Mad Max:Fury Road

      Writer director George Miller continues the story of Mad Max, the character he created in 1979 with Mel Gibson. The new film stars Tom Hardy as Max and it is an over the top visual masterpiece. However, as good as it is visually, the story is paper thin and only co-star Charlize Theron does anything close to real acting.

         Less a reboot and more of a continuation, "Fury Road" takes place in the same desert landscape as "The Road Warrior"  and like that film is basically a two hour chase scene. Ms. Theron plays Furiosa, a warrior woman more than capable of handling herself in the male dominated world. When she "kidnaps" five women used for breeding purposes, the evil despot, Immortan Joe sets out with his army of albino maniacs to kill her and bring back the missing women. Reluctant at first, Max ends up helping her escape.

            That's the story in a nutshell. Aside from Furiosa and some other warrior women who show up later, all the women in the film are either used for breeding or for harvesting their milk. It's pretty misogynistic but I suppose Ms. Theron's character more than equalizes things.  The title character really plays co-star to Furiosa. Mr. Hardy doesn't even have much dialog. Max is just a device to keep the action moving. Ms. Theron easily steals the picture.

             The real star, however, is the non-stop action. Nicholas Hoult plays Nuxx, the albino that starts out with Max as his human blood bag. He starts things in motion from the very beginning and the action never lets up. The violence, mayhem and road rage are an assault on the senses but actually a lot of fun in a very cartoonish sense.  It is far removed from any reality and quite a blast to watch. Just when the redundancy starts to bother you, Mr. Miller throws up another ridiculous stunt that amps up the wow factor. 

               If you are a fan of the series, you certainly won't be disappointed but this is definitely not a film for everyone.