The two movies I’ve seen are Mad Max: Fury Road and Pitch Perfect 2. First, Mad Max.
I saw the original when I was very young. My parents closely monitored what movies I was allowed to see. But somehow Mad Max, with it’s R-rating, managed to slip into our VCR undetected. I only remember it as being a potential scenario for the planet I really didn’t want to have happen.
Same is true for 2015’s Mad Max: Fury Road. I don’t spend a lot of time fretting about climate change and fresh water and stuff, but there I was, looking at these thirsty, sad people living in a ruined world. Suddenly I felt guilty about the times I’ve poured used oil into the local duck pond, and all those campfires I’ve built out of styrofoam.
I won’t focus on the whole movie here, instead I’ll write about one part of the movie I don’t think is getting enough credit — Awesome Convoys.
What is it about a convoy of vehicles, any kind of vehicle, that looks so great? It must rub the parts of our brains reserved for feelings of power and fear and safety. In MM:FR the convoys against the desert backdrop make for fantastic b-roll and epic tension building. Seeing the bad guys approach from a distance is like going over the handlebars on your bike - you know it’s going to hurt long before you hit the ground.
MM:FR snorts along on the terror of rat-rods driven by maniacs in the desert. But convoys in the desert are an effective plot device no matter what you drive. Cormac McCarthy’s Blood Meridian is a brutal western with many scenes of convoys on the desert. But McCarthy’s convoys were men on horse back, or pack trains. Convoys don’t require the junkyard monsters of Mad Max, all you need is a group of people in trucks, on horseback or possibly even riding ostriches and you have yourself a bad ass convoy.
Anyway, if this ode to the convoy hasn’t convinced you to see MM:FR here is a quick checklist to help you decide if it’s worth your time and money
See Mad Max: Fury Road If You Like:
- Chase scenes
- Women as more than objects
- Rat rods
- Deep voices
- Complex Gollum-like characters
- Sweet jumps
- Twinkly old women
Don’t See Mad Max If You Like
- Dialogue
- Peace and Quiet
- Not being thirsty
- Not being scared of the future
- Guilt-free milk consumption
Pitch Perfect 2
There’s a moment in Pitch Perfect 2 when all the movie’s problems become clear.
Well, there are a couple moments.
The first is when Rebel and Bumper have just finished their disastrous we are never ever ever getting back together dinner. When this scene ended, I, along with others in my row, audibly breathed a sigh of relief. It might have been the first time we’d breathed the whole movie.
The show is so friggen dense. The sure way to tell if a comedy is too dense is this: If during the cutting between scenes, there is a quick one liner thrown into the should-be dead space, you know you’re in trouble.
This is a common problem with comedy sequels. I think it happened in 22 Jump Street but I don’t clearly recall. It definitely happened in films like She’s The Man or either of the two Princess Diaries movies. The dialogue and joke count is out of control in these shows, it’s like a can of coke exploding in your hands.
The second red flag is when the girls are at the team building retreat and there are a series of slow motion shots of the Bellas having a mud splattering, zip-lining good time. At this point I thought, “hey, they should roll the credits here.”
The problem was, they couldn’t. They still had to get their groove back and win a world a cappella championship. But by this point PP2 had become such a meaningless victory lap pandering to the superficial delights of its predecessor, that any last effort to build tension wouldn’t work. Of course the Bellas were going to sing in harmony again, of course they would win the world championship. Thankfully, the audience was spared having to sit through a scene in which the judges announce the Bella’s victory at the competition. Instead we are told through a photograph after the fact. Another sigh of relief.
But PP2 wasn’t all bad, the cameo loaded scenes were great. Having Flula, David Cross and Reggie Watts in the same room for the a cappella showdown was bizarre and wonderful. Rebel Wilson made me laugh a lot too, she’s miles ahead of the rest of the cast as a comedian. And I’ve been told that a few laughs is all it takes to get your money’s worth out of a comedy.
Overall four octaves out of ten, that’s too many octaves, but like this rating system, PP2 had no sense of restraint.