Product: Mad Max (1979)
Rating: 5.0
"You and me, Max, were gonna give 'em back their heroes."
MAD MAX may actually live up to that boast. This was Mel Gibson's first role in an action film, and one of his only Australian films. The movie takes place in a post-apocolptic world where the cops just basically get their [bootys] kicked by road rats, who pretty much rule the highways. "Mad Max" Rockatansky is the only cop who seems up to par against the meanies. His Do-gooding (Or Good-doing......?) upsets one gang so mush, they murder Max's best friend, wife, and child. Well, wouldn't that just [tick] you off too? Of course, so Max is on a hunt for the murderers to enact revenge. This movie had a dirt-poor low-budget, little known actors, and few chances of a sequel. Well, the film was (at the time) the most financially successful australian film ever made, catapulted Mel Gibson into stardom (he later was known for his LETHAL WEAPON films), and produced not one, but 2 sequels, one of which (MAD MAX 2, known in the U.S. as THE ROAD WARRIOR) is even better than the first. The action scenes are fantastic, but one difference between this and your average action film is the character Max, and his futuristic environment. They engage you in a way that not only can you just indentify with the character and imagine yourself as the hero, he's so universal, you can imagine anyone in his shoes, doing exactly what he's doing. A very well made action film