The second-best action movie heading into the final month of the year has got to be Mad Max: Fury Road, which also happens to be one of the best remakes of a movie ever. I’ll be honest in saying that I did not like the 1979 original movie that started Mel Gibson. I waited until maybe five years ago to watch the film, preferring to keep it as one of those classics to watch on a rainy day. Not so much. It was more disappointing to me than both Blade Runner and Total Recall. That is saying something, as both of those movies I felt were overrated. Blade Runner gets some slack because it was so far ahead of its time. However, I still thought it was overrated. A few things about Mad Max: Fury Road before I get into the review. I mention that it is the second-best movie going into the final month. No action movie will beat the incredible Sicario, which will compete until the end for the best film of 2015. Also, December is when both Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Revenant were released, and I felt both were guarantees to be better than Mad Max: Fury Road. Also, this movie isn’t my type of movie anywhere. So while I will recognize it as a fine film, its score will be slightly better than how I felt when I watched it.

As mentioned, Mad Max: Fury Road isn’t really the type of movie I go for anymore. As I get older and watch more and more movies, I classify myself as a 2/3rd independent movie and 1/3rd big blockbusters. I never thought I would turn into an indie movie guy, but that’s exactly what I’ve become. I still can’t do artsy, but I totally can do an independent. So a movie like Mad Max: Fury Road doesn’t whet my appetite anymore. I like character-driven films. I like dramas that make me think. I like being able to relate to a movie. I can’t do any of these things with Mad Max: Fury Road. But, again, that doesn’t mean this was a bad movie. I was initially unwilling to give this movie even a chance because of how much I disliked the original and how anti-remake I am. I feel like everything is being remade, and very rarely do I feel like the remake is needed. As my friend Tim put it, “Hollywood is creatively bankrupt.” And I tend to agree. I thought this particular movie would be especially horrendous, so it was the shocker of all shockers when I saw that this earned a 98% fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. I thought this had to be a mistake. And then, when I had friends report back to me after seeing this movie that it was really good, I figured it would just be a matter of time before I saw it. I’m glad I could at least wait until it came to Netflix, although I could imagine that it would have been even better on the big screen, considering what I liked about the movie.

George Miller (Mad Max, Mad Max: The Road Warrior) returns to the story that has defined his career. But unlike with his first three movies, he makes this one much edgier, much heavier, and much more post-apocalyptic. We still have the rouge former cop and road warrior working walking through Australia’s barren drylands. Max (Tom Hardy – Warrior, The Drop) doesn’t adhere to the laws of the land. Whereas most of the population follows the rule of King Immortan Joe (Hugh Keays-Byrne – Mad Max, Moby Dick), Max goes at it alone. Though King Immortan Joe controls the water supply, the people fear him too much to do anything about it. King Immortan Joe has five wives (or so he thinks), hoping to produce many sons and keep his legacy going until the rogue Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron – Young Adult, North Country) rescues the wives in an attempt to get them to safety called The Green Place. I believe it can be loosely assumed that if she can save the wives (one of which is carrying a child), she can limit the potential for heirs and hopefully draw Joe and his men in and perhaps ruin his reign entirely. So it becomes a game of hide and seek as well as kill or be killed as Furiosa, Max, and their small group of misfits tries to outwit, outsmart, and outlast (mini Survivor reference) Joe and his multitude of men and, seemingly, unlimited resources. It’s not a complicated plot to follow, but it’s also not so simple that it makes you feel dumb. It’s a perfect popcorn flick for those who go to the movies just for a release.

There’s been talk that Theron could receive a nomination for a Best Actress Academy Award. While it had two A-list movie stars, each has at least five better acting performances in their career than this movie. They didn’t sign up for it to show off their acting skills, so they could afford to take roles that paid less than would showcase their talent. While Theron and Hardy were better than this movie needed, it’s not a movie that deserves any recognition for its acting. However, it does deserve Oscar nominations for sound mixing and cinematography. The cinematography was outstanding. You could sit in your seat yearning for water because every scene in this movie looks so dry. Also remarkable were all of the vehicles used to move the characters from point A to point B. The makeup and costumes were also very, very good and could be up for consideration.

The most surprising movie of the year? My vote going into the final month of the year is Mad Max: Fury Road.

Plot 8.5/10 (interesting)
Character Development 8.5/10
Character Chemistry 9.5/10 (for all of the characters that were in this film, they each had their identity…no one got lost along the way…I thought that was pretty impressive)
Acting 8.5/10 (well above average for a film like this…Theron was great…Hardy is a bona fide action star)
Screenplay 8.5/10 (smart)
Directing  8.5/10 (exceeded expectations)
Cinematography 10/10 (beautiful backdrops of a dystopian desert)
Sound 10/10 (easily the best sound mixing I’ve heard this year)
Hook and Reel 9/10 (consistently excellent)
Universal Relevance 9/10 (who knows what happens after the Apocalypse? Why couldn’t it be this?)
90%

Movies You Might Like If You Liked This Movie

• The Book of Eli
• I Am Legend
• Escape from L.A.
• Waterworld
• Death Race