Thursday, November 2, 2017

200 Items Or Less: The Road Warrior (1981)

A few thoughts: One of the coolest action movies of the '80s, but still impaired by some of those gloriously awful Mad Max cliches, like the stupid monkey kid with the dumb hair. Does this take away from the movie? Not much, but yes, actually. Time wasted on idiotic supporting characters like this slows the pace of the film and distracts from the main story, which is simple but effective. If you enjoy dystopian action films, odds are you've either seen this already or seen it mimicked dozens of times, as this first sequel to Mad Max is the most popular in the original series, and helped pave the way for countless dystopians to follow. Stripped down and focused on a tight story, this movie has one of the greatest chase sequences ever put to film, even if the more recent Fury Road does one-up it in pretty much every way. For a relatively low budget Aussie film with very little story, this sure did influence the genre a lot. Maybe it's not the best action movie of its time, but it's a great piece of '80s pop culture that still holds up really well.


Who would I recommend it to? Anyone who enjoys classic action and dystopians. It's pretty essential.

My grade: B+

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