Review of “Mad Max – Fury Road”

* * * * A

The latest film in the Mad Max franchise finally delivers a fitting sequel to the Road Warrior. The insanity and mad action sequences of the classic films are retained, including amazing practical effects

and stunts. The film making in the new installment is breathtaking.

Tom Hardy does an adequate job of playing the title character, a violent drifter haunted by the death of his family, a much needed element used to motivate the character. Charlize Theron becomes an equally bad ass partner as they, with the help of bad guy turned good guy Nux (well played by Brit Nicohlas Hoult, soon to be seen as the Beast in the upcoming “X-Men Apocalypse”), try to rescue five beautiful “breeders” from the clutches of the tyrannical Immortal Joe (played by Hugh Keays-Byrne, who also played the villain in the original “Mad Max” film).

Theron steals the show from Hardy, creating a tough, moral visionary, bent on returning with her charges to the life she lived before being taken by the warlord as a child. The plot, though simple, works. The nearly non stop action is broken by interesting interactions between the protagonists as they battle incredible odds to free themselves from the enslaving warlord.