Road warrior for me
― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:00 (three years ago) link
easily Road Warrior but I have a lotta friends who say not seeing Mad Max and going straight to Road Warrior is ok and I want to beat these ppl up
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:06 (three years ago) link
like yeah, the truly nihilistic stuff takes a while, but maaan does it hit hard when it does.
hate Thunderdome. I've tried three times. when the kids show up, I'm out.
I wanted to get a Lord Humungus tattoo
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:07 (three years ago) link
Lord Humungus isn't so much a villain like Toecutter. first Mad Max is taking place in the waning hours of civilization, where lawmen still (barely) exist, and society is hanging on by a thread. Toecutter is one of the guys expediting its downfall.
Humankind is pretty much the villain in Road Warrior. yeah, the oil hoarders aren't violent and don't seem to be bad people, but they also seem to be hoarding oil which naturally attracts scavengers who want to rip you off, which is all Humungus and company are. they have a little muscle and a murderous streak but they're fairly easily defeated with sleight of hand in the end.
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:10 (three years ago) link
Tell u what i could murderous steak right about now
― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:11 (three years ago) link
lol
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:12 (three years ago) link
out of curiosity why exclude Fury Road from the poll? I'm genuinely interested how many might think it's the best in the series. I might actually believe that myself!
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:14 (three years ago) link
I just watched all these for the first time and my ranking is 1>3>2 but my impression is this is an unpopular opinion. Seems like Road Warrior is the canonical classic? But Lord Humongous is such a dud as a villain, especially compared to Toecutter or Aunty Entity. What do you think?
yeah you're bonkers, but it's okay, you have decades to rewatch these and better appreciate the worldbuilding, production design, visual storytelling and action in Max 2/Rad Warrior
this is totally fine. all the Max movies are standalone, and ppl can discover them in any order. especially if its the difference between them watching Max 2 then Fury Road vs watching none of them.
― shivers me timber (sic), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:16 (three years ago) link
fury road is without question the best in the series, i thought
― Karl Malone, Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:17 (three years ago) link
yeah that’s why i left it off. also wanted opinions on the original trilogy.
― na (NA), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:23 (three years ago) link
xxpost what I really meant though was "you don't need to ever see Mad Max at all", as if it's an inferior entry in the series. watching out of order is fine because it's not a linear storyline and more about style and atmosphere.
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:23 (three years ago) link
xpost I didn't think consensus = Fury Road is best though? I definitely feel like there's a pretty big pocket that still prefers Road Warrior.
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:24 (three years ago) link
Road Warrior used to be my favorite, but a more recent rewatch left me underwhelmed. The original Mad Max is my go to these days.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:26 (three years ago) link
xpost but clicking anyway
different lead (Gibson vs Theron), made 35 years after the previous one by the same director, took 18 years to get made vs six months
it's a coinflip whether Fury or 2 are better, each have very distinct merits, as well as the most similarities of any of 'em.
― shivers me timber (sic), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:27 (three years ago) link
xpost I get more anxious every time I watch the og Mad Max because of how brutal the end is and knowing that it comes at you fast.
that's why it's so rewatchable with me.
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:28 (three years ago) link
what I really meant though was "you don't need to ever see Mad Max at all", as if it's an inferior entry in the series.
you don't though! it's a great movie but nbd if someone never sees it, for whatever reason.
anecdote: saw the first trailer for Fury Road before Inherent Vice with a pal. he was like "holy shit that looks amazing. but I've never seen any mad maxes."
a year or w/e afterward, with Fury Road's release scheduled, the only existing rep cinema (60 seat converted screening room) in a city of 6 million people was gonna play MM2, so I told pal we should go. he demurred re. not having seen 1, but I assured him it didn't matter.
drinks in hand, the movie starts with the explanatory montage about climate change and state capture by oil corps leading to the collapse of civilisation in Australia*. he leans over and says, "oh, is this why I didn't need to see it - all this is what happens in #1?" I tell him "none of this happens in #1." he beams, says "oh fuck yeah" in a NOW I get it tone, leans back, and we ride.
*phew, thank goodness we solved that in the last 40 years!
― shivers me timber (sic), Sunday, 3 January 2021 03:43 (three years ago) link
Neanderthal wants to beat me up
― Vinnie, Sunday, 3 January 2021 04:26 (three years ago) link
don't worry, I could get KOed by a mannequin!
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Sunday, 3 January 2021 04:36 (three years ago) link
voted og Mad Maxit’s all about the gonzo filmmaking for me & doing so much with so little. Post apocalyptic Looney Tunes gearhead weirdofest. Who even comes up with that? i know that Mad Max 2 is the ~better~ movie structurally, visually whatever but i really feel like the heart & soul of the whole franchise is in the first movie, all of the George-isms are there. and Hugh Keays Byrne. Toecutter is truly a character beyond anything the script envisioned , all of that menace was all him on screen in the moment & he’s so fucking brilliant
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 3 January 2021 05:34 (three years ago) link
3>2>1
― Piven After Midnight (The Yellow Kid), Sunday, 3 January 2021 07:04 (three years ago) link
insanity
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 3 January 2021 07:26 (three years ago) link
challops
― shivers me timber (sic), Sunday, 3 January 2021 07:54 (three years ago) link
thunderdome ~sucks~ SO MUCH
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Sunday, 3 January 2021 07:56 (three years ago) link
Yeah im in broad agreement that fury road isnt worth having in here, its an all time great and the other three are quirky faves, each quite different to the others, i can nod along to VGs arguments for one which is a fairly unique effort as it stands and has two legit great performances and several wtf moments that you can see as miller signature moves before he could even afford a pen, but three is tbh only interesting as a study in mess
― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 3 January 2021 13:20 (three years ago) link
Road Warrior/Mad Max 2 is the most iconic. It's the one that's often imitated but never replicated. Mad Max is an excellent grim, gonzo exploitation film. But I've always loved Thunderdome, too, and can never quite understand why it has so many detractors. To me it's almost on par with Big Trouble in Little China for bizarro action/comedy/adventure with its own weird rules, dialogue and world.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:17 (three years ago) link
Jesus
Ok im not out to attack what ppl love but
a. People detract from thunderdome because shite
b. Bog trouble in little China is a standalone masterpiece and Hollywood has never matched it
― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:22 (three years ago) link
I stand hy the typo, much of it occurs in sewers
― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:23 (three years ago) link
It's not the best, but I will always remember Thunderdome because my dad went away on a trip for work and we rented a VCR, Thunderdome, and another movie for the weekend. I must have watched it five or six times over the three days and I don't even remember what the other movie was.
― Jimi Buffett (PBKR), Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:24 (three years ago) link
I always think I dont like Thunderdome, and then I'll happen to catch it on cable or something and rediscover one super cool image, idea, or sequence after another. hard to top MM2, which has zero flaws, but TDome is always better than I remember it.
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:34 (three years ago) link
Not comparing it to Big Trouble, like, literally. Big Trouble is its own thing. But the first half of Thunderdome shares a certain similarly unique (is that an oxymoron?) bonkers cadence and rhythm to the dialogue and storytelling.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:40 (three years ago) link
I forgive u
― spruce springclean (darraghmac), Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:48 (three years ago) link
Two men enter, two men leave! Two men enter, two men leave!
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:50 (three years ago) link
Uh, one man leave. Two men leave is Hammocktown.
― Jimi Buffett (PBKR), Sunday, 3 January 2021 14:57 (three years ago) link
i suspect a lot of people's opinions about these are shaded by seeing them when they were kids. like i see complaints about the kids in thunderdome, which feels like someone who loved road warrior when they were a kid but they saw thunderdome when they were a preteen or teen and didn't want any "kid stuff."
here are my thoughts on them as an adult who just watched them all for the first time (bits of thunderdome seemed familiar but i had definitely never watched the whole movie):
mad max - i'm a sucker for low-budget gonzo filmmaking and for movies with stripped-down plots. the action scenes in this are amazing even before considering the budgetary and technical restrictions. toecutter is easily the best villain in the original trilogy and i love his gang of weirdos too, everyone has their own distinct psychotic personality. lots of other fun supporting characters too like goose and fifi. the end does get into generic revenge thriller mode but that's only like 15 minutes of the movie.
road warrior - my feelings on this were probably tinged by watching it through TNT which has a pretty shitty print of the movie. solid world-building, though it's just desert and then the oil village. i like the gyro captain. the villagers are fine. the feral child is a worse "cute kid" violation than the tribe in thunderdome. my biggest problem with it is lord humongous who is a snooze of a villain. no personality, doesn't really do anything cool, boring. the mohawk henchman has more personality but is also dumb. great action as always.
thunderdome - amazing world-building and sets in this. it looks fantastic and the whole thing is just fun. bartertown/thunderdome is sick obviously. i had heard the complaints about the kid tribe but i found them not particularly cutesy and actually effectively creepy when max first wakes up and they're following him around repeating everything he says, and then the recitation of the captain walker legend is great too. the train action sequence is cartoony but still rips.
― na (NA), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:02 (three years ago) link
fwiw I saw all of these after I turned 30
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:02 (three years ago) link
the feral child is a worse "cute kid" violation than the tribe in thunderdome
no way, he was badass!
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:04 (three years ago) link
totally domed a dude with a boomerang
The thing that I never see remarked upon about the original Mad Max is the dark queer undertone within the biker gang; I remember reading in Hunter Thompson's Hell's Angels about how the bikers he hung around with would occasionally make out with each other just as one more way to freak out normal people in the street, and I feel like there's some of that there, but there's also Toecutter seemingly keeping Johnny as some kind of pet, making Bubba jealous in the process. This shows up again in Road Warrior, when Wez (the red-mohawked lead henchman) has a boyfriend (who gets boomeranged to death), but it's not at all present in the third or fourth movies.
Anyway, my ranking is 1 > 2 > first half of 3 >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Fury Road (which I don't even like, really, mostly because Tom Hardy is such a meat paperweight weighing down the whole thing) >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> everything with those goddamn annoying kids
― but also fuck you (unperson), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:11 (three years ago) link
lol whoa now
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:16 (three years ago) link
Insane
― nob lacks, noirish (darraghmac), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:17 (three years ago) link
say what you will abt fury road, i would not describe that movie as "weighed down" by anything
― nobody like my rap (One Eye Open), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:18 (three years ago) link
i do recall the Fury Road thread being rather harsh towards Hardy despite loving the movie when it first came out, but I feel like people came around on him. I always liked his performance. it's Furiosa's arc though.
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:24 (three years ago) link
Hardy’s weird line readings stuck out like a sore thumb on first viewing, but on subsequent viewings they seemed perfect. Max is a loner who barely ever speaks to anyone. He's not gonna be the most fluid conversationalist.
― jmm, Monday, 4 January 2021 15:28 (three years ago) link
btw these are all on HBO Max right now, except the first one which is on netflix
― na (NA), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:32 (three years ago) link
oh awesome! I have them all on blu-ray somewhere but I have no idea where.
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:33 (three years ago) link
Hardy (likely by design) works to Fury Road's advantage, because you enter the movie thinking it's going to be his movie but then leave realizing it was Theron's. Definitely not a coincidence that the first thing the movie does is put Hardy in his iconic Dodge Charger and the second thing they do is destroy it.
I like the inanity of the villains in Road Warrior a lot, perhaps *because* of their pointless cartoon nihilism. Like, it doesn't matter what their motives or morals are, they're just outright lunatics, and for that reason alone the people at the gas pump know they've got to go somewhere else.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 15:41 (three years ago) link
Hardy struggled badly with director instruction throughout and was very unhappy with his performance and what he was allowed do until he saw the movie, in which his max is exactly as miller wished
― nob lacks, noirish (darraghmac), Monday, 4 January 2021 15:48 (three years ago) link
Something I've always wondered: "Master" (of Master Blaster fame) from Thunderdome: was he supposed to be the hulking simpleton from the first Mad Max movie?
― henry s, Monday, 4 January 2021 17:08 (three years ago) link
voting for babe: pig in the city
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 4 January 2021 17:08 (three years ago) link
it's a mad max movie
― mellon collie and the infinite bradness (BradNelson), Monday, 4 January 2021 17:09 (three years ago) link
xpost You mean Blaster, the big guy? There's a line in Thunderdome after he's revealed about him just being a child.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 17:10 (three years ago) link
Oh yeah, meant Blaster. I thought the "just a child" remark alluded to his mind state. I recall hulking dude in first movie to be very childlike. And of course I really wanted that Easter egg.
― henry s, Monday, 4 January 2021 18:51 (three years ago) link
Yeah, they probably meant mental state. Either way, there's no real timeline at work here. Each movie features just a few faint echos of the one that came before.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 19:49 (three years ago) link
the first thing the movie does is put Hardy in his iconic Dodge Charger
his iconic fuckin' what
― shivers me timber (sic), Monday, 4 January 2021 20:59 (three years ago) link
um yes WTF
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 4 January 2021 20:59 (three years ago) link
iirc it was a 1991 Cutlass Ciera
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:27 (three years ago) link
I thought it was a Charger?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 21:30 (three years ago) link
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pursuit_Special
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:31 (three years ago) link
Ah, thanks. There's a dude down the street with a black Charger he is always revving, and whenever I see him zip past I think of Mad Max.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 21:32 (three years ago) link
creating extra accounts to FP Josh for racism over again
― shivers me timber (sic), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:38 (three years ago) link
also for being very confused about what "iconic" means
― shivers me timber (sic), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:40 (three years ago) link
Wait, I got the car wrong, but how is the black muscle car not iconic? It's the car associated with Mad Max?
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 21:42 (three years ago) link
put some respect on the XB Falcon, son
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:43 (three years ago) link
We be awesome if instead of a dog Max had an iconic muscle cat. Which, lol, apparently exist.
https://s8.favim.com/orig/151011/cat-cats-mad-max-mad-cat-Favim.com-3419305.jpg
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 21:44 (three years ago) link
SometimesI think it's a sinWhen u don't know what carMax is drivin in
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:46 (three years ago) link
Today I learned that car was uniquely Australian! I didn't even know that country had cars back then, at least cars that didn't eat people.
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 21:49 (three years ago) link
>:(
― terminators of endearment (VegemiteGrrl), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:49 (three years ago) link
:)
― Josh in Chicago, Monday, 4 January 2021 21:50 (three years ago) link
I thought the whole point of the Mad Max series was that it's futuristic because they have cars.
― Mr. Cacciatore (Moodles), Monday, 4 January 2021 21:51 (three years ago) link
I didn't even know that country had cars back then
as opposed to the thriving industry today Wait, I got the car wrong, but how is the black muscle car not iconic? It's the car associated with Mad Max?
the clue is in the questions tbh
― shivers me timber (sic), Monday, 4 January 2021 22:09 (three years ago) link
Aren't the cars that eat people or at least Paris some of the same ones used in this film. Remember reading that several years ago.
― Stevolende, Tuesday, 5 January 2021 07:53 (three years ago) link
Once lived on the same street as a bloke that had a Pursuit Special replica in MFP livery. Always parked it on the street.
Anyway, I voted 2.
― Pre-Raphaelite Brah (King Boy Pato), Tuesday, 5 January 2021 08:48 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.
― System, Monday, 11 January 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
i watched Bacurau last week and it has a good Beyond Thunderdome reference near the end
― na (NA), Monday, 11 January 2021 15:06 (three years ago) link
Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.
― System, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 00:01 (three years ago) link
Yes
― Ole Blueyes Solskjaer (darraghmac), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 00:31 (three years ago) link
Does it go through to face Fury Road?
― Andrew Farrell, Tuesday, 12 January 2021 10:48 (three years ago) link
Be like the last page of black beauty being a description of the rendering process.
Let it be
― Ole Blueyes Solskjaer (darraghmac), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 10:59 (three years ago) link
Think u've misremembered the lyrix
― Looking for Cape Penis house (Neanderthal), Tuesday, 12 January 2021 14:49 (three years ago) link
decided to follow this up with something a bit different
best movie directed by George Miller
― na (NA), Wednesday, 13 January 2021 16:40 (three years ago) link
TS: "Just walk away" vs "MEDIOCRE!"
― hootenanny-soundtracking clusterfucks about milking cows (Neanderthal), Thursday, 9 March 2023 15:27 (one year ago) link
Man, the shot beginning at 1:22 here is one of the coolest ever. How'd they time that so well?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wNzfgl_H5vA
― jmm, Sunday, 11 June 2023 15:46 (ten months ago) link
First class editing.
― Josh in Chicago, Sunday, 11 June 2023 16:20 (ten months ago) link
the kids in Thunderdome were great. ... I am generally not a fan of movies with kids
― sarahell, Sunday, 11 June 2023 18:17 (ten months ago) link