Lamar Reviews - Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (Airdate 5/31/2024)

The first question I get asked is, “Do I have to have seen all the other Mad Max movies?” No, there are 5 including this one, the first one was done in 1979, the second in 1981, and the third in 1985, all of those starring Mel Gibson. Fury Road came along in 2015, starring Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron, Mel Gibson being too old for the role. This one is a prequel to Fury Road. The simple answer is, if you have seen all the other movies it is probably a bonus, but you could have never heard of Mad Max and walk into Furiosa and fully enjoy it.

George Miller wrote and directed all of the Mad Max movies, and he has this one dialed in as well. Miller considered bringing back Charlize Theron and de-age her with the computer for this movie but decided against it. He certainly picked the right person when he picked Ana Taylor Joy to play Furiosa. Because I had not read anything about the movie, I assumed that Chris Hemsworth would have a heroic good guy role.

I could not have been more wrong. He plays Dr. Dementus. Not only is he a villain, but he is also cruel, sadistic, cannibalistic, and just the right amount of over-the-top crazy. Young Furiosa was excellently played by Alyla Browne for 2 of the 5 Chapters of the movie. She only spoke a few words, but her facial expressions and eyes spoke volumes. Speaking of facial expressions and eyes doing the talking, Anya Taylor-Joy only had 30 lines of dialog in the entire movie. But you would never realize that unless I told you.

We meet Furiosa as a little girl where she is kidnapped. The place she is taken from is a beautiful lush, place that has plenty of food and water, while the apocalypse all around them has starving people with little resources. It is important that young Furiosa does not divulge the location of her home. Furiosa if bartered between different gangs but she is only interested in one thing, revenge. Revenge on Dementus.

The movie is 2 hours and 28 minutes, the longest Mad Max movie so far, Rated R for sequences of strong violence, and grisly images.

Just like all the other Mad Max movies, the action is what you are coming to see. The bar has been set higher with each movie and this one is no exception. The action is all but non-stop and it is amazing.

Chris Hemsworth had auditioned to be in Mad Max Fury Road, but lost it to Tom Hardy, which by the way, there is no shame in. In this movie, his  maniacal villain performance is spot on, and Ana Taylor-Joy does just as good as you think she would, maybe even better. She got this role before Netflix’s The Queen’s Gambit made her famous. She also did a lot of the stunts herself, she hired a personal trainer and worked out a year before she stepped onto the set.

At the Cannes Film Festival, the movie got a 7-minute standing ovation. I agree.

My Score: A full 6pk of Ice Cold Budweiser