Finally saw Mad Max: Fury Road - 2 things

[whatchamacallit]

'twas a ton of awesome crazy

and

Lol @Angry MRA Dudes

[cantbeserious]

1. Here Is James Kunstler's Review

Yesterday’s Tomorrowland
May 25, 2015

America takes pause on a big holiday weekend requiring little in the way of real devotions beyond the barbeque deck with two profoundly stupid movie entertainments that epitomize our estrangement from the troubles of the present day.

First there’s Mad Max: Fury Road, which depicts the collapse of civilization as a monster car rally. They managed to get it exactly wrong. The present is the monster car show. Houston. Los Angeles. New Jersey, Beijing, Mumbai, etc. In the future, there will be no cars, gasoline-powered, electric, driverless, or otherwise. Mad Max: Fury Road is actually a perverse exercise in nostalgia, as if we’re going to miss being a nation of savages in the driver’s seat, acting out an endless and pointless competition for our little place on the highway.

The other holiday blockbuster is Disney’s Tomorrowland, another exercise in nostalgia for the present, where the idealized human life is a matrix of phone apps, robots, and holograms. Of course, anybody who had been to Disneyland back in the day remembers the old Tomorrowland installation, which eventually had to be dismantled because its vision of the future had become such a joke — starting with the idea that the human project’s most pressing task was space travel. Now, at this late date, the monster Disney corporation — a truly evil empire — sees that more money can be winkled out of the sore-beset public by persuading them that techno-utopia is at hand, if only we click our heels hard enough.

Another theme running through both films is the idea that girls can be what boys used to be, that it’s “their turn” to be masters-of-the-universe, that men are past their sell-by date and only exist to defile and humiliate females. That this message is really only a mendacious effort to rake in more money by enlarging the teen “audience share” for the reigning wishful fantasy du jour is surely lost on the culture commentators, who are so busy these days celebrating the triumph and wonder of transgender life.

Snip ...

[Nevernose]

2. My reply to James Kunstler

That feminist thing you think exists in the movie purely to make money? Maybe you're on to something, since women make up half of Mankind.

More importantly, though, is that all of those old ladies in the movie? They did their own stunts. Not because they had to, but because they wanted to.

[cantbeserious]

3. Maybe They were Paid To Do Stunts - Nonetheless - This Misses The Broader Point

eom

[whatchamacallit]

4. I used to read Clusterfuck Nation

and agree with many of JK's opinions, but... dude curmudgeoned me out.

[cantbeserious]

6. The Broader Point Is That America And Americans Are Living In Fantasy Land

eom

[whatchamacallit]

7. There's no arguing that

Still thought the flick was a technically brilliant, hellish freakshow-o-fun.

[zazen]

9. he's said some really sexist and racist things the past few years--I'm done

I've loved his critique of bad architecture and suburbia, but I just can't stomach his blaming all police violence against black males on black males, and his discomfort with strong 21st century women bleeds through everything he writes these days. I'm done with him myself.

[whatchamacallit]

10. I must have stopped reading before that

If that's his stance it's nauseating.

[zazen]

11. just a smattering of his over-the-top racist comments (I'm leaving the sexism aside)

from March 23, 2015: http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/kicked-to-the-curb/:
"I begin to understand why the death of Ferguson, Mo, teen Michael Brown sent such shock waves through America last year. He truly symbolized our country: an overgrown, oafish, wannabe thug making one bad choice after another until his final, suicidal lurch against authority — followed by all the exculpatory lying on his behalf: the “gentle giant,” hands up, don’t shoot! This is exactly how America acts on the world stage these days. We are the Michael Brown among nations, high on exceptionalism, stoned on entitlement, swaggering moronically from one place to another grabbing what we feel like, smashing things up as we go."

from May 4, 2015 http://kunstler.com/clusterfuck-nation/english-spoken-here/
"We don’t want to. We’d rather wring our hands over “structural racism” and other canards. Why? Because Euro American whites have been programmed to “not offend” at all costs; Asian Americans are too busy being successful; and African Americans are too invested in their own excuse-for-failure industry, wringing money from offense-o-phobic whites.

A year ago, I gave the opening day lecture to the entering honors freshman class at Rutgers, New Jersey’s State University. I swear at least half of that class of about 400 young people was made up of first generation kids of parents from India — owing, I suppose, to the current demographic of the state. Many of these kids were very dark-skinned, as dark as African Americans. Guess what? They didn’t speak in any kind of pidgin patois. They spoke regular American English. Do you suppose during their childhoods that the household fretted about “sounding white?” I doubt it. By the way, not only did these very bright, dark-skinned honors students speak English correctly, they also behaved politely. No fights broke out during the convocation. They effervescently launched themselves into their college careers — and then they went out for pizza."

[whatchamacallit]

14. Wow wtf?

[lumberjack_jeff]

8. +1 n/t

[Cirque du So-What]

5. At this point I cannot say for certain whether I will see this picture

but I take some pleasure from the fact that Mel Gibson won't profit from it

[backscatter712]

13. I really enjoyed it.

I'll give it my two thumbs up.

Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron had terrific performances. The special effects are for the most part practical effects - real cars & trucks getting smashed up, and real stuntmen. (with the exception of the sandstorm scene).

Hugh Keays-Byrne, who played Toecutter in the first Mad Max movie, was an excellent villain as Immortan Joe.

And yes, the film does look into women's issues and does a great job of it. Not condescending, not objectifying.

Oh, and the Doof Warrior with his flamethrowing guitar on the Doof Wagon steals the show.

Hell yeah, I'd see it again!

[Aristus]

12. I saw MM:FR this weekend. I was a little disappointed.

All of the previous Mad Max films had the theme of redemption after a long period of brute, selfish survival. Fury Road had it, as well, but it seemed tacked on; perfunctory.

Tom Hardy is a pretty good actor, but he didn't bring anything new to the role. And he didn't capture the fractured nobility of Gibson's Max. Now, we know Mel Gibson doesn't have any nobility, but he was able to act as if Max did.

OTOH, George Miller did his usual bang-up job of creating a lived-in world. He created story elements that spoke to a past for the characters without offering otherwise obligatory explanations. For example, when a War Boy senses his opportunity has come to die, he sprays his own nose and mouth with silver spray paint while reciting the War Boys' death incantation. No one ever explained what the paint signified. I liked that. It was an important part of War Boy life, but we have to figure it out for ourselves.