Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome

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Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome - 28/7/2006 11:45:16 AM

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Post #: 1

MAD MAX BEYOND THE PAIL - 12/3/2008 8:43:02 PM

Horrorguru

Posts: 220
Joined: 11/1/2008

Terrible. like watching a shit INXS music video. also the kids are ugly. if i was mad max i would of sold them all for a camel.

(in reply to Empire Admin)

Post #: 2

RE: MAD MAX BEYOND THE PAIL - 4/10/2012 8:02:19 AM

Phubbs

Posts: 658
Joined: 3/4/2012

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (AUS, 1985)

For the last outing Miller has taken a different route for his lone wolf character. Gone are the highway chases, road wars and 'Max's' personal Ford Falcon, this adventure is a completely new kind of beast...with kids.

It does seem that Miller took a leaf out of the Lucas book of ideas for this film. A much more toned down 'MM' film with very little blood and road vehicle death fodder but an abundance of children in a kind of tribal 'Lord of the Flies' meets 'The Lost Boys' from 'Peter Pan' type way. Not too dissimilar to the way 'Return of the Jedi' went all cute n cuddly towards the end with a large tribe of teddy bears.

Although the change of pace was risky and in my view not completely a winning move, you gotta give kudos to the writers for being brave enough to go in another direction. This film doesn't really offer much in action or excitement at any point to be brutally honest. The first half set in 'Bartertown' is a complete bust really as all we get is a seedy dirty dusty desert town inhabited by lots of marauder types and weirdo's yet nothing really happens!.

The bad guys aren't really bad a tall, just a bit naughty I guess, the plot isn't really of any interest and goes nowhere and the only action is a rather limp fight between 'Max' and a huge helmet wearing footsoldier/bodyguard called 'Blaster'. We also find out the leader of this wasteland dump is errr...Tina Turner! yeeeah.

Of course we all knew this before the film came out but it was definitely the sign of the franchise hitting the rocks. After this average kick off things progress towards the desert where 'Max' finds a tribe of kids and this is where the franchise u-turns harshly.
Think of an early version of 'Hook' and you might get an idea of what I'm talking about. Its not as cringeworthy and terrible as said film but its pretty crappy really. From here on 'Max' babysits these kids until the plot leads them back to 'Bartertown' for...hmmm not much really, plot is absent without leave. The sets, costumes and makeup for the kids and their home is nicely done, doesn't look tacky or too childish, fits in OK with the 'Mad Max' universe.

After watching not much a tall in the form of excitement we do get a reasonable watered down car/vehicle chase sequence at the end. Its not as intense as you would expect and barely serves up enough thrills to raise a smile, violence is at a complete zero here folks.

As I said it was brave to go into new territory with 'Max' but maybe this particular idea wasn't the best way. There isn't really anything very memorable anywhere in the film, the title sounds daft and although the Tina Turner theme song is a good tune its all too Bond like and glossy.

(in reply to Horrorguru)

Post #: 3

RE: MAD MAX BEYOND THE PAIL - 4/10/2012 10:24:11 AM

Discodez

Posts: 777
Joined: 2/9/2010

quote:

ORIGINAL: Horrorguru

Terrible. like watching a shit INXS music video. also the kids are ugly. if i was mad max i would of sold them all for a camel.

That's a bit unfair, "beyond thunderpants" makes most INXS videos look like Citizen Kane!

(in reply to Horrorguru)

Post #: 4

RE: MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME - 4/10/2012 11:02:13 AM

DancingClown

Posts: 3687
Joined: 8/1/2006
From: The Lot

Brilliant movie. Balls to these snobby, sneering 'reviews'.

Sure, it's more polished than the others but so fucking what. It's less violent, but so fucking what. Great cinematography and production design, a cast of memorable and eccentric characters, great score by Maurice Jarre. Master-Blaster, Bartertown, the Thunderdome, just a couple of examples of invention that elevate the movie above many others of that particular genre in the 80s. I love the dialogue, especially the childish and slightly sinister hybrid-talk of the Lost Kids, displayed most effectively during "The Tell" when the kids talk about the history of the nuclear war and how they were abandoned, creating context that isn't really explored in the first two films. I love the melancholy ending when the kids fly into the nuclear-ravaged Sydney, something that again adds more gravitas to the apocalyptic context. Great stunts, too, performed old-school style with real people flying through the air and dangling off huge vehicles. Not as much raw carnage as Road Warrior but again....so fucking what?

Road Warrior is always considered the best of the trilogy and there are many good arguments for that, and it is great, but Thunderdome has always been my favourite because despite being more commercial I think it's more eccentric, more inventive, more conceptual and the weight of the apocalyptic setting is more substantial and therefore more effective. I want a blu-ray.

Ian Nathan's review is spot-on, and it's not often I feel compelled to say that.

< Message edited by DancingClown -- 4/10/2012 11:22:37 AM >

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Post #: 5

RE: MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME - 4/10/2012 11:43:03 AM

BelfastBoy

Posts: 459
Joined: 30/11/2005

Thunderdome is probably the third best Max Mad film, and I only use that complicated phrasing because I don't think it deserves to be 'the worst' (least best, maybe?!). Yes, it's glossy, yes, the nihilism and violence are toned down. But even though I don't always agree with him, I've got to concur with Roger Ebert on this point:

"Thunderdome is the first really original movie idea about how to stage a fight since we got the first karate movies...The fight between Mad Max and Master-Blaster is one of the great creative action scenes in the movies." (10th July 1985)

Maybe people don't like the film's ending because it's a bit too Peter Pan and because - unlike pretty much the rest of the MM films - it concludes on a moment of hope? Even though it's a flawed film, I think it's got one of the most beautiful endings I've ever seen, mostly because of this voiceover:

"This you knows. The years travel fast. And time after time I've done the Tell. But this ain't one body's Tell. It's the Tell of us all. And you got to listen it and 'member. 'Cause what you hears today, you got to tell the newborn tomorrow. I's looking behind us now, into history back. I sees those of us that got the luck and started the haul for home. It lead us here and we was heartful 'cause we seen what there once was. One look, and we knewed we'd got it straight. Those what had gone before had knowing of things beyond our reckoning...even beyond our dreaming. Time counts and keeps counting. And we knows now...finding the trick of what's been and lost ain't no easy ride. But that's our track. We got to travel it. And there ain't nobody knows where it's gonna lead. Still and all, every night we does the Tell...so that we 'member who we was and where we came from. But most of all we 'members the man who finded us...him that came the salvage. And we lights the city. Not just for him...but for all of them that are still out there. 'Cause we knows there'll come a night...when they sees the distant light...and they'll be coming home."

That entire scene of the people listening to the old stories in the new city emerging from post-apocalyptic Sydney, I find incredibly moving. It may seem like it's from a different film entirely but it's still totally beautiful.

(in reply to DancingClown)

Post #: 6

RE: MAD MAX BEYOND THUNDERDOME - 4/10/2012 12:29:29 PM

DancingClown

Posts: 3687
Joined: 8/1/2006
From: The Lot

Well said, sir. It is a great ending and despite that element of hope I do find it quite haunting.

< Message edited by DancingClown -- 4/10/2012 12:34:30 PM >

_____________________________

Astronomic Tune Boy

'The town knew darkness, and darkness was enough.'

"Storm just bleeewwww me away..."

(in reply to BelfastBoy)

Post #: 7