Mad Max: Fury Road

Writer-director George Miller's post-apocalyptic action-adventure film delivers an outrageously relentless adrenaline rush. Ex-cop Max Rockatansky (Tom Hardy) is the titular hero in a toxic, dystopian wasteland, but Charlize Theron here delivers a powerhouse performance as Imperator Furiosa, the most exciting sci-fi protagonist since Ellen Ripley from Alien. What initially looks like a testosterone-fueled escape film is actually a badass feminist action flick in which men do the damage but women restore humanity (Miller recruited playwright Eve Ensler, author of The Vagina Monologues, to help authenticate his depiction of vulnerable, abused women). Furiosa is a War Rig operator determined to rescue the tyrannical Immortan Joe's (Hugh Keays-Byrne) prized Five Wives (Rosie Huntington-Whiteley, Riley Keough, Zoe Kravitz, Abbey Lee, and Courtney Eaton). The women have been enslaved to breed and provide breast milk to the white-painted, tattooed troops, aka War Boys (including Nicholas Hoult). Since both Max and Furiosa are being pursued by Joe and his crazed son, Corpus Colossus (Quentin Kenihan), the pair reluctantly team up for mutual survival, battling the Gas Town thugs and Bullet Farmer gang, along with the underground Buzzard tribe and the stealthy Rock Riders. Marking a glorious return to the franchise for Miller—who created the iconic Mad Max in 1979, which catapulted Mel Gibson to stardom—this is highly recommended. [Note: DVD/Blu-ray extras include the production featurettes “Maximum Fury” (29 min.), “Fury on Four Wheels” (23 min.), “The Tools of the Wasteland” (14 min.), “The Road Warriors: Max and Furiosa” (11 min.), and “The Five Wives: So Shiny, So Chrome” (11 min.), as well as deleted scenes (4 min.), “Crash & Smash” behind-the-scenes footage (4 min.), and trailers. Exclusive to the Blu-ray release are bonus DVD and UltraViolet copies of the film. Bottom line: a solid extras package for this entertaining action blockbuster.] (S. Granger)