Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

iannis · Mar 1, 2016

If you gave me 500 million dollars, I could make a Michael bay movie. You hire a pair of pretty actors, you hire a couple of mexicans to write a script, you hire some computer nerds to make super shiny gundams... then you just throw all that shit together on a digital print, and BOOM. Sure, it might take 3 years.

I could never in 40 years make a movie like Fury Road. For such a braindead movie... and it is braindead... it IS almost completely devoid of any intellectual content (shit, it's damn near devoid of dialogue)... an astounding amount of thought and craft so obviously went into it.

You don't overthink Mad Max.

popsicledeath · Mar 1, 2016

I never found Fury Road lacking in intellectual content or meaning. I thought it had plenty. It's just not fed to you the way most people are used to these days. I consider it to be the same way a lot of people didn't understand/like Cormac McCarthy's The Road, or they don't get the point of a painting that isn't a Kincaid.

Saying Fury Road was lacking in intellectual content because it wasn't spelled out in overwrought dialog is like saying Arrested Development wasn't funny because it didn't have a laugh track to help you recognize the jokes. That doesn't mean it's the greatest movie ever, or the best drama, but I think it's more than just some brain-dead action flick for people who want to actually think about it. Which is the beauty of movies without a forced agenda: you're free to get what you want out of it instead of have some political or social justice agenda shoved down your throat.

iannis · Mar 1, 2016

Fury Road is not a deep thinkin movie. That's not derogatory, it just... it's not a thinker. Obviously a good amount of care and thought went into crafting the story (not just the visuals, but the story which the visuals serve)... but Fury Road is almost a platitude. Slavery is bad, War is bad, everything hurts out here, and the downtrodden can be empowered. Braindead isn't dumb, it's not a stupid movie... but you REALLY don't need to be doin any thinkin about Mad Max. Thinkin might actually fuck the movie up for you.

Primer. That's an intellectual movie. Deus Machina, that was a fairly intellectual movie. Fury Road is one hell of an impressive fairy tale and spectacle.

popsicledeath · Mar 1, 2016

I respect your opinion and the absolute manner with which you express it. But even when a movie doesn't tell me I should think about it, I'm going to go ahead and still do that though. In fact, I've found that's when I find things particularly worthy of intellect.

"Dues Machina" was an enjoyable movie with a lot to think about as well. But it did fall pretty hard into the sort of movie where they're talking and discussing the things they feel are worth thinking about. I don't find attending a lecture nearly as intellectual interesting as stripped down experience.

Phazael · Mar 1, 2016

Look at the list of Best Picture noms this year. In two or three years no one is going to be talking about any of those movies, much less rewatching them, except for MM and maybe Revenant. Those movies are going to impact the entire industry for the next decade, dominate discussion among the fans, and be rewatched constantly. MM:FR is this generation's Conan the Barbarian, a perfect example of that kind of movie at the right time that everyone with a functioning pair of testicles will know by heart.

So yeah, go ahead and be edgy and call it overhyped, if that makes you feel cool. Those of us who are old enough to remember things like "Conan, what is best in life?" scenes understood the significance of this movie. The rest of you who grew up on Michael Bay and shitty SW Prequels will never understand how you were robbed of your childhood. This kind of movie (and John Wick, Deadpool, ect) need to exist to pull Hollywood back to what people want to watch instead of the random Mark Ruffalo taking it in the ass/chasing kid diddler art house faggot bait that has been paraded around the last decade or so. I have a feeling that most of you bagging on this film are used to having massive Oscar bait expositions spelling everything out to you, rather than watching shit with your eyes and figuring it out for yourselves. Amazing story telling does not require any dialog at all, just a good cinematic vision. For fucks sake the original Planet of the Apes (a game changer in its day) had Charlton fucking Heston not utter a single line for almost the entire first half of the movie and it had zero issues getting its story across. Stop trying to impose art house faggotry standards on what is an entirely different animal.

Frenzied Wombat · Mar 1, 2016

Phazael_sl said:
So yeah, go ahead and be edgy and call it overhyped, if that makes you feel cool. Those of us who are old enough to remember things like "Conan, what is best in life?" scenes understood the significance of this movie. The rest of you who grew up on Michael Bay and shitty SW Prequels will never understand how you were robbed of your childhood. This kind of movie (and John Wick, Deadpool, ect) need to exist to pull Hollywood back to what people want to watch instead of the random Mark Ruffalo taking it in the ass/chasing kid diddler art house faggot bait that has been paraded around the last decade or so. I have a feeling that most of you bagging on this film are used to having massive Oscar bait expositions spelling everything out to you, rather than watching shit with your eyes and figuring it out for yourselves. Amazing story telling does not require any dialog at all, just a good cinematic vision. For fucks sake the original Planet of the Apes (a game changer in its day) had Charlton fucking Heston not utter a single line for almost the entire first half of the movie and it had zero issues getting its story across. Stop trying to impose art house faggotry standards on what is an entirely different animal.

This is Gospel right here, bravo.. The Conan analogy is one of the best I've heard, because just like Conan, Mad Max instilled that feeling of awe and wonder. These movies allowed your imagination to run wild, something lost in the soulless modern movie making world of Transformers and Star Trek remakes. Whether it be the Warboys shouting "Witness Me", or the resounding musical score when Conan raided the snake palace, these scenes stay with you a lifetime. The other Oscar nominations for best picture, including the winner? Nobody will be able to name them six months from now.

Hoss · Mar 1, 2016

popsicledeath_sl said:
I never found Fury Road lacking in intellectual content or meaning. I thought it had plenty. It's just not fed to you the way most people are used to these days.

MMFR definitely got a lot better when I started talking out all the non verbal story telling that went on. Before that it was just a 2 hour chase scene.

etchazz · Mar 1, 2016

Phazael_sl said:
Look at the list of Best Picture noms this year. In two or three years no one is going to be talking about any of those movies, much less rewatching them, except for MM and maybe Revenant. Those movies are going to impact the entire industry for the next decade, dominate discussion among the fans, and be rewatched constantly. MM:FR is this generation's Conan the Barbarian, a perfect example of that kind of movie at the right time that everyone with a functioning pair of testicles will know by heart.

So yeah, go ahead and be edgy and call it overhyped, if that makes you feel cool. Those of us who are old enough to remember things like "Conan, what is best in life?" scenes understood the significance of this movie. The rest of you who grew up on Michael Bay and shitty SW Prequels will never understand how you were robbed of your childhood. This kind of movie (and John Wick, Deadpool, ect) need to exist to pull Hollywood back to what people want to watch instead of the random Mark Ruffalo taking it in the ass/chasing kid diddler art house faggot bait that has been paraded around the last decade or so. I have a feeling that most of you bagging on this film are used to having massive Oscar bait expositions spelling everything out to you, rather than watching shit with your eyes and figuring it out for yourselves. Amazing story telling does not require any dialog at all, just a good cinematic vision. For fucks sake the original Planet of the Apes (a game changer in its day) had Charlton fucking Heston not utter a single line for almost the entire first half of the movie and it had zero issues getting its story across. Stop trying to impose art house faggotry standards on what is an entirely different animal.

I agree with this almost 100%. I love the analogy to Conan the Barbarian, which was another classic action flick. However, I can't dismiss how good the other movies were that were up for best picture this year and say that no one will ever talk about them again. Spotlight was god damn brilliant, and probably did deserve best picture. The Revenant and The Big Short were also great movies that deserved all the accolades that they were given. Now, if you want to say which of the movies last year was the most important for Hollywood, it would absolutely be Mad Max. I don't think a lot of people can even comprehend how near impossible it was for George Miller to get the green light to make this movie. He fought with studios for years to get the funding to make this picture, and in today's Hollywood, where 90% of these kinds of movies are filmed inside a studio in front of a green screen (so they don't have to pay stuntmen to be in the picture, or pay to have to shoot on location, or to feed extras to be on set, etc.) these kinds of films just aren't made anymore. No, the plot is not comparable to The Godfather, but the film itself is absolutely a brilliant work of art, and if you're not intelligent enough to realize this, then you're part of the reason why Michael Bay continues to get work.

ohkcrlho · Mar 1, 2016

Fury Road was (is) most important for one thing: to show Hollywood you can make good, solid and R rated action movies. That's it.
It didn't change movie history, not even the genre but it's a breath of fresh air on this repetitive, watered down, pg13 bullshit that many call "action".
And with help of Deadpool, maybe we will have movies like in the 80's or 90's, MAYBE....

Unfortunately, Dredd and John Wick didn't have the same impact. Hope JW2 has a better marketing.

spronk · Mar 1, 2016

The Matrix in 1999 was another game changer movie

interestingly though I thought Avatar was gonna be a changer in terms of 3D / CGI / way things get filmed (the head screens and real time actor rendering they used) but I don't think it really changed much at all, did it? Except make more movies do shitty 3D post-processing versions of their movie, which has finally sort of died down

Tantrik · Mar 1, 2016

spronk_sl said:
The Matrix in 1999 was another game changer movie

interestingly though I thought Avatar was gonna be a changer in terms of 3D / CGI / way things get filmed (the head screens and real time actor rendering they used) but I don't think it really changed much at all, did it? Except make more movies do shitty 3D post-processing versions of their movie, which has finally sort of died down

Does anyone else have access to the cameras and technology that Cameron used on the original and continues to develope for the sequels? It was always my impression he had to come up with a lot of that inhouse?

chaos · Mar 1, 2016

Spotlight was good and all but I don't really understand it winning best picture.

Jait · Mar 2, 2016

chaos_sl said:
Spotlight was good and all but I don't really understand it winning best picture.

Because Polanski isn't the only one thrilled with keeping the "spotlight" on the Catholic Church and off the biggest pedos of them all: Hollywood.

iannis · Mar 2, 2016

chaos_sl said:
Spotlight was good and all but I don't really understand it winning best picture.

About the same reason Brokeback did, it's a socially conscious thing.

ohkcrlho · Mar 2, 2016

spronk_sl said:
The Matrix in 1999 was another game changer movie

interestingly though I thought Avatar was gonna be a changer in terms of 3D / CGI / way things get filmed (the head screens and real time actor rendering they used) but I don't think it really changed much at all, did it? Except make more movies do shitty 3D post-processing versions of their movie, which has finally sort of died down

The problem with Avatar is it has a mediocre (pun intended) story. Like you said, it only made directors/studios wanting to make 3D movies.

Denamian · Mar 2, 2016

I still don't understand why this wasn't even nominated for the score. I end up listening to it a lot while driving. It was perfect in every way.

etchazz · Mar 2, 2016

ohkcrlho_sl said:
The problem with Avatar is it has a mediocre (pun intended) story. Like you said, it only made directors/studios wanting to make 3D movies.

It's not even that the plot is mediocre, it's that it's a complete and total ripoff of "Dances With Wolves."

Phazael · Mar 2, 2016

Yeah its Dances with Wolves in Space with Furries. If haters want to pig pile on an overhyped piece of shit, Avatar is a prime target. No one I know even talks about that movie anymore, let alone watches it.

Amzin · Mar 2, 2016

Saying it's a ripoff of Dances With Wolves is giving DWW too much credit. It's just the Pocahontas story. Which DWW was a ripoff of too. That's the reason no one talks about Avatar, it was purely a CGI/3D tech demo, it did nothing else original.

BrutulTM · Mar 2, 2016

Yeah, it's a generic white guilt movie plot. It's been done 100 times. That doesn't mean it can't make a good movie though.

Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

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