Monday, July 28, 2014

5 Off My Head - Rode Hard

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As I expressed on Twitter over the weekend, the trailer for George Miller's fourth Mad Max film, subtitled Fury Road, that was released at Comic-Con over the weekend, it... it gave me some thrills, it did. I've been wrting about the possibility of this movie through the reality of it being filmed and filmed and then filmed some more for so long that the original thrill of it had maybe dulled a bit? But any of that was gone in sixty seconds (actually more like three hundred seconds) once this thing had zoomed across my face leaving tracks upon my soul. Watch it immediately in case you haven't:
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And now, here are five things that the trailer got me excited for...

1. The Beauty - George Miller, it should never be forgotten, is a real director. He's not some anonymous hack pointing his camera any which way. He knows how to shoot things.


I mean he made a movie (two movies!) about talking farm animals essential childhood cinema filled with the most memorable sort of visuals. And here you can already tell...

... this movie is gonna look like a billion bucks. 

2. The Storm - I suppose this is related, but the shots in the footage of a chase happening inside some kind of electrical dust storm... they are heart-stopping.

I mean come on.

Are you kidding me? I am prepared to buy every single seat in the IMAX theater right this second.

3. Shirtless Freak Wrestling -
I feel as if this one speaks for itself.

4. The Stunts - I don't know how much of this stuff was filmed practically, with stunt-men and wires and all that jazz, but guessing from what Miller's done before I'm gonna say it's a lot. And it shows.


When you think about what the trailer's showing us, it really is just a bunch of people racing cars around in the dirt, and yet I bet you already just via these 2.5 minutes that it's all going to be ten times more thrilling than the entire last hour of Man of Steel with its dreary drudging CG.

5. This Shot - I hate that there are rumors about Charlize Theron and Tom Hardy not getting along - I love them both so, and I really want their pairing to be electric. We don't see a lot of Charlize acting in the trailer - it's a lot of posing around looking bad-ass with a robot-arm for now (which is fine; again, only 2.5 minutes of highlights here) but Tom's little thumbs-up already feels imbued with a ton of character, doesn't it? The off-beat little nod... I am sold a thousand times over. How about y'all?


9 comments:

shawnp said...

hopefully there's not much more dialog and just tons of scenes of the crazy cirque du soleil kidnappings.
looks penny-hartz levels of amazing.

Glenn said...

Well, the film is apparently just one big long chase sequence. Which I am actually okay with.

Also: the homage to THE CARS THAT ATE PARIS is amazing.

Anonymous said...

Can someone please let me know why Mad Max the original movies and now this chaotic one are so Great? I've seen the first two movies. The very first, to me was horrible but I guess I'm judging by different standards. I'm not a very R rated movies person I prefer my violence implied not shown but I really like Charlize (still trying to digest Tom as an "actor") but please, fans of the originals explain the magnificence to me. Thanxxx

Sal

mangrove said...

Okay, I am surprised that you were not more ticked off about the thinly-veiled homophobia of the first two making an unwelcome return for this one with the blatant rape-allegory of the forced tattooing scene.

But maybe it's just me (come on, you just know that had to be a big selling point with Gibson)?

Anonymous said...

To be honest I don't remember the second movie that good. The first one was horrible looking, horrible acting and the story felt to shallow to me. It's been ages since I last watched them and I don't remember homophobic remarks. This one looks to have great effects but that's that. Plus it's not like we got to see Gibson naked or anything.
Sal

Uncle Mike said...

In the first Mad Max's defense, the budget was only $400,000, so it didn't look super-fancy. Also, before it was released in the US, Mel Gibson's part was completely dubbed over in an American accent (was the rest of the cast, too? Can't remember), and I think something was lost in that translation.

I liked it because it was a very different view if the near-future. With car crashes.

mangrove said...

There were no homophobic lines in the first two movies, but the bad guys were depicted as full-on evil degenerates of the worse sort, and yes that included being gay with fancy boy toys by their sides.

I could have lived with that piece of characterization for the first one because 70's you know.

But hey, it's exactly the same thing in the second one, both with Humungus and his second in command Wez. So two for the price of one. Hooray for phobes!

Anonymous said...

I guess nobody can explain why this movie is so cool and great. :/
Sal

lushrimbaugh said...

im gay. the mad max movies were some of the first times i ever saw what a man being in love with another man looked like even if it was all twisted and crazy. when the head bad guys gimp got killed he got super pissed not because he owned him but because he loved him. I dont recall any homophobia just maybe a little stereotyping.