Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome • The Next Reel

May 15, 2015

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While the first two Mad Max films had so much going for them, it sure seemed like a stumble with the third of the trilogy. But that’s looking at it through today’s eyes because some critics like Roger Ebert sure loved it — he put it on his ’10 Best’ list of 1985! Okay, so George Miller had lost his producing partner, Byron Kennedy, and let George Ogilvie co-direct it with him. Maybe that’s why “Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome” seems to be a bit of a stumble. Maybe it was the American financing that made it feel less gritty and more… Hollywood. Whatever it was, it’s definitely the lesser of the three films. Join us — Pete Wright and Andy Nelson — as we go beyond Thunderdome with Mel Gibson and Tina Turner, continuing our Mad Max series with Miller’s 1985 film. We talk about all of the problems it has, and how Andy still finds it a guilty pleasure while Pete downright hates it. We talk about the great concepts Miller and co-writer Terry Hayes had in putting this story together, but how poorly executed they were — every one of them. We chat about the joy of working with 400 pigs on set and what they had to do to make that work. We discuss the car chase — way too late in the movie for our tastes — and how it works in comparison with those we’ve seen come before. And we deliberate on where we think “Fury Road” will fit chronologically with these first three films. It’s a very problematic film on which we find ourselves split, but it’s a very fun film to talk about. Tune in! Hey! You know what would be awesome? If you would drop us a positive rating on iTunes! If you like what we’re doing here on TNR, it really is the best way to make sure that this show appears when others search for it, plus, it’s just a nice thing to do. Thanks!!

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