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Mad Max Customer Reviews (31 - 33 of 53 Reviews)

Sparse brilliance
Some of our film loves don't leave us and this is just as captivating as when I first saw it as a pup. That sparse, stunning cinematography and that beautiful, luminous outback light. I get homesick just watching it and I live on the same continent. Nah, you don't NEED to suck on the Hollywood nipple. This is a bloody great film.

They say people don't believe in heroes anymore!
"Mad Max" is a pretty simple revenge tale, a rousing sci-fi biker and car-crash-a-thon. Mel Gibson plays Max, a police pursuit driver in an unspecified future where roadgangs terrorize the innocent. Evidently road rage is way out of hand! When motorcycle thugs kill Max's best friend Goose (amiable Steve Bisley), his wife (Joanne Samuel) and son Sprog (!), Max gets mad... and gets even. What elevates this drive-in flick to cult classic status is director George Miller's use of low-riding, wide-angled shots to give the chase scenes an intensity never before seen. And Mel's presence, too, I suppose. Mel looks awful young, but flashes the charm and charisma that keeps him atop the box office charts all these years later.

Like all cult movies, "Mad Max" has its cheesy moments. Max's scenes with his wife feature some goofy dialogue, and there's a very cheap-looking nightclub set at one point. But Hugh Keays-Byrne, as the reprehensible Toecutter, and Tim Burns (an Adam Ant lookalike) as the psychotic Johnny, provide ample menace. Plus, Miller and company throw in some very unusual-looking supporting players. And then there are the spectacular stunts and kinetic camerawork; they've been ripped-off a thousand times since!

This "Special Edition" features a crisp, widescreen print (ooh!) and, even better, the original Australian vocal track (ahh!). Finally, someone wised up and banished the cartoon voices. The original actors perform solidly throughout, even subtly in places. At last, you can see why Samuel Z. Arkoff would bother to import this movie. But why'd he mangle it with bad overdubbing? No matter. The sequel ("Road Warrior") remains the superior film, but this new-to-the-U.S. version of the first movie provides some adrenaline-inducing adventure. Includes some nice commentary with plenty of inside trivia on the stuntwork and how they risked their lives just filming it! Truly death-defying work. As Max's boss Fifi says, "We're gonna give 'em back their heroes!"

Classic film...shame about the disc
A cult classic this, personally it's an all time favourite but I know a lot of people who hate it. A plot that is the stuff of westerns, Mad Max is set in the desolate near-future where the police are fighting a losing battle against psychopathic bikers who wreak havoc on anyone they feel like. Even when arrested the law is virtually powerless to contain the thugs and they are generally released without charge. Super-cop Max keeps his cool, even when his best friend is murdered, but when they see off his wife and child Max decides enough is enough, heads out in his super-charged V8 Interceptor (one of the coolest cars in cinema history), and embarks on a zero-tolerance one man campaign to wipe out the mad criminals. It's this finale that is the films main asset - Max is mesmerising as he relentlessly mows down all the bikers without giving them any chance of redemption. But the entire film is a real treat, with a weird atmosphere and some truly bizarre scenes, most of which involve the crazy bad guys, especially hilarious main baddie Toecutter. Unfortunately though this terrible American print which I recently had the misfortune of seeing - or more appropriately, hearing - ruins the film. The dubbing is truly awful, turning the whole cast into ham actors, altering parts of the script and even in occasional instances, bizarrely, omitting some of the sound effects. Oddly, this print is also the one featured in the most recent UK video release. I must stress that the only way to fully appreciate Mad Max is to hunt down a copy featuring the original Australian soundtrack and, preferably, in Widescreen.

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