MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME (1985)

Holy shirtless saxophone player testicles, what a lame movie!!  Instead of taking place, oh, I don't know, immediately after the second film, MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME takes place a full 15 years later!!!  Of course, there's not really any cars left, so instead of exciting car chases to keep us on the edge of our seat, we're treated to exciting scenes of Max walking around, shoveling pig shit, fighting in the goofy ass Thunderdome, riding a horse backwards (yes, just like Vanilla Ice in COOL AS ICE), hanging out with some annoying feral children that talk like a drunk Yoda and then finally once the film is nearly over getting behind the wheel of a car...for like 10 seconds.  Weak.

I've heard negative things about this third Mad Max installment, but I wasn't prepared for just how bad it was.  Holy fook, right from the beginning it's slow and it never picks up.  Even the short chase scene at the end felt like it was tacked on.  Disappointing story, lame action scenes, nonthreatening bad guys that looked like dorks, ugly photography, irritating music that made me want to kick something, confusing casting of Bruce Spence (the Gyro Captain from Part 2) in this film as a totally different character...I could go on and on, but mostly it was the lack of car chase-based action scenes that ruined it for me.  Well, that and those annoying kids.  God I hated them.  And "Yes." I understand the story is suppose to be deeper and about Max regaining his humanity, but I just don't care.

I'm sure there's some misguided people out there who like this film, but I disliked everything about it.  Even if it wasn't a Mad Max film it still would have sucked.  Skip it with a vengeance and never look back.

Part 1 - Mad Max (1979)
Part 2 - The Road Warrior (1981)
Part 4 - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Part 5 / Prequel / Fury Road spin-off - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

MAD MAX 2: THE ROAD WARRIOR (1981)

A few years after the events of the original film, the world is completely fucked.  Society has collapsed, governments have fallen.  It's total anarchy.  Dogs and cats are definitely not living together.  Former police officer Max Rockatansky has hunted down and killed the bikers who murdered his family and now he's a "burnt out...shell of a man".  Alone, he drives around the Australian Outback scavenging for supplies.  After an exciting opening chase scene, Max hears about a oil refinery nearby.  He goes to investigate only to find the compound surrounded by a large group of maniacs.  These fuckers are no joke and hellbent on taking the oil refinery, no matter the cost. Max has nothing else better to do, so he watches and waits for an opportunity to get some gas for himself.

THE ROAD WARRIOR is completely badass.  From the opening chase to the closing scene it's moving forward nonstop.  Expert storytelling...the dialogue is great, but I honestly think even if you didn't know English you could follow the story.  I mean, Max himself probably has less than 20 lines of dialogue for the entire film.  Fucking Wall-E talked more than that!  Legendary characters, beautiful scenery, cinematography that will cause your penis to explode and action scenes so awesome the remnants of your exploded penis will reassemble themselves (kinda like the Iron Giant) and then explode again!!!  That final chase scene is one of the greatest things in the history of Cinema.

I don't want to talk about it too much and risk ruining it for anybody out there unfortunate enough to have never seen it, but THE ROAD WARRIOR is one of the best action movies of all time.  The story is timeless, so it will probably remain a classic for another few thousand years.  Required viewing.

Another thing that I've always found interesting about THE ROAD WARRIOR is how the "bad guys" are really not straight up evil.  Yeah, they're murderous marauders, but there are multiple times throughout the film that they are shown as very human: Lord Humungus seems to genuinely care about his men (“Be still, my dog of war. I understand your pain. We all lost someone we loved.”) and tries over and over to have a diplomatic discussion with the people in the compound (now, of course, that could all be a ruse), Wez has genuine feelings when his friend dies, Toadie trying to impress the other gang members, the lovers in the tent.

Part 1 - Mad Max (1979)
Part 3 - Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)
Part 4 - Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)
Part 5 / Prequel / Fury Road spin-off - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024)

This shot is only a few seconds long, but every time I see it I can't help but get pumped up!  So awesome.