![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mad-Max-Beyond-Thunderdome-.jpg?resize=620%2C348&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\r\n<\/p>\r\n
Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome<\/strong>\u00a0 (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Sci-Fi-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: George Miller and George Ogilvie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Terry Hayes and George Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Maurice Jarre\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dean Semler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 10, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Bruce Spence, Adam Cockburn, Frank Thring, Angelo Rossitto, Paul Larsson, Angry Anderson, Robert Grubb, Helen Buday, Tom Jennings, Edwin Hodgeman, Rod Zuanic, Mark Kounnas.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Box Office: $36.2 million (US)<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n Rating<\/strong>: *** \u00a0<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0In Australia, the word \u201cmad\u201d has an entirely different meaning. When somebody is described as mad, it doesn\u2019t mean they\u2019re angry, it means they\u2019re crazy or insane. That\u2019s one of the most common misconceptions about the character of Mad Max. It\u2019s also my main problem with Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome<\/strong>, the third installment of the popular series starring Mel Gibson as the post-apocalyptic anti-hero. Thanks to studio involvement, the character and the violence have been toned down to more teen-friendly PG-13 rating. They may as well have renamed the character Mildly Agitated Max. Not only that, the makers brought in popular singer Tina Turner to play Max\u2019s latest nemesis as a way of attracting young American audiences. I admit she\u2019s nice to look at, but not much of a villain when compared to the likes of Toecutter, Humungus and Wez. It didn\u2019t have to be that way. Beyond Thunderdome<\/strong> starts off well enough, there\u2019s a great fight scene about a half hour in and a cool climactic chase scene. It has its strong points, but the overall effect is rather underwhelming. It\u2019s pretty good, but uneven.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0It\u2019s been many years since Max defeated Humungus and helped the settlers escape to a presumably better life. He\u2019s been wandering through the desert ever since and is about to stumble into a scenario taken directly from a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western. At one point, somebody refers to Max as \u201cThe Man with No Name\u201d. I got a good laugh out of that one. After being robbed of all his belongings, he makes his way to a place called Bartertown, a seedy town where goods and services can be bought, traded or sold. Depending on who you ask, it\u2019s either run by Auntie Entity (Turner) or Master Blaster. Master is a genius dwarf that rides on the back of Blaster, a super-strong behemoth. The town is powered by methane gas derived from pig feces.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0Auntie strikes a deal with Max; she will return his property if he kills Blaster in a fight to the death. Such fights are held in Thunderdome, an upside-down cage-like structure where spectators climb up the sides to watch the fight. The participants are suspended by elastic straps allowing them to jump and fly all over the place. Weapons like chainsaws, broadaxes and sledge hammers hang from the top. There are no rules but one: \u201cTwo men enter, one man leaves!\u201d It\u2019s a great fight! Max doesn\u2019t live up to his end of the deal, so Auntie exiles him to the deep desert. That\u2019s when he comes across a band of children, kind of a post-apocalyptic Lost Boys, waiting for \u201cCaptain Walker\u201d to come and shepherd them to a city they call \u201cTomorrow-morrow Land\u201d. Guess who they think Max is?<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n \u00a0In general, I like Beyond Thunderdome<\/strong>. It continues the western motif established in The Road Warrior with a lone wolf character coming to the aid of the defenseless. For me, the movie lost its way when Max found himself in the Lord of the Flies situation. I realize that the makers are trying to show his character regain his humanity, but it\u2019s a bit too tame for the original tone of the series. Gibson still does a good job portraying Max. I do like the set design. Bartertown is reminiscent of Casablanca, an overcrowded crossroads where all commerce is overseen by \u201cThe Collector\u201d (Thring), a fat man that looks a lot like Sydney Greenstreet. It\u2019s great how George Miller and co-director George Ogilvie fill the screen with a lot of throwaway details (a town eatery is called \u201cThe Atomic Caf\u00e9\u201d). Yes, there are two directors. Miller did the action scenes; Ogilvie did the rest. The look of Beyond Thunderdome<\/strong> is very imaginative. Okay, I could have done with less of people wading through pig poop, but so be it. The final chase involves a locomotive and a bunch of makeshift vehicles chasing after it. Once again, Miller doesn\u2019t disappoint. It\u2019s not as awesome as The Road Warrior, but that\u2019s impossible to top. I wasn\u2019t so crazy about the score this time out. Maurice Jarre takes over for Brian May and it\u2019s just not the same. Turner contributes a couple of songs; they\u2019re good, but we all know that the studio wanted these songs so they can promote Beyond Thunderdome<\/strong> with a couple of MTV videos. While the weakest entry in the series, it\u2019s still a solid three-star action flick.<\/p>\r\n Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome\u00a0 (1985)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Warner Bros.\/Sci-Fi-Action-Adventure\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 107 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated PG-13 (language, violence)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: George Miller and George Ogilvie\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Terry Hayes and George Miller\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Maurice Jarre\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dean Semler\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: July 10, 1985 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Mel Gibson, Tina Turner, Bruce Spence, Adam Cockburn, Frank Thring, Angelo Rossitto, Paul Larsson, Angry Anderson, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":908,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-231","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-action-adventure"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mad-Max-Beyond-Thunderdome-.jpg?fit=620%2C348&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=231"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":910,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/231\/revisions\/910"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=231"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=231"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=231"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/06\/Mad-Max-Beyond-Thunderdome-POSTER.jpg?resize=620%2C943&ssl=1\")
<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"