I'm just here for the gasoline.

Mad Max 2
aka The Road Warrior

(1981)

Mad Max 2 belongs to a select band (stand up, Evil Dead II) of second installments that are a more iconic than, and superior to, the original. The Road Warrior mostly holds up, even if the post-apocalyptic fashions are a bit on the '80s side. Gibson's far more compelling here than in later years when post-Lethal Weapon goofing and mullet-acting took precedence.

Interesting to hear George Miller and Dean Semler on the Blu-ray commentary talking about the decidedly non-arty, get-it-done approach to making the film, and the agreement that its continuing popularity is down to everything being real; if it was made today there'd be so much done in post as effects shots it would lose that immediacy. I hope Miller remembers that if he ever gets Fury Road off the ground (and especially since Happy Feet was about as far from Max as you can get).

*****

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We live in a twilight world.

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Django Unchained (2012)
(MINOR SPOILERS) Since the painful misstep of Grindhouse/Death Proof, Quentin Tarantino has regained the higher ground like never before. Pulp Fiction, his previous commercial and critical peak, has been at very least equalled by the back-to-back hits of Inglourious Basterds and Django Unchained. Having been underwhelmed by his post Pulp Fiction efforts (albeit, I admired his technical advances as a director in Kill Bill), I was pleasantly surprised by Inglourious Basterds. It was no work of genius (so not Pulp Fiction) by any means, but there was a gleeful irreverence in its treatment of history and even to the nominal heroic status of its titular protagonists. Tonally, it was a good fit for the director’s “cool” aesthetic. As a purveyor of postmodern pastiche, where the surface level is the subtext, in some ways he was operating at his zenith. Django Unchained is a retreat from that position, the director caught in the tug between his all-important aesthetic pr…

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Zootropolis (2016)
(SPOILERS) The key to Zootropolis’ creative success isn’t so much the conceit of its much-vaunted allegory regarding prejudice and equality, or – conversely – the fun to be had riffing on animal stereotypes (simultaneously clever and obvious), or even the appealing central duo voiced by Ginnifier Goodwin (as first rabbit cop Judy Hopps) and Jason Bateman (fox hustler Nick Wilde). Rather, it’s coming armed with that rarity for an animation; a well-sustained plot that doesn’t devolve into overblown set pieces or rest on the easy laurels of musical numbers and montages.

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Now In Full Color, with a Happier Ending

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