Of course I'm gonna rate this movie 5 stars. I rated Mad Max 5 stars and went a bit crazy over it.
This time I gave myself some time before reviewing, but now I feel like I'm ready for it.
I watched this movie with an introduction by Leonard Maltin, who told me a bit about the backstory of this movie. Since Mad Max wasn't that well known in the US, they just called the second one "the Road Warrior" in America (see the poster), so people don't wonder about the first movie.
It starts off with a small lesson in history, about what happened and how this is post apocalyptic. And then we get Max's (Mel Gibson) backstory, how his wife and kid died in the first movie and all that.
Then we start with a small chase scene (not as awesome as the first chase in Mad Max but still cool). It takes about 10 minutes untill the first dialogue is spoken. According to IMDB Mel Gibson only had 16 lines in the whole movie (I didn't count but it seems true).
Then we meet the "Gyro Captain" (Bruce Spence) who owns a gyrocopter, which is probably the coolest flying machine ever used in a movie. But that only comes into use later. First, Max gets him to show him a place with lots of oil. On the way to said place we see how this movie isn't only serious but also funny, when we have a great, dog-powered killing device. In the end he meets those people who have their own fort and lots of oil, and their enemies, kind of another biker gang, lead by Humungus (Kjell Nielsson). The biker gang wants the oil, the other folks don't wanna give it and in the Middle is Mad Max.
He is nothing like the Max we got to know throughout the first movie, he is the Mad Max we met at the end of the first movie. He is cold, distant and only cares for himself. An archetype badass that we see very often nowadays.
Of course what we are in for in this movie are the car chases. And the car chases are awesome, especialle the last one that goes on for at least 10 to 15 minutes.
Of course in these car chases there was barely any dialogue, but all in all this movie had very little dialog, only where we really needed it.
In one longer scene without dialogue we see just through the acting what's going on. Max opens a can of Dog Food, you think it was for the dog maybe, but no, food is rare, he eats it himself. While eating we see the Gyro Captain taking a spoon out of his boot, hoping to get something and he looks like Max was eating the best steak ever. Then Max throws the can down for the dog and he almost puts his whole head into the can. And finally, at night we see the Gyro Captain scratching out what's left and being happy. All this happened without a single word.
At first I thought the dog was mainly with him so he had someone to talk to when he was alone, but no, he only seldom talks to the dog, only to give him orders.
The characters where, much like in the first movie, really good and crazy. This time we have completely crazy people on both sides though. This movie has many similarities with the first one, but also differences. You clearly see they had much more budget, which makes for better car chases, bigger explosions and more characters. Also this movie was, as far as I'm concerned, even more brutal and gory as the first one, which makes me wonder why the first one was banned and the Road Warrior wasn't...
All in all, I really enjoyed this movie, it was never boring, always moving forward. Now only one movie is left until I am prepared to see Mad Max: Fury Road.
I give this movie 5 out of 5 stars and a big like. If you enjoyed the first movie you will love this one, and if the first movie was a little too cheap for you, this one made all the stuff you didn't like better.
I'm a movie fan and a horror geek. This is my blog about movies and horror. Enjoy ;)
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior, 1981 - ★★★★★
You can also find this review on Letterboxd
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment