Mad Max is a low-budget road warrior movie with terrible writing and cool special effects. The film's greatest strength is its inspiration for future films in the franchise.
That 1975 Holden Sandman HJ Van is an absolute beauty …
This is my first watch, only seen Fury Road and was blown away. I was definitely expecting more but this is still a decent action flick. Done on a very small budget so it deserves praise for that.
Fury Road has a very simple plot but Mad Max leans more on the generic side. Not enough action. It excels when we're on the road, it's thrilling and engaging but everything else is just... boring. The only exception being the forest chase, that was actually scary. The villains are a great mix of twisted, funny and scary. The leather jackets, the cars, they all look good you can feel the 70's. Mid-twenties Mel Gibson is a treat to look at, i'll just say that. He did an ok performance, nothing special.
Terrible editing in the first half especially. The score is straight out bad. The decision making is a pain in some scenes. Super predictable outcome in the second half but it sets the protagonist on his journey. I wish it happened sooner though. Anticlimactic ending.
This is a classic, isn't it? Maybe because it was 1979 and not many revenge movies had been made by then. The dystopian society was not something new, I am sure, but the production design elevates it to something interesting. I think in terms of makeup, hairstyling, set decoration, sound and special effects, it is quite good. But the story is not remarkable, at least for 2023. The editing is good and bad: great moments and also terrible ones, the exageration in some frames (what is the matter with those eyes?) made me feel unattached.
Apocalyptic sci-fi road movie.
The stunts still look great, especially if we think this was shot on a shoestring budget in the seventies. The rest is pretty dull: the actual plot kicks in the last twenty minutes, but there’s not much interesting happening until then. It’s all about portraying this world on the verge of the apocalypse, but despite the captivating punkish mood, it’s sloppier than it is gritty. The soundtrack was surprisingly atrocious too. The shot with Mel Gibson waking up from a nightmare is absolutely hilarious.
An enjoyable, well-directed action-thriller, with a satisfying plot and great action sequences, but with bland supporting characters, underdeveloped premise and awkward pacing.
My experience of this franchise coming into this movie was Fury Road and the most recent video game. This movie is NOT what I expected it to be. It also really shows it’s age. That doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad, and it’s actually quite good for it’s time. But it’s not something I would recommend to everyone, and something I would preferably recommend to an older crowd (that might accept the films age) or someone that wants to see the whole franchise (to which I would say this is still worth watching).
Rating: 3/5 - 7.5/10 - Worth Watching
Acting: 1/3
Cinematography: 2/3
Story: 1/3
Enjoy: +1
I watched this movie after I have already seen Mad Max: Fury Road, I thought this one brings a good origin to the saga, but the best thing of the franchise is the dystopian world and the action. This movie doesn't introduce the dystopian world that I saw in Fury Road and the action shots are kind of dated.
Mad Max
Mad Max (1979) https://trakt.tv/movies/mad-max-1979
Mad Max 2 (1981) https://trakt.tv/movies/mad-max-2-1981
Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985) https://trakt.tv/movies/mad-max-beyond-thunderdome-1985
Mad Max: Fury Road (2015) https://trakt.tv/movies/mad-max-fury-road-2015
Mad Max: Fury Road (Black & Chrome Edition) (2016) https://trakt.tv/movies/mad-max-fury-road-black-chrome-edition-2016
A great introduction to the madness.
It's an interesting 70's Australian film for sure. I wouldn't rate it very highly but somehow I've seen it 5 times now. The story and editing is super strange and at times is difficult to follow what George Miller is trying to convey. The grittiness of the engines roaring and drive to kill the motor gang is the most exciting part. Also the community around it and how most people ignore this classic makes me love the film more. While it's no masterpiece or even great movie, I still give it a solid 7/10.
Still a remarkable picture and fantastic action, the remake hasn’t got anything on the original.
Mel Gibson pulls off a super performance.
The original Mad Max is pretty easy to boil down to an essence: fast motorcycles, rusty weapons, loud cars and bald revenge. For most of the story, we see Max as the cool, composed vendor of justice; a man who hasn't yet learned to discard the establishment in an increasingly turbulent world. He patrols a gang-plagued war zone, essentially a sleepwalking child, thoroughly unprepared for the foundational shock he's about to endure. Most of that pathos is left to the audience's subconscious, since so much of the running time is devoted to hostile moments of anarchy and long, noisy highway scenes with violent ends.
First-time writer/director George Miller hasn't entirely fleshed out Max's world - this landscape is more rural homestead and less dystopian hellscape - and his skills as a filmmaker are still nascent. In fact, this installment frequently reminds me of the first Evil Dead, in that it's more of a unique, genre-driven learning experience than an objectively good, well-realized standalone film. Pacing is a major problem. Despite all the roaring engines and ballooning fireballs, it's downright boring at points, struggling to tie the crazy action to the more grounded, human transformation of its troubled lead. Frequent continuity errors are distracting, too, like how Max's young family completely forgets they have a child when it's not convenient. And, for all the build to their inevitable collision, the climactic conflict between anti-hero and big bad is basically just treated like a footnote. Max doesn't even flinch, he just moves on to the next guy. Just like I think I should do with this franchise.
Reddit has no idea what they're missing out on, they're too busy circlejerking the shit out of Fury Road.
It was alright. The action was pretty good but it did get kinda boring in the middle. It is sort of a classic and for its time was good. The acting was not that good. I felt that at the end they could have done way more with Max’s revenge it was disappointing. Overall it’s a decent action movie, that if they had more money to make the movie it would have been better.
(6 out of 10)
Nach 40 Jahren, kann ich mir heute nicht vorstellen was jemand an dem Film je gefunden haben kann. Billig, Overacted und Handbüchernes Drehbuch....auf einmal ist der Film zu Ende?
I rewatched this and enjoyed it more than the first time. I paid attention to the gang more than the MFP and I love the relationships between members. The younger members are more feral, what will become the War Boys, and the leader is nearly worshipped, The Nightrider saying "Toecutter knows me, Toecutter sees me!" is just like the call of "Witness Me" in Fury Road. Toecutter & Immortan Joe are played by the same actor if you didn't know. I loved it.
Acceptable. My least favorite of all three. I thinks it's just way to simple of a story. Maybe a tad slow at times. But when it's good, it's really good.
Check to see how much it cost to make this movie. $200K. You try to make a movie this good with that much money with car crashes and explosions. They paid Mel like $15K australian. The Road Warrior was way better, but they had a bigger budget.
little bit off,but enjoyable,it's understandable for those sequels after it,so this movie in my opinion was good
It's a very sad movie. Not because of the quality or anything. That's awesome. I mean the plot. Now I finally understand why it's considered a cult movie. Highly recommended!
I'm not sure why this movie is considered a classic nor why it launched Mel Gibson's career. He was wooden. It was pretty bad. Possibly the worst musical score I've ever heard in a movie. None of the music fits the scene. It sounds like it belongs in the 1960's Batman TV show.
"What if it were the apocalypse and....the police wore LEATHER. Wow that's an idea. We should make a movie about cops who dress in leather." Honestly, the poster is the most interesting thing about the movie.
just skip it: i dont why everyone calls this movie a great classic go straight to the sequels.
One of the classics but not a good one.
It starts strong with a good chasing scene but then it just get's weird and plain boring. The basic synopsis takes the first hour and 15 minutes and then it adds some action at the end with one of the most anticlimactic endings I've ever encounter.
Review by JCVIP 4BlockedParent2024-05-05T07:14:29Z
I can’t deny its influence, or Miller’s skill at his craft to achieve this on such a small budget, but on the whole this film leaves me cold. The setting’s kind of a cobbled together pre-mid apocalypse that’s never really explained or lands. It feels more like fuel for law and order vs hedonistic terror tropes. The bad guys are having fun, especially Keays-Byrne, who shows a lot of that unsettling but entertaining charisma that he’ll refine and perfect in Fury Road.
Speaking of, Fury Road is a specter that hangs over this film, as someone who’s first Mad Max was that. Not in terms of action or such- it’s a movie from decades later with an actual budget. It’d be unfair to compare, and the car chases here are actually quite exciting and thrilling, and very impressive being pulled off with these resources. I just mean that this movie kind of makes Mad Max… less interesting. It’s odd, maybe even mean to say, but it sometimes feels like an unnecessary prequel we’d get today, filling out gaps that don’t need to be filled. It’s the first movie! But Max’s archetypal, almost mythological portrayal in Fury Road, letting the audience fill in the gaps, is so much more striking. I never truly get the feel of the character here, not helped by Gibson who I honestly feel is a bit bland. I don’t believe that Max really loves this shit on a dark, corrupting level.
His dynamic with his wife is cute enough, but she never gets a chance to be more than his wife and mother of his child and just serves to be the vehicle for his tragic but righteous rampage. The movie builds up to this for so long when he already had a reason with Goose? That could be his revenge and that quest- his own actions- could be what loses him his family? Instead a lot of this set up just drags. There’s enough here that I see how it influenced so many and launched a franchise. There’s some weird and frenetic energy, especially in the villains’ mannerisms and dialogue. I actually like the assault on the farm, creeping into some thriller, even horror territory. But I have the feeling the first Mad Max is most valuable for how it sets the foundation for its sequels- and many of the fiction it influenced- to crash through. It’s worth watching for the historical value and Miller’s ingenuity on a budget, but not a ride I’d take again anytime soon.