Review of Mad Max (1979) by James S — 29 Mar 2015

Another entry for the file marked "How can something that looks so awesome, be so dull?".

Mel Gibson as a lawless policeman taking on biker gangs in the Australian out back ought to have been a no brainer. And in some ways it is, as it appears to have been written by a man with no brain.

It starts very well with a kick ass opening scene in which the police in their infinitely cool looking blue and yellow muscle cars chase down an escaped lunatic with Mel finally squeezing him into a deathly and fiery submission.

Then nothing happens for about an hour.

There's a lot of posturing about, something regarding someone not getting punished while the bad dudes biker friends generally lark around acting like knobs but no one really does anything for a very long time.

With about half an hour to go, things do start to pick up once Mel's family get wasted and he goes all postal but even that is diluted from the revenge driven mad man that you would think we would see here.

Some of the car stuff is pretty good and has been an obvious influence on the likes of Death Proof and the new My Chemical Romance stuff and their is a solid opening and climax but these two parts book end what is a seriously boring movie and one which is not worth watching for the little rewards that it delivers.