DEAD END (1937)

Interesting, but dated social commentary piece set in a NYC tenement block located right outside of a luxury apartment building.  Why anybody with enough money to buy a luxury condo would want to have their balcony overlooking a ghetto filled with nonstop screaming and shooting, I have no idea but that's what happens here.  Anyway, down in the Depression-era 'hood you got a bunch of teenage boys who yell and holler 24/7.  These fuckers never shut up.  All day long they talk shit about people and about how their gonna beat the crap out of everybody.  Then you got the sad sack adults who walk around all day like zombies.  One scumbag woman even steals a cookie from a baby!  There's also unemployed Joel McCrea who has the hots for a rich girl and Sylvia Sidney who has the hots for Joel McCrea.  Entering into this heavy drama are hoodlums Humphrey Bogart and Allen Jenkins.  Bogie is wanted for multiple murders, but risks coming out in the open to see his mom and ex-girlfriend.  Things don't go as planned and further drama unfolds in da 'hood.

The story for DEAD END is okay and the acting is passable, but it's all so dated and cliche that there's really no power left in it.  It's an interesting watch, from a historical point of view and/or from the career perspective of the stars (I was really into the scenes between Bogart and Claire Trevor since I knew they would work together again in KEY LARGO), but if you don't have the time to spend you'd be better off watching something like I AM A FUGITIVE FROM A CHAIN GANG or even GRAND HOTEL.

On a positive note: the Dead End Kids weren't as annoying here as they were in ANGELS WITH DIRTY FACES, there was a strong supporting cast (including Ward Bond, Marjorie Main, James Burke, Minor Watson, Charles Halton) and the set was very impressive.  Director William Wyler wanted to shoot the film on location in the slums of NYC, but Samuel Goldwyn said no and had set designer Richard Day recreate the waterfront location entirely on a sound stage.  Day ended up receiving a Oscar nomination for his work.

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)