Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome (1985)

**The best of the Mad Max films**

High production values and a compelling story line make this the best of the series. This one doesn't rely on basic car smashes for the duration and instead gives us a moving and more thoughtful adventure.

No campy men dressed for the _Blue Oyster_ bar in this one, thank goodness. _The Road Warrior_ (1981) is widely regarded as the best but I have to disagree. That film had a very one note narrative that verged on the bland and an overload of homoerotic imagery.

This is a beautiful looking and entertaining film that does not have the shoddy and amateur vibe of the first two. _Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome_ is the film that the first should have been.


- Charles Dance

Max Rockatansky and the Goonie feral gang.

Even allowing for my unabashed love of the first two films in the franchise, and sweeping away any sort of biased leanings I might of had for the character of Max, I just can't bring myself to rate at average this cartoonery waste of space that so nearly soils what had gone before it.

Gone is the rugged nasty streak that brought feeling to the character Mad Max Rockatansky, gone is the impacting feeling of desolation in an apocalyptic world, and more crucially, gone is director George Miller's passion for the franchise. The dreadful score matches the cartoon heart of the film, it seems that the makers didn't really know what to do with the amount of cash given to make this third instalment. Sure the stunts are spot on (to be expected by now), and of course Miller manages to paint a barren desert landscape by purely lifting from what he has done before. Yet he clearly struggled for fresh ideas with the action since "The Road Warrior's" crowning glory of the Petrol Tanker pursuit is replicated here, only he uses a train instead!!.

It's just a very poor show that may have seemed like an ambitious turn of events back in the mid 1980s, but when viewing the three films together now, Thunderdome just comes across as a director losing his edgy approach whilst sadly getting caught between the mix of comedy and fantasy action. And the truth is that neither of those genre slants would have worked singularly, in the context of this series, anyway. I give the film 3/10 purely for one real good Thunderdome fight sequence, while the stunt men here deserve some credit at the very least. But this is the third time I have tried to like this film, and as glutton for punishment as I undoubtedly am, I wont be trying again, ever.

_**Bizarre comic book post-nuclear adventure in the Outback with Mel Gibson and Tina Turner**_

In post-apocalyptic Australia, Mad Max (Mel Gibson) travels to Bartertown in the Outback run by Aunty Entity (Tina Turner) & her associate The Collector (Frank Thring). Max accepts a deal to take out MasterBlaster, who runs the town’s methane production underground, but ends up exiled to the deadly desert where he meets… (watch the movie and see).

“Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” (1985) is the third in George Miller’s franchise after “Mad Max” (1979) and “The Road Warrior” (1981). The fourth installment, “Fury Road,” didn’t surface until 2015 (meanwhile Miller has announced a fifth entry, “The Wasteland”). All of these films were rated R except “Beyond Thunderdome,” which turns off some devotees. I could care less since the amount of gore, violence, sex and cussing don’t determine the quality of a film, except maybe to teenagers.

Like the previous two films, “Beyond Thunderdome” combines the austere life-or-death situation with a cartoonish vibe, so it’s difficult to take it too seriously, as can be done with the first two Planet of the Apes flicks (1968 & 1971). This campy air always turned me off to these movies, but if you can accept it they can be enjoyed on their level of semi-believable fantasy. You just have to be willing to enter into their weird world.

Most fans object to the kids in the desert angle, but this section only lasts 25 freakin’ minutes before tying back into what took place in the first act. Besides, Savannah (Helen Buday) is cute and has nice legs. The departure from a paradisal oasis in exchange for Bartertown seems nonsensical, but it’s figurative of leaving the utopia of youth to the ugly real world and challenges thereof.

The verbiage is odd, basic and guttural so don’t look for fascinating dialogues. Meanwhile the storytelling isn’t very compelling. Nevertheless, the movie’s iconic to the 80s and has its points of interest, like its all-around bizarreness, the desolate landscapes, the laconic hero and cutie Savannah, not to mention Turner and her songs (“We Don't Need Another Hero”).

The film runs 1 hour, 47 minutes, and was shot in Australia.

GRADE: B-

The wandering "Max" (Mel Gibson) finds himself in the brutal "Bartertown" ruled either by "Aunty Entity" (Tina Turner) or "Master" (Angelo Rossitto) depending on whether or not you needed electricity! The former, and her devious cohort "The Collector" (the always reliable Frank Thring) concoct a plan by which they can use the ingenuity of "Max" to sort out this power struggle once and for all. That goes to plan, to a certain extent, but when that sense of decency still within our hero causes him to defy his new boss, he is consigned to the "gulag" whereupon he alights upon some youngsters who believe him a god capable of flying them to safety. When he tries to point out that they have the wrong man, dissent amongst these children leads him, and them, back for a final confrontation with the "Aunty". Tina Turner was very much at the top of her musical renaissance when this was made, and had she featured a little more then perhaps we could have better developed the sense of menace here. As it is, she doesn't and once we end up in feral kindergarten territory, the story just becomes predicable and really rather dull. "We Don't Need Another Hero" tops it all off well, but much of the rest of this is pretty unremarkable and may well sound the death knell for this now well spent anti-hero.

Feels like a watered down version of <em>'Mad Max'</em>, albeit one that is still worth watching.

<em>'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome'</em> turns out to be a problematic title, given the most entertaining moments happen at the Thunderdome - so when events move away from said location, it isn't quite as interesting. I didn't really like the <em>'Peter Pan'</em> Lost Boys-esque parts, not that what's produced is bad it just isn't what I want to see from this franchise, personally.

Mel Gibson is good value as the lead once more, while it is noteworthy to see one Tina Turner in a big supporting role. Yet again, though, I didn't get that much off the cast performances. I'm sounding like a broken record, I know, but it's very much the action that keeps these movies ticking over.

The weakest of the series, for me. Here's hoping <em>'Mad Max: Fury Road'</em> is the best one, which - based on murmurs down the years - I am led to believe that it is; with Tom Hardy as the main man, I imagine that I will enjoy that 2015 flick - fingers crossed!