I knew I would probably like the bombastic maelstrom that is "Mad Max: Fury Road," but four and a half months into 2015, I didn't expect it to be my favorite movie of the year so far.
"Fury Road" is a retooling of director George Miller's cult classic trilogy of "Mad Max" films from the 1970s and '80s, which featured the first glimpse of Mel Gibson's super-stardom in his performances as Max Rockatansky.
Tom Hardy (previously seen as Bane in "The Dark Knight Rises") takes the lead as Max in "Fury Road," alongside Oscar-winning actress Charlize Theron as Imperator Furiosa in one of the best performances of her career.
In a post-apocalyptic future where all resources-especially fuel and water-are in short supply, people have broken into factions in effort to have control of the limited resources in their desolate world. Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played Toecutter in 1979's "Mad Max," returns as Immortan Joe, the leader of the Warboys, in "Fury Road."
At the film's start, his boys have captured Max to use as a blood donor. Furiosa is sent on a mission with a fleet of Warboys to get more fuel for Citadel and its residents, but she has secretly stolen Joe's best "breeders"-the beautiful young women tasked with having this monster of a man's children.
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Of course, Joe is not too happy about this, and the duration of the film involves a long string of battles and car chases as he tries to get back his "property." One of the Warboys, Nux (played with the perfect mix of chaos and innocence by Nicholas Hoult, a.k.a. Beast in the recent "X-Men" films), joins Joe's war party to stop Furiosa-while receiving a blood transfusion from Max.
One thing leads to another, and Max finds himself free of the Warboys' control and teamed up with Furiosa. It would have been easy to make this into some kind of cheap love story between Max and Furiosa, but instead they operate in tandem as partners in crime as a long string of Warboys and other roadblocks cross their path.
"Fury Road" is basically a two-hour long series of action sequences, but the little exposition between its inventive and awesome action is enough to keep you intrigued.
The car chases and fight sequences are awesome to behold, too, thanks in large part to the eccentric (and original) execution of the prop design and fight choreography. In addition to a bunch of tricked-out cars (a trademark of the "Mad Max" films), Joe's war party has one rig geared up with a band and speakers, complete with a flame-throwing guitar.
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MAD MAX: FURY ROAD
Four stars out of five.
Time: 2:00
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Rating: R for intense sequences of violence throughout and for disturbing images
