Mad Max: Fury Road - Movie Review

Who's In It?

Nicholas Hoult, Charlize Theron, and Tom Hardy


What's It About? 

Max is kidnapped by Immortan Joe and his War Boys, and must escape by running away with Imperator Furiosa, Immortan's "Breeders" - women with healthy pregnancies - and the War Boy Nux in a giant armoured oil tanker.

Any Good?

I have never been so tired or sore after a movie, Fury Road is relentless in shooting, driving, explosions, and INCREDIBLY loud music. There is maybe a 10 minute break near the end, but even that doesn't last before it's LOUD NOISES AND DEATH again, I LOVE it.

The action is non-stop, from the first 5 minutes it's immediate punch and run, with Max escaping Immortan Joe's slave base by beating his War Boys and having serious hallucinations. The soundwork was fantastic in the film and was a real part of the action, every time the war parties were on the road there was a War Boy with a giant fire-spitting guitar shredding his heart out on a giant vehicle made of a speakers fit in perfectly - Nolan needs to learn how to do loud music from this.

Immortan Joe

This film really takes advantage of its 15A rating, having serious blood and gore as well as scenes of slaves being beaten and women being drained of milk (yep, lovely) as well as naked women, I'm surprised the American film industry didn't gimp it totally to be more family friendly. 

I haven't seen the original Mad Max films in some time, but this really felt like the 80's style they were done in, as well as the original Fury Road comics and other films like Conan the Barbarian with giant mountain bases. Australian Bane is perfect as Max, and "the feminist legion" are great, and make sense dammit. I thoroughly recommend watching this in cinemas, and in isense if you can because not only is the soundtrack amazing but it uses classic 3D where things come out of the screen! 

Rating:  

A Million Ways to Die in the West - First Trailer for Seth McFarlane's NSFW New Release

Who's in it? 

Charlize Theron, Seth MacFarlane, Neil Patrick Harris, Amanda Seyfried, Liam Neeson, Giovanni Ribisi & Sarah Silverman 

Seth McFarlane's newest release has a touch of the Blazing Saddles wannabes about it, doesn't it. 

My question is this: can this many good actors get it this wrong? 

We'll find out when A Million Ways to Die in the West hits Irish screens in June. 

What so we reckon? Hit or a miss? 

Young Adult - Movie Review

Who's in it? 
Charlize Theron, Patrick Wilson and Patton Oswalt 

What's it About? 

Young Adult is the story of Mavis (Theron) a teenage fiction author returning to her hometown to 'save' her high school sweetheart from his happy marriage and newborn child. She's the big fish throwing herself back into the small pond and struggling with sheer disbelief that they're not grateful for her presence.  

Any Good? 

This movie is the latest collaboration of director Jason Reitman and screenwriter Diablo Cody ("Juno") but please don't go expecting any of the warm and fuzzies Juno left us with. Theron is a mean girl that has aged but certainly hasn't grown up. Following her divorce, she's living with just her little dog (Dolce) for company and the persistent calls from her agent for the final draft of the latest teen novel she is ghost writing. Struck with writer's block, a generic email arrives pronouncing the birth a new baby girl of her high school sweetheart and his wife. In an attempt to recapture her youth she decides she must save him. 

Theron brilliantly acting like she'd eat that ice cream. 

On her arrival home she meets Matt (Oswalt) who was a victim of a hate crime in high school that left him permanently disabled, in typical mean girl fashion she pretends not to know him yet he sees through her immediately. He urges her to forget her ridiculous notion of a reunion and get on with her life. The acting between this pair is almost painful to watch its so realistic. At one point Mavis telling physically crippled Matt 'You've no idea how I've struggled'. She is self serving, outrageously narcissistic and stunningly beautiful, a heady mix that makes her attempts at seduction just that much more cringe inducing. 

It's just like high school, but with hard liquor. 

I did laugh throughout this movie but if you're expecting a comedy (as I was) you're sorely and painfully mistaken. This is a dark telling of one woman's overbearing and deluded sense of entitlement because of her looks. Theron is as ugly inside here as she was outside in Monster. She's distinctly unlikeable and for someone so beautiful, that's an incredible acting talent. There's no formulaic fairytale here but there is a stark look at flawed characters that's more than a little brave for Hollywood today. 

 Rating: