The Year of Living Dangerously

Some movies start out with a deeper meaning or rather to come across as deep and fail miserably. Some strive for big ideas and are mediocre. This is a mediocre tale from awesome director Peter Weir (Mosquito Coast, Master and Commander, Truman Show, Dead Poets Society). Guy Hamilton (Mel Gibson) is a young journalist on his first real foreign assignment in Indonesia around the same time that whole conflict in Vietnam was starting up. Hamilton is teamed with a freelance camerman Billy Kwan(Linda Hunt playing a dude). Billy has adopted a woman and her son as his own and believes Guy could be the one journalist to blow the lid off the tragedies taking place there. Along the way Guy meets a hottie working in the British Embassy (Sigourney Weaver) and falls in love. Their relationship is compromised when a story comes between them that could not only destroy them, but get Guy killed in the process.

All of this makes The Year of Living Dangerously sound a lot more glamorous and high minded then the resulting film. Weir clearly loves the humanity of the project, but you never really get a true sense of the plight of the people. Only vague moments provide you a small glimpse into the true atrocities going on. Everything else is a young Weir trying to find his filmmaking self. The actors are fine especially Weaver who classes up a somewhat thankless role.

Nothing special here unless you want to see the evolution of Weir as a director. For this is the only reason I gave it a shot in my Netflix queue. Slight thumbs up for the solid talents behind a subpar script.

60/100

Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

For the third installment of the Mad Max trilogy, two directors were hired. George Miller would continue to oversee and focus on stunts while George Ogilvy would focus on the actors. The results of which were very noticeable. The action sequences still ring true with balls to the wall adrenaline... but problem lies in the story.

The story starts off which Max (Mel Gibson) getting his rig jacked by that damn gyro captain (Bruce Spence) from the second film. Max tracks him down to a shit-hole (Literally) way station called Bartertown. In order to get his possesions back, Max has to make a deal with Aunty(Tina Turner). Max has to fight and kill the muscle of Master who controls the underworld of Bartertown. You see the town actually is run by pig feces and Master is the only man who knows how to do it. But... he is holding that over Aunty's head and keeps his power with his protection in Blaster.

Enter Thunderdome... for something so prominently displayed in the title you would have guessed quite a bit would have to do with it right? Nope... just a 15 minute sequence. The 'dome is a enclosed space where people who have beefs with another settle it to the death.

Eventually Max finds that his partners doublecross him (You just can't trust anyone in the future). He finds himself out in the desert once again, but this time he is picked up by a lass (Hellen Buday). She thinks that he was the pilot who was flying the jet liner that crashed during the great wars. It turns out the children of the flight have made a world of their own at a tiny oasis. Eventually the children turn to Max to get them back to civilization setting up the third act.

Now that is all well and good. The two headed director approach loses steam for the action sequences which are the heart and soul of the two prior films. They contruct an interesting idea with wasteland, but they are unable to make it truely compelling. The final part of the story with the kids feels tacked on after the fact. The Thunderdome sequence should have come closer to the climax. By placing it in the beginning, you lose the momentum it built up.

The world and characters of Mad Max, are tremendously fascinating. There should be no limit to the stories you can tell in this apocalyptic world, but this film all but killed the franchise. Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome isn't a bad film, merely a disappointment after The Road Warrior established itself as one of the best action films of the 80's.

60/100

The Road Warrior

I haven't seen George Miller's The Road Warrior in probably 15 years. A lot has changed since then with George Miller. He directed the kid friendly Happy Feet and is signed on to do a film version of The Justice League. Miller originally struck gold with Mad Max which told the story of a Australian cop trying to avenge the death of his family from a vicious biker gang. The Road Warrior is a continuation in a sense, but more of a reimagination of Max set in a world torn apart. The film preludes with a brief explanation of the superpowers fighting a great war over oil (Sound familiar) and eventually falling into a barren wasteland. Scavengers hunt for petro along deserted stretches of highway where the only way to keep alive is to never stop moving.

Max (Mel Gibson) has a tricked out police interceptor with a sawed off shotgun, but no ammo for the weapon. Max tangles with road gang led by some guy in a Jason Voorhees mask and Bennett (Vernon Wells) from Commando. Max shakes free and soon meets a crazy inventor(Bruce Spence) who tells him of a working oil derrick with unlimited amounts of gas. Max decides to investigate and makes a deal to help get the people of this operation to safety in exhange for all the octane he can carry.

The Road Warrior was the biggest budget film ever made at the time in Australia. The stunts and action sequences are all old school with no CGI. Elaborate chase scenes are done with no fat and all meat. This a streamlined action film with no stopping. All of that creates a superbly desolate and thrilling future world. Miller and company obviously knew what they wanted to do and they do it well. The dialogue is limited, but the film doesn't drag because of it. The real stars here are machines that keep the people alive. It left me quite thrilled to rewatch the third film in the series later this week.

80/100