Category: Theaters

I had the pleasure of watching Mad Max: Fury Road by George Miller over the weekend, and I have to say they just don’t make movies like that.  I was going to say ‘anymore’, but I am not sure that anyone has ever made a movie like that.  It was a non-stop chase scene in the middle of the desert with a bunch of crazy people.  Sure that is similar to Mad Max 2: Road Warrior, but no where near this scale  If you are not on the edge of your seat while watching this film, you were somehow not paying attention.

The plot is simple.  Mad Max (Tom Hardy) and Furiosa (Charlize Theron) take a bunch of supermodels for a drive in the middle of the wasteland.  Oh and they are being chased by just about every living person left on the planet.  While this road trip is happening, things are blowing up right good.

I am not sure there is much more to say about the story except for the fact if you like a lot of talking in your films you will be disappointed with Fury Road.  This movie goes for long stretches without any important dialog, and honestly I found it quite refreshing.  Movies are a visual art, so why not show me instead of telling me.  That is what this movie did.  It just kept showing me things, and wonderful things at that.

This is probably the best acted film out of the Mad Max series.  Tom Hardy was a great stand in for Mel Gibson, even if his Australian accent could use some work, and Nicholas Hoult brought a great deal of fun to this movie.  Though the real star of this movie is Charlize Theron.  She lived up to the name Furiosa.  Her unyielding character drove this movie forward more than any of the several hundred cars in it.  She is now my favorite pick to play Captain Marvel in the upcoming movie.

When I heard they were making a new Mad Max movie I think I audibly groaned.  I didn’t think that series had anything left to show me, but George Miller proved me wrong.  He had a lot left to show me, and I was glad to see it.  If you haven’t seen the other Mad Max movies, don’t let that stop your from seeing this one.  The movies were so influential that I am not sure any background would be nessicary.  If you want to see the craziest movie to come out in a long time it would be Mad Max: Fury Road!

Well in very late casting news Marvel has announced that Martin Freeman will be joining the cast of Captain America: Civil War.  Considering that movie’s production is well underway it is odd to cast such a high profile actor.  I am guessing he is going to be Tony Stark’s head of the hero registration.  Freeman is a world class pencil pusher, but that is no fun, so who does Shmee what him to be?  How about Captain Britain?

Why not?!  You can introduce interdimensional travel, and you could still have him on Tony’s team pushing pencils.  It is like a story telling double whammy.  They need more heroes for the Civil War, and Britain would give Tony a symbol to stand behind that shows he is just as ‘good/righteous’ as Steve Rodgers.  Then as an added benefit Marvel could team him up with Dr. Strange, and then the Sherlock buddies could cast magic and kick butt through the many dimensions of time-space.  How great would that be?!

Pretty great.  We will see shortly what Freeman is up to, and I am pretty sure Captain Britain is not it, but a Shmee can dream can’t he?  Here is to the Dr. Strange/Captain Britain/Sherlock buddy movie of our dreams.

Marvel and Joss Whedon’s Avengers: Age of Ultron checks all the boxes that Marvel set out for it.  Great action, new characters, a couple of laughs, and of course make tons of cash.  The problem is that we have seen this before and better from the same group.  I am not saying Ultron is bad.  It isn’t, and if Batman V Superman can be this good it will be an impressive feet.  What I am saying is that the last Avengers and Guardians of the Galley are almost perfect, so the fact that this movie isn’t quite as good is kind of a let down.

This movie starts off with the Avengers thinking they have the upper hand.  Hydra is on the run, and the world is in pretty good shape,  but Tony can’t leave well enough alone, so he creates an artificial intelligence to keep the peace all the time.  That way the Avengers can retire, but things don’t go the way he plans and he creates Ultron.  An AI that wants to kill us all.  Time for more Avenging!

Really what this boils down to is that instead of there being an army of aliens to beat, there is an army of robots.  Kinda.  This is a shame because James Spader gives a great performance as Ultron, but he kind of takes a back seat while the Avengers get their crap together.  The Scarlet Witch getting in to all their heads was kind of fun, but this movie was so long already they didn’t spend the time to truly dig in to all the Avengers’ fears.  Maybe a director’s cut can fix that.  This movie feels like a stopgap to get to Thanos and the Infinity Gauntlet.  It is getting to be a long slow grind to that film.

The actors have been playing these characters so long that they are the people on screen.  They are going to be hard to replace, but the new group is looking promising.  Elizabeth Olsen’s Scarlet Witch will add a fun new magical twist to the group dynamic, and Paul Bettany’s Vision will have a unique perspective to add.   It will also be interesting to see how the Avengers change since those two in particular are so powerful.

I liked this movie a lot, but it just wasn’t at the same level as some of the other Marvel movies.  Cursed by previous success if you will.  These movies are starting to feel like an obligation.  Like if I don’t see them I will be missing something.  I am not seeing them purely out of desire anymore, and that is kind of a bummer.  Now Marvel has a lot of talent, and they have shown with Guardians of the Galaxy that they can still make amazing movies, but it might be time for them to show us something new.