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Mad Max: Fury Road |OT| What a Lovely Day | RT: 98% | Metacritic: 89

Guys, we're trying to limit the discussion to good blockbuster movies. Pls take all arguments about how terrible/not terrible Bryce Dallas Howard's character, her arc, her heels and what the film says about what she SHOULD feel to their respective threads.

Thank you.
 

hokahey

Member
Who's talking about cultural impact? And why? Who cares? Mad Max is a better action movie than T2 is. No amount of nostalgia is changing that.

I am. I think it's an important consideration, especially when that cultural impact is so significant, and so incredible.

T2 was just much, much cooler. And important.
 

marrec

Banned
Who's talking about cultural impact? And why? Who cares? Mad Max is a better action movie than T2 is. No amount of nostalgia is changing that.

And I like the idea of Radiohead = Fury Road in your comparison, but I'd argue that the T2 analog would be (obviously) Guns 'n' Roses.

Perfect analogy. GnR are technically amazing and had a huge cultural impact but compared to Radiohead (or, Faith No More as a more direct genre comparison) they simply don't match up.
 

Trey

Member
I am. I think it's an important consideration, especially when that cultural impact is so significant, and so incredible.

T2 was just much, much cooler. And important.

I'll cop to this. I don't think it can be argued that T2 was the movie event of its summer, while there's already been like, 5 ahead of Mad Max this year. Different eras to be sure.

But in a strict appreciation of the art form, I think Fury Road rises above its genre forebear, which is high praise because I think T2 is exquisite.
 
And I like the idea of Radiohead = Fury Road in your comparison, but I'd argue that the T2 analog would be (obviously) Guns 'n' Roses.

Meaning that with the Terminator series, the peak was their first release, then in 1991 they both had fantastic follow ups but still failed to live up to the glory of the original?
 
How so? Some things can only be fully understood and appreciated by witnessing it as it happened. That's not a detractor.
But that doesn't make it a better film. When I want to straight up decide which is the better action film, I watch both with no nostalgia or favouritism and analyse the different aspects such as the acting, pacing, editing, writing and choreography. T2 having large cultural impact doesn't change the that Mad Max does these things better than T2 (my opinion).
 
Meaning that with the Terminator series, the peak was their first release, then in 1991 they both had fantastic follow ups but still failed to live up to the glory of the original?

Yup.

And I like Marrec's suggestion of Fury Road being Faith No More way better than the Radiohead analogy.

Congratulations, gentlemen. We've done good work this night.
 
Yup.

And I like Marrec's suggestion of Fury Road being Faith No More way better than Radiohead.

Yeah, if Mad Max were Radiohead then it would mean the second film was the best. :)

Or are you implying that the long break between releases means that Fury Road is like the Mad Max version of In Rainbows? It came off of a flawed release that had a lot of promise, and then delivered the goods and then some?

Does that mean that The Wasteland, if it ever comes out, will be like King of Limbs? If so, then I would be fine if it never came out.
 
Cultural impact is like the last thing on my mind when sitting down and thinking "Hmm, which one of these two things do I like more?"

Who cares, indeed. People who didn't watch the movie in the 90s and missed out on the immediate fallout don't even have any tangible context for cultural impact beyond everyone, Arnold and Linda Hamilton included, repeating the one liners ad nauseam for the last 2 decades.
 
I don't see anything wrong with that. It's not unrealistic either. I think you're making something out of nothing. There's also the wider context: she's the park manager and her job is stressful enough having to coordinate everything, and her boss is there as he's come to see the new dinosaur. The only reason she's played up as "emotionless" is because we meet her on a trying day. She even tells Karen that it was a bad day for the kids to come. I used to go to my mom's job when I was a kid and she'd barely even have time to look at me. Doesn't mean she's an emotionless, uncaring bitch.



Same thing here. She wasn't killed because of a "crime" or whatever. People were dying in that scene and it focuses on her death because she was recognizable. It was originally going to be some random employee based on storyboards and I don't think it would have been quite as shocking. Also Jurassic Park movies are notorious for at least one nasty and prolonged death scene. It's just part of the pedigree. It wasn't making some statement against women. Characters don't have to have a reason to deserve death to die in such a circumstance.

Getting way off topic though, this is the Mad Max thread :p I'll just say that whatever your thoughts are on it, that they're yours to have and I shouldn't really butt in.

You can brush away any troubling ideologies in a film by rationalizing the literal script implications. But whether the ideology is intended or not, every single film has one that is imparted based on what happens on the screen. There is no reason in the story for that girl to be the one to get the brutal death, but the fact is the filmmakers picked the other woman character who doesn't care for kids and as a result people in my theater were all but cheering and laughing when she got ripped to shreds. I'm sure the intent behind that is what you say, but the result is that audiences were laughing and oooing and ahhhing when the "bitch" character got the crowd pleaser death.

And I'm done. We are on a roll with off topic arguments today lol
 
And I'm done. We are on a roll with off topic arguments today lol

Haha, it's cool, and it's making Viewtiful happy so there's that.

I just realized this comes out the same day on Blu-ray as MGSV, and it's like Kojima's favorite movie ever. That'll be a hell of a pick up day.
 
I am just happy about this getting an early digital release on August 11th. This will be a movie I will buy twice. I need to see it again, and I cannot wait for the blu ray release.
Having said that, I will still be getting it first day on blu.
 
Do we know if Miller is gonna do a sequel yet, or what that will be? I hear something about a trilogy or Furiosa prequel

Haha, it's cool, and it's making Viewtiful happy so there's that.

I post with the solitary intent to make him happy so I'm gonna sleep well tonight.

Cultural impact is like the last thing on my mind when sitting down and thinking "Hmm, which one of these two things do I like more?"

I can vouch for this; dude ranks Contact higher than 2001.
 
I can vouch for this; dude ranks Contact higher than 2001.

2001's great. It's trippy, it's mysterious, it's smart, it was groundbreaking. But Contact has the Sagan touch even through the Hollywoodized exterior, and it gets me every time. That gotdamn wormhole sequence. They should've sent a poet (;_;)
 
Meaning that with the Terminator series, the peak was their first release, then in 1991 they both had fantastic follow ups but still failed to live up to the glory of the original?

Nice one.

Cultural impact is like the last thing on my mind when sitting down and thinking "Hmm, which one of these two things do I like more?"

Who cares, indeed. People who didn't watch the movie in the 90s and missed out on the immediate fallout don't even have any tangible context for cultural impact beyond everyone, Arnold and Linda Hamilton included, repeating the one liners ad nauseam for the last 2 decades.

Cultutal impact means very little when it comes to quality. So many of the greatest movies had little to no cultural impact. Then you get tons of crappy movies with gifs that get quoted millions of times on the internet :p
 

Veelk

Banned
"Cultural impact" honestly just sounds like an appeal to popularity, or a variation of that fallacy.

"Look, so many more people know and like it and reference it, that must mean it's the better movie!"

There is something to be said for it. By liking a popular movie, your in a minor kind of community where references to it will be understood, so you can communicate in a specific way to friends you couldn't without that movies existence. Suddenly, saying "I'll be back" gets a small wink and a smile return in addition to informing a person of your future return. Conversely, anyone whose liked a niche film know that slight feeling of isolation when they reference something relatively obscure and you just get blank looks in return. It's not nothing.

But it also has zero baring on the quality of the film itself. It doesn't mean the film is good. It means a lot of people saw it and a lot remembered particular things about it. Repetition of the lines reinforced the memories of it. Now it's unforgettable, but the same could happen of a bad movie ("YOUR TEARING ME APART LISA"). The only kind of film this couldn't happen to is an unmememorable one, which is usually not a bad film, just a bland one.
 
Whoa. Why so upset~

I didn't think I was high horsey... Just saying I found it refreshing. Certainly said nothing could appeal to everyone equally!

I'm not upset. And you didn't said just that. You also implied that someone who didn't enjoyed it expected something more formulaic.

I've actually read on gaf a guy saying to another user who disliked the movie that he failed as audience lol.

To the bolded: what a crock of shit.

And the incorrect usage of the term "tropes" should be some sort of forum technical foul or something by this point. It's almost hiccup, a useless gulping syllable that adds nothing to the discussion.

The trope remark was initially mentioned by YesNOnoNOYes as Fury Road being expurgated from them. Which isn't the case at all.

TVTropes is one of the worst things to happen to online movie criticism and conversation. Its like when people start complaining about those MacGuffins in Marvel/Mission Impossible movies, now that they learned what the name of that plot device is. Like they figured out that new curse word and can't wait to show it off at every instance, even if it doesn't make sense.

I agree with you , which makes the Fury Road threads even funnier cause they are filled with it. World building. Telling the story through action. Even opinions get to be cliché and splattered directly from those sites. Paraphrasing BobbyRoberts , a crook of shit.

What basic tropes are they following? What exactly is this movie rehashing? There is really nothing else like it, not even other movies in its respective franchise. I don't expect people to like any movie but the things your claiming aren't a subjective opinion and I feel like you should back them up when making such large claims. Especially when they go against what essentially everyone is saying about the movie.

I dont really know if you are joking or not. It would be easier to actually say what does Fury Road refresh ? Technique ? What technique ? I dont even ask in terms of cinema. In the franchise itself. He mimics the same style he did 30 years ago. The car rigs , the slow rates , the zooms , the close ups , the wide lenses , the reaction shots , the spatial awareness through classical editing. With better technology. The action ? A visceral style achieved by the rigs , the crashes , the physical effects ? The accumulation of events generating a somewhat chaotic nature of the action ? Done. Three times before. By George Miller itself. The abundance of reaction shots ? Rewind Road Warrior today and watch him doing it. How he beautiful builds tension over the progression of characters reactions. All in the midst of pure vehicular mayhem. Yes it looks great once again in Fury Road. But its not new.

And i wasn't criticizing the movie for that , i was disagreeing with YesNOnoNOYes . I even agree with zulfate that the movie makes good use of cliches. They are all archetypal characters , in their characterizations and developments.. Max the loner who regains some appreciation for others while traveling from place to place. When created (Max) in the 70's it was already recurrent . Nux the redemptive villain who's troubled past explain his actions against the protagonists only to give his life for whatever the fuck the plot needs and Furiosa if she has a dick nobody would really think about her twice. She parallels some of the protagonists no-name-no-past characteristics , trying to atone for past actions building a camaraderie with Max (i could write almost the exact sentences about Buronson characters). This hasn't been refreshing in the action genre in many years

Something new ? Maybe some overexposed ugly ass shots.

Sorry to hear you didn't enjoy it as much as many other people.
...
Anyway, lets get back to talking about how Fury Road is the best Action movie of all time. And about how Furiosa is one of the most refreshing examples of a badass character in the genre.

I've had this discussion before with, i think , Discotheque. I liked the film very much. I don't characterize it as good as many people but that's completely irrelevant. It just irks me when people are mocked because they didn't enjoyed it.
 
I'm not upset. And you didn't said just that. You also implied that someone who didn't enjoyed it expected something more formulaic.

I've actually read on gaf a guy saying to another user who disliked the movie that he failed as audience lol.



.

???

I was just following a comment on a poster who said he found the movie to lack Max contents. In my opinion, the movie didn't lack Max contents, so I'm supposing that the other poster might wanted a more traditional/ formulaic approach on protagonists...

... Not sure how I was high-horsey. But ok? Sorry, I guess?
 

Monocle

Member
Has everyone already seen this awesome video?
Damn, that was incredible.

I've actually read on gaf a guy saying to another user who disliked the movie that he failed as audience lol.
Was it me? I feel like that could have been me.

In any case, I think it's absolutely possible for someone to have (or lack) a good enough critical eye to recognize when something is well done, even if it didn't excite them on a visceral level. I mean, I was mostly unmoved and underwhelmed by Taxi Driver, but I can't deny that it's super well crafted, and a fine piece of art by any objective measure. I just didn't like it. But it's still a great movie. But I personally don't want to see it again. At least I can separate my feelings from Taxi Driver's craftsmanship.

The problem with people who see something good and aren't impressed or excited by it, and then go on to denigrate its craft and construction as "bad" or whatever, is that they're using their personal feelings to justify a shallow misread of something that's actually well made, and effective for other viewers.
 

Rogan

Banned
Has everyone already seen this awesome video?

giphy.gif
 
Damn, that was incredible.

Was it me? I feel like that could have been me.

In any case, I think it's absolutely possible for someone to have (or lack) a good enough critical eye to recognize when something is well done, even if it didn't excite them on a visceral level. I mean, I was mostly unmoved and underwhelmed by Taxi Driver, but I can't deny that it's super well crafted, and a fine piece of art by any objective measure. I just didn't like it. But it's still a great movie. But I personally don't want to see it again. At least I can separate my feelings from Taxi Driver's craftsmanship.

The problem with people who see something good and aren't impressed or excited by it, and then go on to denigrate its craft and construction as "bad" or whatever, is that they're using their personal feelings to justify a shallow misread of something that's actually well made, and effective for other viewers.

I can't tell you who it was . I remember reading and i found it funny.

I do agree with the hypothesis you theorize , but i dont think Fury Road is a good example of it. Because i rarely read (especially here) that its a bad film nor do i think its craft is impressive enough to behold.
 
I saw this the other day, finally. Gotta say, I don't think I got much out of it. It was fine, but I doubt I'll watch it again. I didn't care about any of the characters and the interesting vehicle designs sort of wore thin for me about half way through.
 
I don't give a fuck about cultural impact, though T2's is certainly established at this point. T2 had real characters, subverted the tropes of its own predecessor and its genre, was feminist in a subtler, more cogent way, and features a number of indelible shots and scenes. Call me when Fury Road has characters or dialogue worth giving a real damn about.
 

munchie64

Member
I don't give a fuck about cultural impact, though T2's is certainly established at this point. T2 had real characters, subverted the tropes of its own predecessor and its genre, was feminist in a subtler, more cogent way, and features a number of indelible shots and scenes. Call me when Fury Road has characters or dialogue worth giving a real damn about.
Has Gawker published your number?
 

Trey

Member
I don't give a fuck about cultural impact, though T2's is certainly established at this point. T2 had real characters, subverted the tropes of its own predecessor and its genre, was feminist in a subtler, more cogent way, and features a number of indelible shots and scenes. Call me when Fury Road has characters or dialogue worth giving a real damn about.

About a few months late to making that phone call, fam.
 

kruis

Exposing the sinister cartel of retailers who allow companies to pay for advertising space.
It's surprising how many one star ratings this movie got on IMDB despite the stellar 8.4 rating and a #86 position in the IMDB top 250.

I saw this movie a couple of weeks ago, loved it and checked the IMDB user reviews like I often do. A substantial number of people ABSOLUTELY HATED this movie and upvoted every one star user review they could find. There were at least a dozen consecutive pages with only negative reviews, not a positive review among the lot. It's only slightly better at the moment, but once you get beyond the first or second pages, I still see only 1 star reviews.
 

Rogan

Banned
It's surprising how many one star ratings this movie got on IMDB despite the stellar 8.4 rating and a #86 position in the IMDB top 250.

I saw this movie a couple of weeks ago, loved it and checked the IMDB user reviews like I often do. A substantial number of people ABSOLUTELY HATED this movie and upvoted every one star user review they could find. There were at least a dozen consecutive pages with only negative reviews, not a positive review among the lot. It's only slightly better at the moment, but once you get beyond the first or second pages, I still see only 1 star reviews.

This character isn't Mad Max. He doesn't have a dog, he doesn't eat dog food, he doesn't eat anything. Nobody in the film ever eats anything. Nor are people clamoring for gasoline, they all just seem to have it.

The reviews calling this something new and different are absolute hogwash. This is nothing but things blowing up and cars crashing for two hours, which, by the way, is another egregious offense of these silly movies.

There's no tension, no real struggle, or any real dirt and grit that Road Warrior had. Everything George Miller got right with that masterpiece he gets completely wrong here.

tumblr_mfd60rtmw81ritbuto1_500.gif
 

bob_arctor

Tough_Smooth
I saw this the other day, finally. Gotta say, I don't think I got much out of it. It was fine, but I doubt I'll watch it again. I didn't care about any of the characters and the interesting vehicle designs sort of wore thin for me about half way through.

It's cool, it's not for everyone.
 
"The character isn't Mad Max. He doesn't have a dog, he doesn't eat dog food, he doesn't eat anything. Nobody in the film ever eats anything."

Hahaha best pull quote ever
 
Yes, sorry, I forgot. It was one of those 'If I know, everybody else is gonna know too' moments.

It's the steelbook, but I actually pre ordered it just for the art. The steelbook is just the bonus.
 

Blader

Member
Max was very, very good. But T2 was a special place and time. Throwing out the technical aspects. T2 was a "had to have been there" kind of scenario. It captured the cultural zeitgeist of early 90s LA. It oozed cool. It brought about new effects that were mind blowing at the time. If you were a teenager, and weren't listening to GnR, and hadn't seen T2, you didn't know shit.

You can't compare Max to that.

heh, that is a very particular zeitgeist.
 

LegendX48

Member
It looks like Best Buy has that steelbook as well ^_^

just pre-ordered online, wondering if it'll be cheaper in store on the 1st cause its $30 online.
 
Anyone have a good summary of what is in store for the North American blu ray release? No special editions? Just a steelbook from Best Buy and nothing else exclusive? I'm lost on where to buy it from.
 
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