Australia exported this creative, original, exciting, low-budget genre landmark which gave the young Mel Gibson his first starring role.
Comment
05/30/07
Mad Max (1979)
95
%
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:37
Fresh:35
Rotten:2
Average Rating:7.6/10
Consensus: Staging the improbable car stunts and crashes to perfection, director George Miller succeeds completely in bringing the violent, post-apocalyptic world of Mad Max to visceral life.
Runtime: 1 hr 34 mins
Genre: Science-Fiction/Fantasy
Synopsis: Futuristic tale set in Australia, which has become a wasteland where vicious, fast-driving criminals cause death, destruction, and mayhem on the highways. The police do their best to maintain... [More]
Starring: Mel Gibson, Joanne Samuel, Tim Burns, Steve Bisley
Director: George Miller
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Reviews for Mad Max
This is brutal, exciting stuff, all the more impressive for its budget constraints.
05/06/08
Simple, but effective.
05/30/07
Stunts themselves would be nothing without a filmmaker behind the camera and George Miller, a doctor and film buff making his first feature, shows he knows what cinema is all about.
05/30/07
Drive-in fascism at its most cinematic.
01/08/02
This import B-movie gem launched not only [Mel Gibson's] career, but the whole post-apocalyptic genre of the 80's and beyond.
03/19/03
No review available.
08/22/03
No review available.
11/14/07
Some of the most determinedly formalist filmmaking this side of Michael Snow.
05/30/07
Top CriticIt's [the] car chases that make the first half of the film tolerable, which is devoid of any interesting characters or situations.
08/01/03
The tone sometimes wavers into self-parody, and there are occasional crude patches, but overall this edge-of-seat revenge movie marks the most exciting debut from an Australian director since Peter Weir.
06/24/06
[A] very effective piece of cinema.
01/01/00
No review available.
07/14/05
Overnight, Mad Max went from being a U.S. cult hero to a mainstream figure, and Mel Gibson's place in the firmament was secured.
05/30/07
Top Criticends up looking a bit strained in some places, although much of it is undeniably effective
02/27/01
Features the best anti-hero cinema has given us in the past few decades.
01/01/00
It's still well worth seeing the original, complete with the Australian accents, to truly appreciate George Miller's apocalyptic vision.
02/02/02
No review available.
01/05/05
Though director George Miller took the post-apocalyptic tough guy Max a lot farther in the sequel The Road Warrior, Mad Max still packs in Miller's particular brand of black-comedy thrills.
05/26/06
Latest News for Mad Max
November 16, 2009:
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Not a lot of people know that actor Eric Bana, familiar to most from roles in the likes of Star Trek, Munich and Ang Lee's Hulk, is a massive petrol head. With the release of... More...
October 30, 2009:
Charlize Theron, Tom Hardy Set for Mad Max 4 
George Miller's fourth "Mad Max" movie could have its stars: Tom Hardy is in talks to take over the title role, and Charlize Theron is negotiating for the female lead. More...
October 26, 2009:
George Miller Talks Mad Max 4, Shows Off New Cars
George Miller is in pre-production on "Mad Max 4" -- and to prove it, he invited ABC Australia into his studio to show off its cars (and talk about the movie, of course). More...
May 19, 2009:
Mad Max 4 Rumbles to Life
Nothing much in the way of actual information has been released, but according to AICN's sources, George Miller is officially at work on a fourth "Mad Max." More...
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