MAD MAX (1979)

Due to a major energy crisis, society is on the verge of a total collapse.  In Australia, most people have moved to the major cities, so now the Outback has become an almost no man's land.  Still, there's a small police force.  One of these police officers is Max Rockatansky.  A married man with a small child, Max worries that all of this brutality will harden him and cause him to be a poor husband and father.  After the violent death of his partner at the hands of a motorcycle gang lead by the ruthless Toecutter, Max leaves the force and goes on vacation.  Unfortunately, Fate has other ideas for him. 

MAD MAX is an entertaining film and very influential for it's time, but I think a lot of people who've never seen it before will honestly be surprised at how tame the middle section really is.  The film opens with an awesome chase scene that will blow your socks off, but then after that things slow down for the remainder of the film.  Yeah, the story moves forward and there's little spurts of action here and there, but it pales to that opening scene...and it doesn't even come close to the total awesomeness of THE ROAD WARRIOR!

Good movie (especially for the low budget) that is required viewing for anybody interested in dystopian films, cinematography and/or 70's action cinema, particularly Australian.

Part 2 - The Road Warrior (1981)
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)

GREMLINS 2: THE NEW BATCH (1990)

After the events of Part 1, Billy and Kate have moved to NYC. They both have jobs in the high tech, high rise Clamp Tower. Their lives seem mildly happy, but as fate would have it, there happens to be a genetics laboratory in the building and who else but Gizmo is being held there!  Imagine that.  Stuff happens and Billy rescues Giz only to carelessly leave him alone in his desk.  Gizmo then decides to go exploring on his own.  Brilliant!  Naturally, he gets water splashed on him and before you can say "Mogwai penis" there's like a thousand crazy gremlins wrecking havoc all over the building. And thanks to the genetics lab these new gremlins come in all kinds of flavors: talking, spider, vegetable, electric, bat, female, etc.

GREMLINS 2 isn't as sweet or endearing as the original, instead it's more for an irreverent, tongue-in-cheek vibe.  That's okay, but in the end, Part 2 doesn't have the same magic that the original had.  It's almost like an explosion of small ideas just slapped together, whereas the original had a straightforward story with likable characters and a sweet hometown feel to it.  If I had to guess, I would say that Spielberg had less involvement with this film than the original.  As it is though, it's still an entertaining watch.

I'm still hoping for a hard R-rated Part 3.

Part 1 - Gremlins (1984)