The Road Warrior

Continuing my massive upload of reviews (I've just been too busy with work and my personal life for this lately), I present The Road Warrior.

This film wasn't out to win Oscars. It is a wildly entertaining post-apocalyptic film. The film, which is actually titled "Mad Max 2" - few saw "Mad Max", so the title was renamed to "The Road Warrior" to avoid having to explain why Max was mad, and why no one knew about the first time he was angry. But I digress...

In all respects, it is a sequel to the first "Mad Max" film, but the basic premise seems to have changed. The world has been thrown into chaos, devastated by atomic war. Australia seems to have fared pretty well - and it's still a complete craphole.

Max started off as a kind of Dirty Harry of the post-apocalyptic future, a tough cop that works by his own, loose rules. This film picks up at a later point in time, where he apparently is no longer a cop, and seems to be a wandering lone Ranger. The film is in most respects a Western. A stranger who helps a community fight off a gang of bandits.

This group actually is hoarding the most valuable substance in the world - oil. The problem is they're unable to actually transport this anywhere - so they're stuck here, in the middle of nowhere to be hounded by ruthless gangs. The people of the refinery just want out - to move to Northern Australia - which they claim is fertile and wonderful, but I just can't help but think that they're being optimistic.

The film has fantastic action sequence - especially for a time that is devoid of all CGI effects that get thrown into film chases these days, mostly for a mediocre "wow" effect (Michael Bay anyone?). If anything the wait to see this chase is worth every second before it.

***1/2 out of *****