Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome

Feels like a watered down version of 'Mad Max', albeit one that is still worth watching. 'Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome' 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 'Peter Pan' 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 'Mad Max: Fury Road' 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!

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.

_**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-