Mad Max: Fury Road

Rating: Null/10 (23 May 2015)

I think what would be most appropriate when reviewing a film like, Mad Max: Fury Road, is to do a move that the late great, Roger Ebert did a couple of times. When he reviewed his own film, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls (which he wrote along with writer/director Russ Meyer) and when he reviewed John Waters' Pink Flamingos, he gave neither film a star rating. With, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, the reason was quite obvious, because he wrote the film and was good friends with Meyer, and regardless of the film being a cult masterpiece (which I think it is), he did not give it a star rating because the rating would have been biased, so instead he gave more, or less of a recap of information and what putting together the final film was like in general. John Waters' Pink Flamingos (which I would also consider a cult masterpiece) was one that Ebert felt that he could not give a star rating to because he felt that a rating system did not belong, or would not be acceptable for such a film. If you have seen, Pink Flamingos (and every lover of the offbeat really should), you can definitely see what he is talking about. The film, while I still like it very much, is extremely offbeat and you could use any number of adjectives to describe it (whether you liked it, or not), but to rate it as one of the great films of all time, or even what to rate it at all, would prove definitely a perplexing and difficult problem for some. I would personally give perfect ratings to both Dolls, and Flamingos, and I personally own both films and consider them and look at them very highly. Yet bizarrely, I find I am running into Ebert's dilemma when it comes to Mad Max: Fury Road though. I simply do not know how to rate it. As my alias on this site suggests, I am definitely a fan of all films offbeat, misunderstood and stuff that the general public has shied away from. So why am I finding it so hard to give a rating to Mad Max: Fury Road, which definitely falls into a lot of those categories? I think part of this is while I certainly did find a lot I liked in Mad Max: Fury Road, and in general, I would have to say that I did like the film, I think part of the dilemma for me is that this is an action film and very few action films rank very highly, or favourably in my palette of taste for films. To say that, Mad Max: Fury Road is not an action packed film would be the understatement of the year because from the second the film opens till it ends, it is action packed from start to finish and sometimes is so over the top in it's action and violence and often even it's fast editing style which jumped from scene to scene as if filmed by a madman, reminded me of Russ Meyer's own editing style, which was very similar only he never really made a film like this and this editing feels like Russ Meyer's style with a day's worth of coffee and energy drinks thrown in. Before, I run out of space to write, I must say what I liked and disliked about this film to be a proper reviewer. Basically, there was nothing I did not like. Even though the action genre is definitely not my thing (never has been, never will be), I still liked Mad Max: Fury Road and found things to like and dare I say, even admire about the film. My biggest compliments probably come on the technical side of the film. The cinematography capturing a post apocalyptic wasteland and showing all the gritty and barren backgrounds to the absolutely and sometimes hideously looking people inhabiting this space, was all very well done. The makeup, costumes and cinematography was all first rate in every single way. The editing (which I described above) is also extremely impressive and worthy of praise here as well. The acting is definitely not award worthy, but I felt all these actors did really hold their own and did a decent enough job here. What, I really found impressive and an admirable trait for this film, was that a major studio like Warner Bros, would go to all the efforts to get this film made and spend one hundred fifty million dollars to do so, is an incredible feat and I am impressed that a major studio would shell out that kind of money for a film so offbeat and definitely bizarre as this one. Warner Bros and other major studios would do that type of thing all the time back in the day, but now unfortunately it is becoming more and more uncommon. Perhaps with this film there is still hope for Hollywood yet. As it stands, I will not give this film a star rating because I don't feel I can, but I did definitely enjoy the film and it certainly never left me bored for it's two hour running time.