This is Nuts!

Rating: 9/10 (19 May 2015)

For at least the first hour of the movie, I sat there thinking "This is nuts". It's such an unimaginably bizarre world. Every character has a weird quirk about them, from a bronze nose to a breathing apparatus with teeth across it, from the white tattoos to spraying silver paint into their mouths. I mean you reach the precipice of WTF when the convoy drives out with a truck in the middle mounted with a wall of speakers, fronted by a blind dude suspended by rope playing a triple-necked guitar made of car parts, and carrying four massive war drums on the back.
Imperior Furiosa is tasked with the latest gas run, but she has something else in mind as she smuggles out Immortan Joe's five young wives. So begins an epic car chase to get them back that takes up pretty much the entirety of the film's runtime. Yes, you read that right. Mad Max: Fury Road is pretty much a two hour car chase. A car chase through canyons and swamps and sand dunes and salt-lakes for miles and miles. There's even a catastrophic sand storm, complete with sand tornadoes and lightning, that gets in their way. Immortan Joe's warband is joined by other local warbands as well, leaving Max, Furiosa, and their charge of young women fending off a horde of crazed lunatics.
Acting is of pretty high quality throughout as well. Charlize Theron was the perfect casting choice for Furiosa, with her difficult past behind her and her hope of a brighter future ahead. She's driven and smart, but not completely unreasonable. Rosie Huntington-Whitely, as much as it pains me to say it, wasn't too bad either. Even with a (fake) pregnancy bump weighing her down, she never lets it get in the way of being a born leader of her fellow wives. Nicholas Hoult was even quite good despite the somewhat cheesy dialogue and blinded-by-faith attitude. Tom Hardy was also admirable, as always. I'm a big fan of his, however this was far from the best performance I've seen of him, mainly because his quiet, brooding Max is a little too similar to his quiet, brooding portrayal of Forrest Bondurant in Lawless. In fact if it wasn't for the starkly different settings, it might've been easy to allude to them being the same person.
With all that said though, let's face it, the real reason anyone is going to go and see Fury Road is for the visual spectacle. Oh, and what spectacle it is. Everything is grimy and barren. The world they inhabit is a wasteland devoid of green, devoid of water. A lot of the visual effects and stunts are in- camera as well. In fact there's only one bit that was obviously CGI, and that's when the debris of a massive crash comes hurtling towards the screen, you know, just to make extra good use of that 3D that I didn't watch it in. Other than that though, all the stunts and car crashes and explosions look so real and natural, because they really were done live, in camera. The choreography of the various segments of the sprawling car chase are meticulously thought out, and the actors and stuntmen hanging from car doors and hanging on to rooves for their lives adds such a massive sense of urgency and tension. I literally gasped at least once as Tom Hardy got just a little too close to the ground for my liking.
Oh, and let's not forget the cars. Oh my, the cars. The Fast and Furious franchise has plenty for the lovers of actual cars, whether they're super cars or classic cars, but Fury Road's cars are something completely different. Each and every one is an individual, botched together of various car parts in order to make the most outrageous and extravagant vehicles. There's double- stacked Cadillacs with monster truck wheels, a truck fronted by three stacks of sedan grills, a camper bristled with spikes resembling a porcupine, a Pontiac with caterpillar tracks. There's elements of all sorts of vehicles from every time period; from the modern to the classic, from the practical to the sporty. There's massive, over-the-top wheels, and exposed engines, and open- backed boots. And it's not just the four-wheeled variety that gets dolled-up to the max, with skulls, vents, chains, pipes and spikes. The various motorbikes that appear all look uniquely bizarre as well.
Fury Road is just plain good, adrenaline- fuelled fun. It looks great, it's got a great story, and some great characters brought to life by some great acting. It's superficially tense, and yet the world-building and character development makes it hugely engaging. There are a few things that are hard to swallow with scrutiny (like the shortage of fuel, which is best met by driving lots of gas-guzzling vehicles for miles and miles and miles somewhat recklessly, throwing petrol bombs all over the place, obviously), but with something as crazy as Fury Road, it's not hard to just ignore that and let yourself get taken in for the ride. I give Mad Max: Fury Road a bristling 9/10. BRING ON THE SEQUELS!