Insane, actually.
This is part four in the Mad Max series, with Tom Hardy taking over the lead from Mel Gibson who last appeared as Max in Beyond Thunderdome (1985, believe it or not).
Nothing much has changed; Max is still the solitary road warrior, still haunted by the deaths of his wife and daughter, still surviving in a post-apocalyptic world where the human race has turned against itself in a battle for oil and water: the only commodities that have any worth.
It’s pretty grim stuff, and the great thing about it is that throughout the non-stop battles between cars and trucks (and I think we must have spent at least 70% of the film chasing around the desert), you were never left with the slightest notion that there was any real hope. The human race was heading for a slow exctinction, and nothing was going to change that.
So everything was just about surviving as long as you could before you were murdered for your car, or you died of hunger and thirst.
The action scenes were some of the very best I’ve seen. Savagely uncompromising and exhausting to watch.
Tom Hardy does a creditable job in the lead role. He does the moody, silent, slightly unhinged thing very well, so I think I would have been a lot more surprised if he’d made a mess of it.
Charlize Theron? Well, I’m always disappointed when I hear she’s been cast in any movie, and then I’m massively shocked at what a great actress she is. This is no exception. Not her greatest play, but a good performance nonetheless.
This is a great film, and if you’re into action flicks with a human touch then it’s well worth seeing. I’m going to give it eight out of ten, and I might actually go see it again.