually Max gets free – accidentally joins Furiosa, accidentally helps to convert Nux to their cause, and helps to save the women (mostly on purpose) but only after a huge wind/sand storm with sand tornados; battling another army of cliff bikers despite the three on their tail; and negotiating a swampy-mud pit type area.  At the end, he wanders off into the desert again. 

This movie looks amazing.  They shot most of it in Namibia, so the desert is real.   Miller himself has described the movie as “almost as a western on wheels”.  This is fairly accurate.  The majority of the action is all practical with almost no CGI effects.  In fact, some of the stunt performers are Cirque du Soleil performers and Olympic athletes.  The story is very simple, and is non-stop action from the word go.  I mentioned that Avengers: Age of Ultron felt like a lot of action with five major action pieces.  Fury Road seems to be one long, non-stop action set piece.  Well, no – there is one moment where some characters sit and stare at the stars, so let’s go with two long non-stop action set pieces.  Following the guidelines of the originals, there is very little dialogue and the movie is mostly visuals – which are amazing.  What helps those visuals are talented actors who can do a lot with non-verbals.

• It was a bit strange that Tom Hardy starts this movie in a mask, since the last major movie he did was Dark Knight Rises – which was him in a mask the whole time.  At least this time he has no dialogue, so there’s no worry that you cannot understand him.  He does a lot of grunting and pointing and his eyes do a great job of conveying the ‘crazy’.  He's a bit flat, and has very little to do, and that's fine, since this really isn't his movie.

• My favorite thing about this movie is that really, Charlize Theron’s Furiosa is the hero, Max just happens to be in the movie along for the ride (literally and figuratively).  In fact, Miller's proposed sequel would be called Mad Max: Furiosa - which is strange, because that could be the name of this movie.  Furiosa is an incredible character, on a very simple and straightforward level.  She steals the women to free them, and enlists Max’s help only when she thinks that would work out to their advantage.  She is attempting to get them to the ‘green place’ of her youth, and when she realizes that will not work – she adjusts to a new plan, pushing to find a safe place for the women to start over.  She’s visually striking, from the buzz cut to the robot arm to the face makeup to the brutal fighting and driving skills.  Theron is amazing in this movie, she owns it, she rocks it, she steals the whole thing, and I could not have been more impressed with her.  Finally another awesome action movie with a female lead!  

• Nicholas Hoult plays Nux, and while there’s a whole lot about the War Boys that makes no sense (is that chrome spray they are putting over their mouths when they are preparing to be ‘witnessed’?  And is that why their mouths are so weird?  And what is with the half-life thing?  And why are they so pale?), what does make sense is that Hoult is completely over-the-top crazy in the best possible way.  I would not have believed he was capable of this level of insanity, but he does a great job.  Yes, he changes sides pretty quickly, but I think it made sense for the character.

• Nugh Keays-Byrne plays Immortan Joe.  He was born in India, moved to Australia, and started working as an actor.  One of his early roles was as ToeCutter in the first Mad Max movie.  In this movie, his character design, makeup, and practical effects do most of the work for him, but where he is amazing is again the eyes, and the non-verbal acting.

• Josh Helman plays Slit – another War Boy who seems to be Nux’s friend or maybe driving partner?  Or competition?  I don’t really know, the War Boys are big time weird.

• Nathan Jones (yes, that Nathan Jones), plays Rictus Erectus.  One of Immortan Joe’s not-quite-right children (see, that’s why he wants the healthy breeders – to have healthy children, because the ones he has are way off in one way or another).  Nathan Jones served 16 years in Boggo Road Gaol (prison) in Australia for several armed robberies.  While inside, he developed into quite the strongman competitor and upon his release, competed and won many strongman competitions.  He also had a short WWE career.   He was also in the movie Troy (he’s the giant dude that Brad Pitt swiftly defeats in the beginning).  His job in this is to be crazy and big, which he excels at.

• Zoe Kravitz (yes, Lenny and Lisa Bonet’s daughter) plays one of the wives, Toast the Knowing.  She seems to be one of the more capable of the wives, and can handle herself while on the run.

• Rosie Huntington-Whitely was surprisingly very good as favorite wife, The Splendid Angharad.  She’s the one who really wants to get away from Joe, and does her best to help Furiosa with the others.

• Riley Keough (Elvis’s granddaughter) plays Capable, the wife with the red hair who develops a bit of a thing with Nux. 

• Abbey Lee plays the blond wife, The Dag, who doesn’t have much of a personality on her own.

• Courtney Easton plays the fifth wife, Cheedo the Fragile, who has the dark hair and for a bit considers running back to Joe – surely he will forgive them for running away and take care of them again, right?

• John Howard plays the People Eater, who seems to be the man running Gas Town and Richard Carter plays The Bullet Farmer – who (surprise) runs the Bullet Farm.  They both join in Immortan Joe’s quest to bring back his wives, but neither of them seem all that thrilled about helping.

Overall the movie is completely insane.  It’s getting very high reviews, and I am curious to see how it does over the rest of the summer.  It’s not better than Avengers, and it surely does not have the crossover appeal of that movie.  Everyone can enjoy Avengers, but this is definitely a hard R, and not for kids.  The movie feels like the old Mad Max movies, but is so much more visually stunning due to the high-res cameras and fantastic action sequences.  I love a big budget thriller with tons of CGI – but there is definitely something to be said for watching several real crazy big rigs and pieced together cars race through a desert with insane people hanging off of them.  Once you see the giant vehicle, made of speakers – with four drummers on the back and one red pajama-wearing electric guitar-playing face-mask sporting grotesque on it, and you can just go with that…you’re all set to sit back and enjoy this mad ride.  Oh, one more thing, that guitar spouts fire when he plays it, because of course it does.

8 out of 10 – Bonus points for the guitar guy…the first time you see him he makes no sense, but then you find yourself hoping he’ll show up again.  Lost points for the one of Joe’s kids that stays back at his citadel and looks through the telescope.  Gained points for the tribe that Furiosa is heading for, the Vulvanians, being badass and awesome.  Gained all the points for Furiosa.  Also - Gained points for the use of fantastic stunt performers as well as Cirque du Soleil artists for amazing sequences.

Bonus Video 1:  George Miller’s Witches of Eastwick.  I’m not sure it ever occurred to me that the director of Mad Max was the same guy who did this, but it does explain some of the more hard to watch scenes…

Bonus Video 2: Aeon Flux, while this movie wasn't good, Charlize Theron was good in it. 

Bonus Video 3:  Cast Interviews: