Mad Max: Fury Road (2015)

This dystopian fantasy in which rebels split from the army of an evil dictator who withholds water from the poor has amazing visuals, fascinating picture vehicles, artful production design, a high body count, and oceans of sand. Charlize Theron (last blogged in A Million Ways to Die in the West) is pretty great with buzzed hair and charcoaled face as the main rebel Furiosa, and Tom Hardy, wearing a different face mask than he did in The Dark Knight Rises, is the titular Max, who doesn't have a lot of lines. It's really Theron's movie.

Australian director/co-writer George Miller (his feature directing debut was the first Mad Max in 1979, followed by the 1981 and 1985 sequels--I think I saw them; I loved The Witches of Eastwick (1987) and quite liked Happy Feet (2006)) will apparently be directing a fifth chapter after this one. Miller's writing partners on this project, Brendan McCarthy and Nico Lathouris, make their screenwriting debuts, and the latter acted in the original Mad Max.

Cinematographer John Seale (won an Oscar for The English Patient (1996), nominated for Witness (1985), Rain Main (1988), and Cold Mountain (2003); his diverse work on Children of a Lesser God (1986), The Mosquito Coast (1986), The Firm (1993), The Paper (1994), An American President (1995), Ghosts of Mississippi (1996), The Talented Mr. Ripley (1999), Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone (2001), Spanglish (2004), and The Tourist were all noteworthy) and production designer Colin Gibson (of his credits the one that stands out to me is art director for The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert (1994)) can take a lot of credit for for the look of the picture, seemingly shot in the gates of hell.

The music by Tom Holkenborg AKA Junkie XL is remarkable and one of my favorite bits is the kettle drummers playing on the back of a truck during battle. I got really happy when they did that, despite it being such a depressing picture. The entire two hour soundtrack is available for your streaming pleasure from this link.

Jack couldn't go with me four weeks ago, so I don't know if he would agree with the critics on Rotten Tomatoes, averaging 98% to audiences' 89%. It's definitely good, if you like that sort of thing.